Can AI analyse a CIM?

It can read the figures out of one reliably, and record where each came from so you can check it. What it cannot do is tell you what the CIM left out, which is the part that decides most deals. Treat the output as a fast first read, not a substitute for diligence.

What do you need from me?

The CIM, and the financial statements if they are separate. Three years is better than one, and management accounts help more than they look like they will.

What does it give me back?

A valuation range rather than a single number, with each method shown and weighted, the figures traced to the page they came from, and a list of what does not tie.

Is a CIM enough to value a business properly?

For a first-pass range, usually. For a price you would sign, no. A CIM is written to sell, so the normalisation it presents is the seller's, and a buyer redoes it.

Turn a CIM into a priced range.

Send the document. We read the figures out, record the page each one came from, flag what does not tie, and return a range with every method weighted.

What a CIM is, and what it leaves out

A CIM is the document a seller or their broker prepares to present a business: history, operations, customers, financials, and the reasons to buy. It is written to sell, which is not a criticism, it is the job.

So read it for its omissions. The add-backs it presents are the seller's view of what a buyer would not have spent. Customer concentration is usually present and rarely foregrounded. And a normalised EBITDA in a CIM is an argument, not a measurement.

The read: what gets extracted, and where it came from

Revenue, gross profit, EBITDA, net debt, headcount and the add-back schedule, each recorded with the page and line it was taken from. Provenance is the point: a figure you cannot trace is a figure you have to take on trust, and this is a document written by the counterparty.

Then what does not tie. Gross profit that does not reconcile to revenue less cost of sales, a margin that moves without an explanation, an owner salary that is not in the add-backs.

Which methods run on CIM-grade data, and which cannot

Earnings multiples and precedent transactions work from what a CIM contains. A discounted cash flow will run, but it is only as good as a forecast the seller wrote, so it is weighted accordingly rather than presented as though it carried the same weight.

The output is a range with each method shown and weighted, so you can see which one is doing the work and disagree with it specifically.

How to send one

Forward the CIM and the financials to [email protected], or upload them in the app. Either way the documents are stored against the target rather than read and discarded, so the same files serve the diligence that follows.

Questions

Can AI analyse a CIM?: It can read the figures out of one reliably, and record where each came from so you can check it. What it cannot do is tell you what the CIM left out, which is the part that decides most deals. Treat the output as a fast first read, not a substitute for diligence.
What do you need from me?: The CIM, and the financial statements if they are separate. Three years is better than one, and management accounts help more than they look like they will.
What does it give me back?: A valuation range rather than a single number, with each method shown and weighted, the figures traced to the page they came from, and a list of what does not tie.
Is a CIM enough to value a business properly?: For a first-pass range, usually. For a price you would sign, no. A CIM is written to sell, so the normalisation it presents is the seller's, and a buyer redoes it.

See what comes back

A first-pass range from a seller-written document. It is not a substitute for diligence, and we would rather say so here than have you find out later.