The Practitioner's
Deal Library — Live.
A curated collection of the references senior practitioners actually keep on the desk — authoritative guides on M&A, due diligence, leveraged finance, valuation, securitisation, and restructuring. Free to download. Selected, not aggregated.
What This Library Is
Most finance resource libraries are aggregations — every document anyone could find, indexed and left for the reader to sort. This one is the opposite. Each item below has been chosen because it is the reference a practitioner would name first: an institutional standard, a market handbook, or a guide authored by a firm or body whose work sets the benchmark in its field.
The library is built for the professional who needs an answer at the depth a transaction demands — a CFO preparing for an M&A discussion, a credit investor reading covenants, a sponsor structuring a fund, a deal lead negotiating an SPA. Every resource is free to download and authored by a recognised firm, institute, or academic. There is no gate and no sign-up.
The Library
Fifteen authoritative references, free to download. Each is the kind of document that survives contact with a live deal.
M&A Execution
Global M&A Guide 2025
Baker McKenzie · 7 MB
Baker McKenzie's annual reference on cross-border M&A — regulatory clearance, foreign investment screening, antitrust, and deal structuring across the world's major jurisdictions. The single most useful starting point when a transaction touches more than one legal system. Essential for anyone running or advising on international acquisitions.
Download PDF →Due Diligence
ICAEW Financial Due Diligence Guideline 2024
ICAEW · Practitioner Standard
The authoritative practitioner standard for financial due diligence, issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Defines scope, quality-of-earnings analysis, working-capital and net-debt mechanics, and the reporting expectations a buyer should hold an adviser to. The reference point for what good FDD actually looks like.
Download PDF →Due Diligence
ICAEW Commercial Due Diligence Guideline
ICAEW
ICAEW's companion guideline on commercial due diligence — market sizing, competitive positioning, customer concentration, and the demand-side assumptions that underpin a business plan. Reads the target from the outside in, where financial DD reads it from the inside out. Designed for acquirers, principals, and the advisers who support them.
Download PDF →LBO & Private Equity
Global LBO Guide
Practitioner Reference
A structural guide to leveraged buyouts across jurisdictions — acquisition financing, security packages, financial assistance rules, and the legal mechanics that govern how a sponsor puts debt onto a target. Bridges the gap between the LBO model and the documents that make it enforceable. For sponsors, lenders, and deal counsel.
Download PDF →Leveraged Finance
Leveraged Finance Handbook
Market Reference
A comprehensive handbook on the leveraged finance market — instrument types, the syndication process, pricing, and the relationship between sponsors, arrangers, and institutional investors. Explains how leveraged capital is raised, distributed, and traded. A core text for credit professionals and anyone funding a buyout.
Download PDF →Leveraged Finance / Credit
Leveraged Finance 101: A Covenant Handbook
Covenant Reference
A focused handbook on credit agreement covenants — incurrence versus maintenance tests, baskets, restricted payments, and the covenant erosion that has reshaped lender protection in recent cycles. Reading covenants well is the difference between an informed credit decision and a surprised one. Indispensable for private credit and leveraged finance practitioners.
Download PDF →Valuation
Valuation
Aswath Damodaran · NYU Stern
Damodaran's foundational treatment of valuation — intrinsic, relative, and contingent-claim approaches, with the cash-flow, growth, and discount-rate logic that drives every model. The clearest available articulation of why a number is what it is. Required reading for anyone who values businesses for a living.
Download PDF →Alternative Credit
NN IP Guidebook to Alternative Credit
NN Investment Partners
An institutional investor's guide to the alternative credit universe — direct lending, asset-backed finance, distressed debt, and the spread, liquidity, and structural premia each segment carries. Frames alternative credit as a portfolio allocation rather than a single asset. Useful for allocators, fund managers, and credit investors building exposure.
Download PDF →Securitisation
PwC Securitisation Guide 2024
PwC Luxembourg
PwC Luxembourg's comprehensive guide to structuring securitisation vehicles — legal form, tax treatment, accounting, and the regulatory regime governing one of Europe's primary jurisdictions for structured finance. Practical detail on how a securitisation is actually set up and run. For structurers, fund administrators, and structured finance counsel.
Download PDF →Fund Formation
Fund Structuring: Beyond Just Theories
Practitioner Guide
A practical guide to the architecture of investment funds — domicile selection, GP/LP structures, carry and management-fee mechanics, and the parallel and feeder vehicles that accommodate different investor bases. Moves past the textbook diagram into the trade-offs that actually drive structuring decisions. For fund sponsors and the lawyers who set them up.
Download PDF →Venture Capital
BVCA Guide to VC Term Sheets
British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association
The BVCA's reference on venture capital term sheets — liquidation preferences, anti-dilution, board composition, and the economic and control terms that shape a financing round. Explains not just what each term means but how it behaves at exit. Essential for founders, investors, and growth-stage advisers.
Download PDF →M&A Documentation
Guidance on Share Purchase Agreements (SPA)
ONEtoONE
A clause-level guide to the share purchase agreement — price mechanisms, completion accounts versus locked box, warranties, indemnities, and the conditions that govern signing to closing. The SPA is where deal value is finally allocated between buyer and seller. Practical reading for principals and deal teams negotiating their own terms.
Download PDF →Fund Operations
The Private Funds Cookbook
Operations Reference
A working reference on the operational mechanics of private funds — capital calls, distributions, waterfall calculations, NAV, and the reporting cadence that keeps LPs informed. Covers the machinery that runs after the fund has closed and the capital is being deployed. For CFOs, fund controllers, and operations teams.
Download PDF →M&A Process
The Sell-Side M&A Process Explained
Process Guide
A step-by-step walkthrough of a sell-side process — preparation, the information memorandum, buyer outreach, the auction structure, and the management of competitive tension through to signing. Explains how a well-run process converts a single asset into a contested price. For sellers, advisers, and anyone preparing a business for sale.
Download PDF →Restructuring
Guide to Restructuring & Insolvency in Europe
Multi-jurisdiction · European Coverage
A jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction guide to restructuring and insolvency regimes across Europe — schemes, restructuring plans, administration, and the cross-border recognition rules that govern multi-jurisdiction cases. Where the insolvency framework sits often determines the restructuring outcome. For special situations investors, distressed-debt teams, and restructuring counsel.
Download PDF →Model Templates for Enrolled Students
The public library above is open to everyone. Enrolled students receive an additional tier of practitioner material — FAST / F1F9-compliant Excel models for LBO, DCF, merger, and debt-capacity analysis, alongside term sheet templates and worked transaction case studies. These are delivered through the course platform and built to the same institutional standard as the programmes themselves.
Browse by Deal Domain
The library is organised across 29 deal domains spanning the full spectrum of professional finance activity. The collection expands as new programmes are released — each course adds its own reference material to the relevant domains.
Go Beyond the Reading.
The library frames the subject. The courses teach you to execute it. Begin with Real World Tokenization.