Bass Zanjani, Managing Director, leads M&A Advisory and owns the file from the first meeting through close. Specialists are brought in where the deal requires them, named in advance and scoped separately. The file is not handed down after the engagement letter is signed.

Do you publish your fees?

No. The arrangement depends on the mandate and it is agreed in writing before work starts. A published rate card would either be wrong for most engagements or priced to cover the widest possible scope, and the terms belong in the engagement letter rather than in marketing copy.

What if the mandate is not one you can run?

We will say so on the first call. Declining a mandate costs us one fee; running one badly costs the client months and, on an owner matter, tells the market the business is shopping.

Can we start with a smaller piece of work?

Frequently, yes. Screening a single in-market opportunity, or a readiness read before an owner commits to a process, are both legitimate engagements that stand on their own and do not oblige either side to the full mandate.

Is the Technology & AI practice part of the fee?

No. It is a separate practice with its own engagement letter and its own scope. Where a deal needs it, the cost is agreed before the work starts, and no M&A mandate requires it.

How do you handle a conflict?

We do not act for both sides of the same transaction. Where a new mandate would conflict with a live one, we tell the prospective client before taking the brief, without disclosing who the existing client is.

HOW WE WORK

The commercial questions, answered before the first call.

Most of what a client wants to know before engaging an adviser is commercial: how it is priced, who does the work, what happens in the first month, and what is done with the information they hand over. Those answers are on this page rather than reserved for a meeting.

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FEES

Agreed in writing before work starts.

An engagement is typically a retainer plus a success fee where a success fee is relevant, and the arrangement is agreed in writing before any work begins. The retainer funds the work that happens regardless of outcome: the mandate, the market map, the diligence. The success fee attaches to the transaction.

We do not publish standard fees on this website. A fee that is quoted before the scope is understood is either wrong or padded to cover the range of things it might turn out to include, and neither serves the client. The terms belong in the engagement letter.

What you can expect at the first conversation is a view on whether the mandate is one we can run, and a fee structure proposed against a scope that has been discussed rather than assumed.

SCOPING

What we own, and what you own.

Scope disputes on a live deal are expensive and avoidable. The boundary is set in the engagement letter, and it is set specifically enough that neither side has to argue about it in the week before signing.

What defines the scope

The mandate itself: what is being bought, sold, or financed, the size and sector, the sourcing route where one applies, and the phases the engagement covers. A scope that names phases is one both sides can tell has been completed.

What CCA owns

The mandate document, the market and target work, the diligence workstreams we run, the process management, and the negotiation. One senior lead owns the file and is accountable for what is delivered at each checkpoint.

What the client owns

The decisions. Which targets advance, which buyers are approached, what price is acceptable, and whether to proceed at all. We recommend and we argue our case; the client decides and we record the decision.

How specialists are brought in

Quality of earnings providers, legal counsel, tax advisers, insurance, and the Technology & AI practice are engaged where the deal requires them, scoped separately, and named before they start. Nothing is added to an invoice that was not agreed in advance.

THE FIRST 30 DAYS

What the first month produces.

The first thirty days exist to make the rest of the engagement decidable. At the end of it there is a written position both sides can work from, rather than a general sense of direction.

Mandate definition

What is being pursued, at what size, in which sectors, against what return requirement and which risk constraints. Written down, agreed, and revisited when the market answers back.

Market map

The subsector view and the target or buyer universe the mandate implies, with the reasoning attached rather than a list handed over without it.

Operating cadence

A standing call at an agreed frequency, a named point of contact on both sides, and a pipeline document that is updated rather than reconstructed before each meeting.

The first written checkpoint

A document at the end of the phase stating what was found, what was decided, and what happens next. Every phase after this one ends the same way.

THE CRESCENT SOURCING FRAMEWORK

The buy-side methodology, published when it is finished.

The buy-side work described across this practice runs on a named methodology that covers how a mandate is written, how a target universe is built, how opportunities are screened against the thesis, and how each advance or stop decision is recorded.

It will be published here as a named and versioned framework once it is complete and cleared. We would rather have nothing on this page than a diagram that describes a method more finished than the one we run.

CONFIDENTIALITY

What we do with what you tell us.

On an owner matter, no buyer is contacted without written instruction. You approve every name on the list before any approach is made, and the company is described under a code name in early outreach.

Information is restricted to the people working the mandate. Data room access is opened by stage rather than all at once, and counterparties sign confidentiality agreements before they receive anything beyond an anonymized description.

We do not disclose that a client is in the market, on either side of a deal. Where a conflict exists between two mandates, we say so before taking the second one rather than managing it quietly.

HONEST ANSWERS

The questions clients ask before they engage.

Who does the work?: Bass Zanjani, Managing Director, leads M&A Advisory and owns the file from the first meeting through close. Specialists are brought in where the deal requires them, named in advance and scoped separately. The file is not handed down after the engagement letter is signed.
Do you publish your fees?: No. The arrangement depends on the mandate and it is agreed in writing before work starts. A published rate card would either be wrong for most engagements or priced to cover the widest possible scope, and the terms belong in the engagement letter rather than in marketing copy.
What if the mandate is not one you can run?: We will say so on the first call. Declining a mandate costs us one fee; running one badly costs the client months and, on an owner matter, tells the market the business is shopping.
Can we start with a smaller piece of work?: Frequently, yes. Screening a single in-market opportunity, or a readiness read before an owner commits to a process, are both legitimate engagements that stand on their own and do not oblige either side to the full mandate.
Is the Technology & AI practice part of the fee?: No. It is a separate practice with its own engagement letter and its own scope. Where a deal needs it, the cost is agreed before the work starts, and no M&A mandate requires it.
How do you handle a conflict?: We do not act for both sides of the same transaction. Where a new mandate would conflict with a live one, we tell the prospective client before taking the brief, without disclosing who the existing client is.

Start the conversation

Ask the commercial questions on the first call.

Tell us what you are working on and what you need to know before you would engage anyone. We will answer the scope and fee questions in that conversation rather than after a second meeting.

Bass reads every brief. If we are not the right firm for the mandate, we will tell you who might be.

Start the conversation