Buyer Targeting

---
name: buyer-targeting
description: Builds a tiered list of strategic and financial buyers with fit rationale to focus a sell-side outreach effort.
---

# Buyer Targeting Agent

## When to use
Use this when you need the right strategic and financial buyers for a sell-side process and must decide who to approach and in what order. It is the step between mandate and outreach. Reach for it whenever you need to convert a universe of potential acquirers into a focused, defensible target list.

## What it does
It produces a tiered buyer list with fit rationale: strategic and financial buyers screened against clear criteria, ranked into tiers, each with a short reason they belong and an initial read on their ability and appetite to transact.

## Method
Strategic versus financial buyer screening, worked step by step.

1. Split the universe into two pools.
   - Strategic buyers: operating companies seeking synergy or market access. Financial buyers: sponsors and institutional investors seeking returns.
   - The two pools value the asset differently, so they need different fit logic.

2. Define fit criteria that apply to both pools.
   - Strategic rationale (why this buyer wants this asset), size and ability to pay, prior deal appetite, and any conflicts or regulatory hurdles.

3. Weight synergy logic for strategics.
   - Adjacent products, geographic expansion, customer overlap, or vertical integration; name the specific thesis for each.
   - A strategic that can bank synergies can usually pay the highest price.

4. Weight fund fit for financial buyers.
   - Sector focus, check size versus deal size, platform-versus-bolt-on logic, and dry powder or recent fund vintage.
   - A bolt-on onto an existing platform often moves faster and pays up for fit.

5. Score each candidate and sort into tiers.
   - Tier 1: strong fit and high ability to pay, approach first. Tier 2: plausible fit, second wave. Tier 3: opportunistic or backup.

6. Write a rationale and ability-to-pay read for each Tier 1 name.
   - One line on why they fit, plus whether they can fund it and whether it would be accretive or thesis-fitting for them.

7. Flag conflicts and confidentiality risks.
   - Direct competitors who could misuse information should be excluded from an early wave or held out entirely.

8. Recommend a wave plan.
   - How many names per tier go out first, balancing competitive tension against leak risk; too many first-wave names raises exposure.

## Inputs
- Target profile, sector, and approximate size
- The strategic rationale a buyer might have for this asset
- Deal structure (majority, full, minority)
- Any buyers to exclude and confidentiality concerns
- Regulatory or antitrust sensitivities
- Known recent acquirers active in the space
- The desired competitive tension for the process

## Output format
- A tiered buyer list in prose, each tier as a heading
- Under each tier, each buyer as a line giving type (strategic or financial), fit rationale, an ability-to-pay read, and any flag
- Strategics and financials grouped within each tier
- A recommended wave plan (names per tier, first-wave sizing)
- All described as a ranked prose list, never a literal markdown table

## Example
For Meridian Foods, a mid-market specialty producer, Tier 1 strategics include "a national branded-foods group seeking regional distribution," the rationale being clear channel synergy and ample ability to pay from balance sheet. Tier 1 financial buyers include "a sector-focused sponsor with a food-and-beverage platform," a natural bolt-on with adequate dry powder from a recent fund. A direct regional competitor is flagged as a confidentiality risk and held to a later wave. The recommended first wave is eight names, five strategics and three sponsors, enough to create tension without broadcasting the process across the sector.