Owner brief · 20 January 2026 · 4 min read
How to read an acquisition mandate on the register
A short practical guide for owners: what each part of a published mandate actually tells you, and which lines are usually the ones that matter.
A published mandate on the register looks short by design. It carries only what an owner needs to decide whether the acquirer is worth a first message. This note walks through what each section is doing.
The reference
Every mandate carries a reference such as BW000295. Quoting it in a first contact tells the editors exactly which acquirer you are asking about, and lets us keep the conversation confidential on both sides.
The description
The public description is deliberately written to a common editorial standard: what the acquirer is looking for, in what sector, at what size, and in what geography. It does not include price expectations, those are set case by case in the first serious conversation.
The buyer type
Named plainly: private, search fund, family office, trade or PE. The buyer type is often the strongest single indicator of how a transaction will run in practice; see our short buyer types reference for how each behaves.
What is deliberately not on the card
- The acquirer's identity: released once the owner and the editors agree there is a genuine fit.
- Adviser detail: held privately and disclosed on request.
- Any specific target company: the register is a demand-side platform, not a list of sellers.