How can you be sure you are buying the company you think you are? Are you sure it is as good as the seller says? How can you be certain unexpected costs and obligations will not suddenly appear once you are the owner and responsible for them? How best can you arm yourself for the negotiations? Have you worked out precisely what you are going to do with it once it is yours? How do you set the priorities for change to recoup the premium you have paid for it?

The answer to all these questions, and many more, lies within a series of three comprehensive yet concise volumes by Peter Howson.

The Essentials of M&A Due Diligence, the first in the series, is a must for anyone who needs to master the essentials of due diligence with the minimum effort and in the minimum amount of time. Straightforward and unbiased, it sets out the fundamentals of pre-acquisition investigations, showing which are appropriate and why.

Peter Howson draws on thirty years of M&A and due diligence experience gained both in industry and as an adviser. His M&A experience began at the British conglomerate TI Group, where he was part of the small team which, through 75 acquisitions and disposals, transformed it from a UK focused supplier of commodity products into a global specialist engineering company. This was followed by a spell in Corporate Finance at the Investment Bank Barings, where he focused on domestic and cross-border deals in manufacturing industries. He continued his career with senior finance and M&A roles with British Steel and the automotive company T&N before spending 15 years as a London based commercial due diligence specialist advising corporates and private equity on potential acquisitions.