Exit readiness is built over the holding period, not in the six months before signing
Stelios Pigadiotis | Wellman Partners
When gaps first surface in buyer diligence, each one becomes a reason to discount the price.
Build evidence through the holding period that leadership, governance, performance and technology can operate without the current owner.
Whether the route is an IPO, a private placement or a trade sale, the price is set by what diligence finds. Most sellers learn what that is from the buyer.
The industry entered 2026 with some $3.8 trillion of unsold portfolio companies and holding periods near seven years. Gulf public markets are just as selective. GCC exchanges recorded 42 IPOs in 2025, the lowest count in four years, and proceeds of $5.8 billion were the lowest in five. Around 73 IPOs now sit in the pipeline, including companies that postponed because valuations were not right. The first half of 2026 produced seven GCC IPOs raising $1.19 billion — appetite remains, but for companies that can bring an attractive offering.
In a crowded queue, the discount is applied by comparison with the company next in line.
1.1. Choose the route early. An IPO, a placement and a trade sale test different things, and readiness should be built for the one you intend to take.
Investors have long said they will pay for governance. McKinsey's survey of more than 200 institutional investors across 31 countries found most were prepared to pay a premium for well-governed companies: 12–14% in North America and Western Europe, 20–25% in Asia and Latin America, and over 30% in Eastern Europe and Africa.
Leadership is priced just as directly. In Kaplan, Klebanov and Sorensen's study of buyout CEOs (Journal of Finance, 2012), subsequent performance was positively related to general ability and execution skills. The buyer will assess your team, so it is better that you do it first.
Timing matters. AlixPartners found 58% of portfolio CEO replacements happen in the year after closing or the year before exit — precisely the windows their own respondents identify as the most disruptive. A CEO replaced a year before the process has no track record to show in diligence.
2.1. Assess the management team 18 to 24 months before the intended process. Leadership risk found in exit diligence is not resolved; it is priced, against you.
2.2. Close gaps early enough that a new leader has delivered results by the time diligence begins.
Buyers probe earnings quality, dependence on key individuals, the reliability of reporting, whether the culture holds once the owner steps back, and the technology debt the next owner inherits. None of that is fixed by presentation.
3.1. Run a buyer's-eye review across leadership, culture, operating model and technology. Fix what can be fixed; frame and disclose the rest on your terms.
3.2. Build a multi-year record of performance against plan, with outcomes individually owned. That record is the equity story's strongest evidence.
The implication. Prepared companies command premiums; unprepared companies negotiate discounts. The difference is decided years before the process, not weeks.
At Wellman Partners, the exits we have prepared for have taught us that the discount is almost always applied to something the seller already knew about and left too late. We run the buyer's assessment before the buyer does — leadership, culture, operating model, technology — and close what can be closed while there is still time for the fix to show a track record. What remains gets framed and disclosed on your terms rather than discovered on theirs. The work that makes a company sellable is the same work that makes it stronger to own: a system that runs without you is what a buyer is actually paying for.
If you are preparing for an exit or IPO, I am happy to share our view on the route.
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