For private equity

Diligence will find it. Better that you do first.

Most portfolio company finance functions are built for the business the company was, not the one it is being sold as. The gap surfaces in diligence, at the worst possible moment and at a price.

We assess and rebuild the finance function of cross-border mid-market portfolio companies; before the transaction, not during it.

Arrange an introduction How an engagement works

The problem

The finance function is the last thing to get attention and the first thing to get examined

Transaction readiness means finance can produce current, reconciled reporting and explain its controls before diligence begins. TechFarben diagnoses the gaps, rebuilds the operating layer and stays accountable through the transaction.

86% of GPs say exit preparation improved their valuations, with value creation named the most impactful area of preparation.

EY private equity research, 2026.

Sponsors have moved earlier on exit readiness, and finance is where the preparation is thinnest. A portfolio company that has grown by acquisition typically runs several charts of accounts, more than one system, and a consolidation held together by one person and a spreadsheet.

It produces numbers. It does not produce them quickly, consistently, or in a form a buyer's advisors will accept without challenge.

In carve-outs the problem is sharper. Technology separation sits on the critical path in the large majority of transactions, and legacy system entanglement with the parent is usually the reason. Transitional service agreements paper over it temporarily and expensively, and the clock starts at completion.

In buy-and-build, the cost is silent and compounding. Each bolt-on absorbed on its own terms adds days to the close, another reporting definition, and another thing that has to be explained to a buyer three years later.

None of this is difficult to fix eighteen months out. All of it is expensive to fix during diligence.

What we do

Three ways in

Pre-Deal Diagnostic

What diligence will find, what it costs to fix, and what can be fixed in the time available.

Three to four weeks against a deal calendar rather than a business-as-usual one.

We assess the finance function the way a buyer's advisors will: how the numbers are produced, how long it takes, how much of it depends on individuals, what the controls actually are, and whether the underlying data would survive examination.

The output separates three things; what must be fixed before going to market, what can be disclosed and priced, and what is noise. Most sponsors find the second category larger than expected, which is useful in itself.

When to commission it

Twelve to eighteen months before a process, ideally. It remains worth doing at six, with a shorter list of what can realistically change.

Post-Acquisition Finance Integration

New entities onto the group finance stack, without the close getting slower.

The first hundred days set the pattern. An acquired business absorbed on its own terms becomes permanent, and every subsequent integration inherits the compromise.

We bring targets onto the group structure: chart of accounts aligned rather than mapped, intercompany flows configured with elimination from the start, reporting definitions taken from the group rather than negotiated locally, and the existing approval and control environment extended to the new entity.

For carve-outs, that includes standing the finance function up independently of the parent; separating data, systems and processes, and getting off transitional services on schedule rather than paying to extend them.

Governance

We run integration on three levels: daily operational tracking with the delivery teams, weekly tactical review on progress and escalations, and monthly strategic review with management and sponsor. That cadence is how a programme stays visible to the people who need to see it.

Recent workOxford Summer Courses: integration onto the group finance stack following acquisition, with support pooled across group subsidiaries rather than duplicated.

Exit & Investor Readiness

Reporting, controls and data that survive examination.

By the time a process begins, the finance function needs to answer questions on demand: revenue by entity, product and period; margin bridges; recurring versus one-off; management information reconciled to statutory accounts; and a close fast enough that the numbers are still current when they are asked for.

We build that reporting layer and the controls underneath it. Where a sponsor is looking for evidence of an AI-ready operating stack; increasingly part of the equity story; we can show what has been automated, under what controls, and what it has replaced.

Recent workCharles Monat Associates, a PE-backed international brokerage: ten entities across seven jurisdictions consolidated into a four-day close, with board reporting, regulatory capital tracking, granular P&L by subsidiary and reconciliation reporting. Delivered alongside the sponsor's strategy advisors, who held the growth plan while we built what it depended on.

How we engage

Three stages. You can stop after any of them.

01 · Diagnose

Fixed fee against the deal calendar. Findings, cost to remediate, what is achievable in the window.

02 · Build

Scoped programme on milestones, sequenced to the transaction timeline.

03 · Run

Retained through to completion, so the finance function does not regress while management is occupied.

Proof

What this looks like in practice

Two weeks to four days

A PE-backed international brokerage: ten entities, seven jurisdictions and four currencies consolidated into a four-day close.

Alongside the strategy firm

The sponsor's advisors held the growth plan; TechFarben built and ran the finance and systems layer it depended on.

Two countries, one group layer

Summer Discovery: post-acquisition finance integration across US and UK operations.

See documented client work →

Questions

Do you work for the sponsor or the portfolio company?

Either. The engagement is usually sponsored at operating-partner level and delivered inside the portfolio company. we are explicit at the outset about who receives the findings.

How is this different from what our diligence provider does?

Diligence tells you what is there. We fix it. Most diligence teams are structurally prevented from doing remediation on what they've assessed.

Can you work across several portfolio companies?

Yes, and it is usually more efficient. The diagnostic is repeatable, and patterns from one company inform the next.

We already have a strategy firm engaged. Does that conflict?

No. We currently operate alongside one, where they hold the value creation plan and we build the finance and systems layer it depends on. The division of labour is clean.

What size of portfolio company?

Typically £10m to £150m of revenue, with entities in more than one country. Cross-border complexity is where we are most useful.

How quickly can you mobilise?

A diagnostic can usually begin within two to three weeks.

An introduction, not a pitch

Twenty minutes with an operating partner or a portfolio CFO. Tell us where the finance function worries you, and we will tell you whether it is the kind of thing we fix.

Arrange an introduction