Equity story
Capital MarketsThe argument for why a business is worth what its owners intend to ask, and the spine of every selling document.
Whether the exit is a sale or a listing, the equity story is the case: what the company does, why it wins, why the market is attractive, and where growth comes from. Everything else in the process is evidence for it.
It has to survive contact with diligence. A story resting on margin expansion nobody can attribute to a specific initiative will not survive a quality of earnings review, and the bid will be chipped accordingly.
The bridge is the part to test. If the plan takes EBITDA from 34 to 46, ask what each step of that bridge is and who is accountable for it. Unnamed operating leverage is the usual filler.
It is agreed during the preparation phase, before any buyer sees anything, which is why that phase largely decides the outcome.