augustus hall limited due diligence services 2015
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Our Due Diligence and Compliance Services in a Brief
Augustus Hall Limited (RC. 912580) is a privately owned Credit Control Consultancy Firm based in
Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. We remain focused on applying our in-depth experience and up-to-
date knowledge to helping our clients towards an even brighter business future. We specialise in
offering: Credit Industry Training | Commercial Debt Collections | Consumer Debt Collections |
Credit Control Consultancy | Credit Risk Identification and Mitigation | Debt Mediation | Commercial
Mediation and Negotiation | Trades and Business Development | Debt Restructuring, Workouts and
Collections | Terms of Trade Documentation | Business Rescue and Support | Debt Purchase and
Sale Brokerage | Creditor Meetings Service | Factoring & Invoice Discounting | Refinancing & Asset
Finance | Trade Finance | Credit Insurance | Accounts Payable Management Solutions | Accounts
Receivables Management Solution | Outsourcing | Document Management Solution | Invoicing and
Billing | Consulting and Advisory | Audits and Performance Evaluations | Software.
www.augustushall.com | [email protected] | Tel: +234 (0)1-2170730, +234 (0)8029772849, +234 (0)7025347079 | P.O. Box 4528
Surulere, Lagos State, Nigeria.
Investigative
Due Diligence
What is it? Investigative due diligence is the process of conducting due diligence through
investigative means on a potential business transaction partner. It differs from a
financial due diligence in that it goes beyond looking at numbers to verify the source of
the numbers and to verify other tangible and intangible areas of a business.
Performing a complete due diligence means looking at issues that are often not reflected
in financial or accounting results and may be hidden from view, just because they are
below the surface doesn’t make them any less of a risk.
The Keys to Understanding Due Diligence Among the risks of making transactions with other market players are claims
that need to be verified and omissions that need to be found. Investigative due
diligence focuses on both goals and the key subject areas are outlined below.
What makes AHL’s
Due Diligence
Services special?
The Augustus Hall
Difference Augustus Hall Limited has done due
diligence projects for multinational clients
from virtually every industry and for
virtually every purpose. We’re on the
ground, but we speak your language and
understand where you’re coming from.
We can handle everything from simple,
straight-forward, discreet due diligence projects
to complex, long, open ones. We’ll work with
you from the start to fully understand your
information requirements and goals properly
before we begin. We’ll customize a due
diligence product to exactly fit what you require
without conducting a lot checks you don’t.
Identity & Data
Confirmation
These are the foundation checks of any
due diligence. Companies can claim all
sorts of things on websites and in
presentations. Finding out what is real and
what is not is key to determining if there is
outright fraud going on.
Beyond that, these basic checks give the
handholds that tell investigators where to
look for additional data and insight.
Risk Finding &
Known Negatives
Beyond confirming what has been given to
you or to the public, investigative due
diligence is concerned with uncovering
what companies are trying to hide. Legal
sanctions and ongoing litigation, criminal
sanction of key personnel, regulatory
sanctions, and consumer complaints are all
examples of things companies don’t want
you to know.
Augustus Hall Limited’s key to a successful
due diligence investigation is correct scoping
and creating a proper strategy from the
beginning. If we can’t satisfy an information
requirement we’ll tell you at the start.
Contact Augustus Hall Limited today and
tell us what your due diligence problems
are. Our job is to come up with the
solutions that solve those problems and
fulfill your requirements for insight.
Market Reputation
Intangibles are often more important than
the tangible things pulled from databases.
This is especially true in emerging markets
like Nigeria, where many issues are
unlikely to ever make it onto paper. If you
want the true story about what the market
thinks about a company and the integrity of
its leadership, you have to directly ask for
it. The market acts on what it thinks,
whether people can prove it or not.
Company & Key Personnel
The basic unit of due diligence checks is the
company. However, today’s companies can
be intertwined with other players in the
market, and this is even more true of a
company’s leadership. Checking the
backgrounds of the key personnel is
required to find out if they are politically at
risk, have risk from other companies they
are involved with, or have issues in their own
backgrounds that have not been completely
made clear.
e n q u i r i e s @ a u g u s t u s h a l l . c o m
L E V E L 1 D U E D I L I G E N C E I N D E T A I L If you have any questions on any of the material in this datasheet, or would like to just know more about the services Augustus Hall Limited offers, visit our
website at www.augustushall.com or email us at [email protected] we’re always happy to work with you to provide a solution to your needs.
Media Checks
Media checks in English and local
language include checks of media
databases, online news databases
in local languages, and through news search
engines. Media checks include various
verification and other specifics, both local and
international. These checks are mainly focused
on negatives that have come out in the news, or
through social media.
Media checks can also be instrumental in
uncovering relationships between key
personnel or political affiliations.
Corporate Filings
Corporate filings differ greatly by
corporate structure or by country.
In Nigeria, filings by entities other
than corporations are virtually non-existent. It is
therefore very difficult to use official documents
to verify these companies’ basic information.
Records may be available, but any documents
that are available are ones that have been
voluntarily released by the companies,
themselves. For corporations, copious filings are
publicly accessible in Nigeria.
Nigeria has less documentation available, but
basic corporate information is still verifiable.
Key Personnel Background
Key personnel checks cover key
personnel professional history and
include searches for negatives in
the public domain. Personal history can include
previous jobs, family relationships, political
exposure, certifications, and education, adverse
reports, among other things or specifics.
Information availability for key personnel varies
depending on the profile, age, rank, and industry
of the person. Key personnel at higher profile
companies are likely to have more information
available in the public domain.
The Components of a Level 1 Investigative Due Diligence
Due diligence investigations can have several levels of complexity, depending on how deeply and from what
angle risks should be evaluated. Basic due diligence, or what many practitioners call Level 1 Due Diligence,
is the lowest level of checks that should be carried out on a potential transaction partner.
These checks are complete in that they investigate whether or not companies have had problems of any
public nature in the past. If a company has run afoul of the government or public in any way, or had
problems of an internal nature, and those incidents have become public data, a Level 1 Due Diligence
should uncover it. They are also complete in that they are looking for misrepresentations the company may
have made or problems they have with the market.
These components are standard, but can be customized, expanded, or omitted for any due diligence
investigation, depending on the informational needs of the project.
While we have a Level 1 Due Diligence, it is also important to let you know that we also carry out and
provide Level 2 Due Diligence.
Litigation, Criminal & Regulatory Checks
Past and pending litigation as
a defendant is searched. The
information available may vary by country and
corporate structure. Litigation checks in Nigeria
are performed at all courts of the relevant
jurisdiction manually. However, Criminal checks
are not available in Nigeria.
Direct checks with relevant regulators are
performed to search for sanctions and ongoing
issues for the industry and company.
Reputation Checks
In Nigeria, reputation checks, or
source comments, are the single
most important due diligence check that can
be done. Reputation checks deliver the reality
of what people in the market actually think
about the company.
In countries where corruption levels are high,
reputation checks are the best way to get at
allegations of problems that never make it to
official proceedings or documentation.
Financial Results
Information on financial results for
companies varies depending on
whether the company is public or
private, company structure, and by country.
Financial results for private owned companies in
Nigeria may be available, but only via voluntary
release to the public by the company. This
information is therefore unvalidated. Financial
information in Nigeria, for all corporations,
private and public, is available. This includes
shareholding information and corporate debt.
Site Visits
Site visits are visits to a
company’s stated places of
operation. These visits are a
crucial part of determining if claims made by
companies are true.
Site visits may include visits to the main office, to
see if it exists, and to gauge size and number of
employees, as well as to do local neighborhood
reputation checks. Site visits may also include
visits to warehouses and production sites to
gauge operating capabilities and current state of
operations.
Augustus Hall Limited offers these services in Nigeria. Specific details about what is possible in each country outside Nigeria may vary. Service times and service
pricing may vary by location and by engagement. For a detailed proposal customized to your needs, feel free to cont act us at [email protected]
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