21 Jun 2026 · Journal
Related-party maps before a sale
A teaser book that shows EBITDA without a graph of intra-group claims is a brochure. Buyers in 2026 know how to ask for the graph. Sellers who wait until Q&A look as if they hoped nobody would.
Module three of our flagship course is dedicated to this drawing. It is not pretty. Lines cross. A cousin’s trading company sits in the middle. A “temporary” advance from the holding company has been temporary for fourteen months. The point is not to embarrass the family. The point is to decide, before a buyer’s accountant does, which lines will be treated as debt, which as equity, and which as gifts that will be clawed in an argument.
For a carve-out, the map also shows which shared costs were never invoiced. Those costs reappear as stranded overhead the day after closing. We would rather price them as transitional services than discover them as an earn-out fight. That is the same order described on the carve-out page, applied to paper rather than to a plant tour.
If you are not selling anything, still draw the map. Credit committees in Taipei have started asking for it even on ordinary restatements. A board that has never seen the drawing is not ready to approve a related-party loan, however loyal the minutes sound.