With the global nuclear renaissance underway, financial stakeholders are showing renewed interest in investing across the nuclear value chain. Since its inception, Damona has supported investment funds by offering an objective and sector-informed perspective on nuclear assets.

For a French private equity firm with a diversified portfolio, Damona was engaged to conduct a commercial due diligence on a potential acquisition: a distributor specializing in nuclear-grade equipment. The target company was of strategic interest to one of the firm’s portfolio companies.

The scope of the assignment focused on critically reviewing the information memorandum provided by the seller, with particular attention to the commercial projections. To assess the credibility of these forecasts, Damona built a bottom-up demand model for the French nuclear market, drawing on expected procurement from key licensees including EDF, Orano, Framatome, CEA, ANDRA, Naval Group, and Technicatome. This analysis was developed with a high level of granularity, isolating demand in the specific sub-domains relevant to the seller’s offerings.

Beyond the domestic market, Damona also incorporated demand from export markets and European new build projects, providing a broader strategic view. This allowed us to deliver an adjusted and realistic compound annual growth rate (CAGR) based on actual market dynamics, offering the buyer a reliable benchmark against the seller’s assumptions.

In parallel, Damona conducted a series of structured interviews with current and former clients of the distributor. These discussions followed a pre-defined questionnaire designed to assess the seller’s market reputation, client satisfaction, and potential areas for improvement. This qualitative input complemented the data-driven analysis and gave the buyer a comprehensive understanding of the target’s positioning in the nuclear sector.

The due diligence was completed on time and within budget, despite a highly constrained timeline. Damona’s integrated approach—combining rigorous market modeling with stakeholder insights—enabled the client to make an informed investment decision grounded in sector reality.

Date: 1st October 2024