Mergers, Acquisitions & Transaction Advisory
When Industries Speak, We Are All Ears Listening to the Rhythm Where One Size Fits None
Today, beneath the velocity of modern markets and digital capital, the instinct to balance contemporary India stands at a brink. During a merger or acquisition, there is certainly more at stake than it looks like. There is a future, promoters stepping into new roles, founders letting go, and capital seeking its next purpose. Our M&A consulting practice functions with the same understanding, delivering end-to-end transaction advisory services across various mandates, supporting clients during valuations, deal structuring, negotiations, and integrations.
The Delights We Deliver: M&A Consulting & Transaction Advisory Services
Buy-Side & Sell-Side M&A Advisory
Mergers and acquisitions aren’t isolated events. These are inflexion points. Our buy-side and sell-side M&A consulting services provide support throughout the transaction lifecycle, targeting evaluations, negotiations, and closure. The goal to buy or sell a business does not stop at the deal, it is important to convert the years of efforts into fair value and outcomes.
Transaction Structuring (Domestic & Cross-Border)
Through our transaction advisory services, we advise on domestic and cross-border transactions in a manner that stays in line with the commercial objective and regulatory requirements. We help our clients evaluate different structuring options such as share transfers, asset deals, phased acquisitions, earn-outs, and holding company arrangements.
Deal Evaluation & Feasibility
Primarily, deal evaluation is testing assumptions, questioning, and understanding what genuinely drives the value. Our M&A consulting and transaction advisory services support clients in evaluating potential transactions. We examine the rationale, financial feasibility, risk profile, and expected synergies of a proposed transaction. Our role is to help clients make confident go/no-go decisions.
Valuation for Transactions
Valuation is the language through which negotiations begin and often where they stall. Our M&A consulting and transaction advisory services support valuations for acquisitions, exits, fundraises and shareholder transactions, analysing historical performances, sustainable earnings, cash flows, and market benchmarks. We take into account the information available at each stage of the transaction, deal timelines, and applicable regulatory considerations.
Financial, Tax & Legal Due Diligence
Financial, tax, and legal due diligence are essential to understanding the risks embedded in a transaction before commitments are made. Our M&A consulting and transaction advisory services provide integrated due diligence support, helping clients identify matters that can affect valuations, deal structure, and post-transaction outcomes. We focus on areas that have a direct bearing on pricing, negotiations, representations and warranties, and risk allocation between parties.
SPA Support, Negotiation & Closure Assistance
The Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) is the deal’s backbone. In every M&A transaction, the SPA clearly states what is being sold, the prices, payment terms, key promises by the seller, and closing conditions. Ekatva helps clients understand these clauses and protect value.
Integration Planning & Execution Support
Effective integration is critical to achieving the intended outcomes of a transaction. Our M&A consulting and transaction advisory services support clients in planning and executing post-transaction integration. We assist in developing integration plans covering financial reporting, controls, working capital management, and transition of key processes.
Methodology We Follow for Our M&A Consulting & Transaction Advisory Services
Understanding Why the Deal Is on the Table
Is the deal driven by growth ambition, capital constraints, succession planning, or investor pressure? Is the client looking for a clean exit, partial dilution, or a partnership? These answers are not clear on day one. Here, our job is to force transparency early. We document business and shareholder objectives, identify non-negotiables and deal boundaries, and define success parameters for the transaction. These become the reference point when emotions, timelines, or counterparties start pulling the transaction in a different direction.
Is the Deal Worth Pursuing?
Before incurring significant time or cost, we assess whether the proposed transaction is feasible and aligned with the defined objectives. This stage focuses on high-level financial and commercial assessment, and an initial view on valuation range and deal viability.
Building Valuation Logic and Structuring the Deal
Valuation is undertaken in the context of the specific transaction. We analyse historical performance, sustainable earnings, cash flows, and relevant market benchmarks to develop a valuation framework. This stage equips the client to negotiate and align the valuation with the proposed deal structure, evaluating the form of transaction and payment terms.
Integrated Due Diligence
Due diligence is conducted with a focus on issues that have a direct impact on valuation, pricing, structure, and documentation. Our approach is to identify financial, tax, and legal risks relevant to the transaction, quantify exposure, and consolidate findings into a single risk view.
Negotiation Assistance
As the transaction progresses to documentation, we support SPA negotiations by analysing the financial and commercial implications of key clauses. We focus on price adjustments, working capital definitions, caps and survival periods, conditions precedent. Our main intent is to be sure that our client understands the commercial impact of what they are signing.
Some Partnerships Change the Shape of the Future
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The Tangible Outcomes:
M&A Consulting & Transaction Advisory Services
Our services make outcomes tangible, impact undeniable:
Before the Leap
Clients gain a better understanding of the transaction before making irreversible decisions. Valuation logic, deal structure, risks, timelines, and obligations are set out clearly.
On Paper
Commercial understanding is accurately reflected in transaction documents. Clients have and overview of key clauses, responsibilities, and conditions, limiting misunderstandings after signing.
Under Review
Transaction positions, valuations, and structures are prepared so they can be explained to investors, lenders, boards, and auditors when required.
No Assumptions
Decisions are taken with analysis and documentation, without the deal pressure. Clients are able to assess alternatives and take calls at each stage of the transaction.
Walking Away
Clients are equally equipped to step away transactions that do not hold under evaluation. Clients are able to renegotiate terms when critical issues remain unresolved, or step away entirely when the transactions no longer meet their objectives.
Ekatva’s Tatva
Services | Offering | Value |
|---|---|---|
Buy-Sell & Sell-Side M&A Advisory | Support across deal evaluation, transaction execution, negotiations, and closure for mergers and acquisitions | Client gets a single point of coordination across advisors, clear deal timelines, and support in handling valuation gaps, conditions, precedents and closing mechanics |
Transaction Structuring (Domestic & Cross-Border) | Advisory on transaction structures considering commercial terms, tax implications, regulatory requirements, and approvals | Understand which structures receive approvals, how cash flows post-closing, and where tax leakage or regulatory risk may arise |
Deal Evaluation & Feasibility | Independent assessment of deal rationale, financial feasibility, risks, and assumptions before proceeding | Clients are able to understand whether projected returns are achievable, what assumptions are critical and deal should be pursued, renegotiated, or dropped |
Valuation for Transactions | Preparation of transaction-linked valuations for pricing, negotiations, and regulatory purposes | Documented and reasoned valuation basis to justify pricing during negotiations and respond to questions from investors |
Financial, Tax & Legal Due Diligence | Review of financials, tax positions, liabilities, and key legal matters relevant to the transactions | Clients get a list of specific risk and exposures that can be adjusted through prices, indemnities, escrow, or deal structure before signing |
SPA Support, Negotiation & Closure Assistance | Support during SPA review, negotiations, and closing, focusing on financial and commercial terms | Better understanding of financial impact of clauses like purchase price adjustments, indemnity caps, survival periods, and closing conditions before signing the SPA |
Integration Planning & Execution Support | Support for planning and monitoring post-transaction integration activities relating to finance, controls, and agreed processes | Clarity and ability to post-closing responsibilities, reporting alignment, and handover issues, reducing delays after completion |
Impact & Advantage of Our
M&A Consulting & Transaction Advisory Services
One of the biggest advantages of our service is integration. We look at valuation, structure, diligence findings, documentation, and closing mechanics together. This avoids the common situation where financial, tax, and legal advice is technically correct in isolation but misaligned when brought together.
Clients enter negotiations with data-backed positions on valuation, working capital, indemnities and condition precedent. This shifts discussions from opinions to specifics.
A key advantage is timing. Risks, valuation gaps, approval challenges, and documentation issues are identified early in the process when they can be addressed rather than becoming deal-breakers days before signing.
Most promoters and management teams do only a few transactions in their lifetime. We do this regularly. Our role is to take care that you do not pay the price of learning through avoidable mistakes.
The impact of our M&A consulting and transaction advisory services is reflected in deal quality. Clients are less likely to overpay, undersell, or agree to unfavourable terms because decisions rely on analysis.
From the Banyan Diaries
Many sought shelter in agreements they did not fully read. I have watched this often. When the storm came, they pressed closer to the walls they had signed for, believing paper could hold what diligence had not. They trusted the act of signing more than the act of knowing. Assumption is light, paper is heavier. It does not forget what you hoped it said.
Behind the Role
CA Amish Khandhar
Amish brings years of expertise in GST, Service Tax, and strategic advisory, along with a reputation as one of India’s Top 10 Eminent GST Consultants. As a founding member of Ekatva, he is a trusted voice for India’s startup and fintech ecosystem. Amish also contributes to national policy discussion through leadership roles at GCCI, ASSOCHAM, and ICAI.
FAQs - Sector-Specific Industry Consulting
A company should engage an M&A or transaction advisory firm as soon as a transaction is being actively considered. Early involvement helps evaluate feasibility, set valuation expectations, and assess risks early.
Transaction advisors determine valuation by analysing historical performance, sustainable earnings, cash flows, working capital dynamics, and market benchmarks.
M&A advisory services help mitigate risks related to overvaluation or underselling, regulatory non-compliance, tax inefficiencies, hidden liabilities, unfavourable contractual terms, and execution delays.
Transaction advisors evaluate alternative deal structures for commercial viability, tax impact, regulatory approvals, and execution. During negotiations, they support clients by linking valuation, diligence findings, and structure to specific deal terms, helping negotiate pricing and timelines based on analysis.
M&A advisory services typically include deal evaluation, valuation, transaction structuring, financial, tax and legal due diligence, negotiation and SPA support, and assistance through closing.
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