Ib Teaser

When to use

Use this when you are opening a sell-side process and need a blind profile to send to potential buyers before any NDA is in place. The teaser is the first contact with the market: it must interest a buyer enough to sign an NDA while keeping the seller unidentifiable. It carries the investment highlights, anonymized financials, and a transaction rationale, and it points recipients to the process contact.

Not for: the full disclosed marketing document (use ib-cim-builder), the instructions that govern how buyers bid (use ib-process-letter), or a named company one-pager (use ib-strip-profile). If the client has not approved going to market, do not draft outreach material.

Method

1. Confirm the anonymization level with the deal team: what industry descriptors, geography, and size bands can appear without identifying the seller. Err toward vaguer.
2. Write a two-to-three-sentence "Company Overview" using a generic descriptor ("a leading North American provider of...") — no name, no logos, no customer names.
3. State 4-6 investment highlights: market position, growth, margins, recurring revenue, defensibility, management depth. Decision point: if any highlight would identify the company (a named marquee customer, a unique patent, a distinctive location), generalize it or cut it.
4. Present anonymized financials as ranges or rounded figures: revenue, EBITDA, growth rate, margin — typically 2-3 historical years plus a forward estimate.
5. State the transaction rationale (owner retirement, carve-out, growth capital) and what is being offered (100% equity, majority stake).
6. Add process mechanics: banker as sole contact, instruction that recipients must not contact the company, and the NDA-gated next step.
7. Route to the client and compliance for approval before any distribution; log who received it.

Example

Sell-side of a family-owned specialty-chemicals distributor. Teaser described it as "a profitable, founder-led distributor of specialty industrial chemicals serving the U.S. Midwest," highlighted 12% revenue CAGR, ~$18M EBITDA at a 15% margin, and a blue-chip but unnamed customer base. Rationale: owner succession. Financials shown as ranges. Banker listed as sole contact; recipients instructed not to approach the company. NDA required for the CIM.

Pitfalls

• Leaving an identifying detail in — a named customer, a plant city, a niche product — that lets a knowledgeable reader deanonymize the seller.
• Overstating growth or margins the CIM and data room cannot later support; the teaser sets expectations you must honor in diligence.
• Distributing before client and compliance sign-off, or without tracking recipients.
• Making it too dense — a teaser is one page meant to earn an NDA, not to close the deal.

Output format

PROJECT <codename> — CONFIDENTIAL TEASER (Anonymous)

COMPANY OVERVIEW
<2-3 sentences, generic descriptor, no identifying detail>

INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS
- <highlight 1>
- <highlight 2>
- <highlight 3-6>

FINANCIAL SUMMARY (US$M, approximate)
              FY-2   FY-1   FY0E   FY1E
Revenue        <->    <->    <->    <->
EBITDA         <->    <->    <->    <->
EBITDA margin  <%>    <%>    <%>    <%>

TRANSACTION
Rationale: <owner succession / carve-out / growth capital>
Offered: <100% equity / majority>

PROCESS
All inquiries to <banker name / firm>, <email/phone>.
Do not contact the company directly. An executed NDA is required to receive the CIM.

Reference

• Sell-side sequence: teaser (pre-NDA) -> NDA -> CIM -> IOI/first-round bids -> management meetings -> data room / due diligence -> final bids (LOI) -> exclusivity -> SPA / close.
• The teaser is deliberately blind: its only job is to convert interest into a signed NDA so the buyer can receive the disclosed CIM.
• Anonymized financials are usually rounded or banded; precise figures belong in the CIM after confidentiality is in place.
• Sole point of contact is always the banker — buyers must never approach the target's management or employees during a controlled process.