MeridianCrest
Service · 3 of 5 · CDD

Commercial Due Diligence

Selecting the right opportunities, and avoiding the surprises behind them.

Who this is for

Sponsors evaluating new platforms, corporates entering adjacent categories, lenders sizing risk on cross-border DACH–Asia transactions.

Market, customer, competitive dynamics, and business-plan stress test.

What is in scope

The work, line by line.

  • Market sizing and growth

    Bottom-up TAM/SAM, growth drivers, structural shifts across DACH and Greater China.

  • Customer voice

    40–80 customer interviews per engagement, NPS, win/loss, switching dynamics — on both sides of the corridor where the target operates.

  • Competitive dynamics

    Player mapping, share movement, pricing, route-to-market.

  • Cross-border expansion thesis

    Test of management plans for Asian expansion or DACH market entry.

  • Business-plan stress test

    Management plan reviewed against market, customer, and competitive evidence.

  • Value creation thesis

    A clear input to the investment thesis: what works, what is fragile, what to watch.

Why us

What separates the work.

  • 01

    Diligence, not consulting theater

    No frameworks-for-frameworks. We deliver a clear go / no-go view supported by primary research.

  • 02

    Customer-led research, on both sides

    We interview customers in the local language. Yejin and Leo run Greater China; Stefan runs DACH.

  • 03

    Sector-and-corridor experience

    Each CDD is led by a partner with prior banking or strategy-consulting experience in the sector and operating exposure across the corridor.

  • 04

    Built into deal teams

    Our CDD work integrates with FDD findings — one data room, one set of partners, one view of the business.

Sectors we serve in this discipline

Active categories along the corridor.

  • Industrials & Manufacturing
  • Technology, Media & Telecom
  • Consumer & Retail
  • Healthcare & Life Sciences
  • Business & Professional Services
How an engagement runs

From scoping to deliverable.

  1. 013–5 days

    Hypothesis

    Investment thesis decomposed into testable hypotheses with the deal team.

  2. 023–4 weeks

    Primary research

    Customer interviews on both sides of the corridor, expert calls, syndicated data triangulation.

  3. 031 week

    Synthesis

    Findings, business-plan stress test, management challenge.

  4. 043–5 days

    Final read

    Investment committee deck, written CDD report, partner debrief.

Frequently asked

What clients usually ask before kickoff.

  • 40–80 named interviews per engagement, with the customer base distributed across DACH and Greater China where applicable. We supplement with expert network calls and recent buyer surveys where available.

  • Yes for focused engagements where the customer voice is the binary question. Full-scope cross-border CDD takes 4–6 weeks. We will tell you upfront which compromises a 3-week timeline forces.

  • Both. The IC deck is the primary deliverable; the written report carries the evidence and the appendix tables that auditors and lenders ask for.

  • It changes who interviews whom. Our team conducts customer calls in German, English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean as required. Translated transcripts and summaries are available in the language of the deal team.

Talk to a CDD partner

Discuss this CDD engagement.
We respond within one business day.

A founding partner reads every inbound. References available on request, under NDA.