Sell-side mandates: who holds them in your sector?

How a sell-side mandate circulates

In the organised market, a deal is never published. It circulates to the people the mandated advisor already knows. Access therefore depends on the advisor knowing you exist, not on the quality of your project.

Fig. 1How a mandate circulates. The teaser goes to the counterparties the advisor already knows. Off that list, the deal does not exist for you.

The same mechanism applies on the sell side. An owner who sells usually hands the mandate to their usual advisor, rarely to the one who ran the last five sales in their sector. Either way, information follows existing relationships rather than sector expertise.

So the useful question is not “which companies are for sale?” It is “who holds the mandates in my sector?”

Why “who does what” in M&A is so hard to piece together

Information on who worked on which deal is scattered across thousands of press releases, advisor announcements, registries and specialist publications, in every language. No CEO, and no single advisor, can consolidate it by hand.

A partner’s network, however large, remains a sample. It covers the deals they worked on and the ones they heard about. It does not cover the market.

Four levels of extraction, from the deal to the dealmaker

The method works by successive refinement, from a targeted market to the most relevant people.

Level 1 · Deal sourcing: completed acquisitions and sales, in the relevant country and sector.
Level 2 · Dealmaker extraction: the five professions involved in each deal: lawyers, auditors, M&A advisors, banks, funds.
Level 3 · Contact enrichment: emails and phone numbers of the partners, dealmakers and relationship bankers on the file.
Level 4 · Direct approach: the sector’s expert dealmakers, who give access to deals in circulation.

Fig. 2Four levels of extraction. From broad reach to fine targeting: the value of level 4 depends on the completeness of the first three.

The value for you sits at level 4. It exists only because the three levels below are exhaustive. Every name returned can be verified, deal by deal, whereas an address book has to be taken on trust.

Today’s mandates sit with yesterday’s dealmakers

A lawyer or auditor active in a sector receives sell-side, buy-side or financing mandates from their clients. The people who ran yesterday’s deals are, in all likelihood, the ones holding today’s mandates. Rebuilding their network means rebuilding the map of deal flow.

Approaching these dealmakers directly opens the door to live deals for which they hold a sell-side or buy-side mandate. It is fast and precise, and it serves their interests too: a credible, well-informed buyer improves the odds of their deal closing.

In practice: a sector and a country in, a structured network out

Framing: type of transaction, sector, target countries, order of magnitude.
Extraction: firms and individuals returned by profession, with the reference deals. You validate the list.
Qualification: among the advisors identified, those holding current or upcoming mandates in your scope.
Introduction: you make contact with the precise reference that justifies the approach. Your identity stays confidential until you decide to reveal it.
Building the team: lawyers, auditors, lenders and investors chosen among those who already know your sector in the country concerned.

The role of each profession is detailed in Why look for a lawyer when you’re looking for a target.

If you are not on the mandated advisor’s list, you will never know the deal existed.