Killing off a deal

Say you work in a boutique. Your client has given you a mandate and everything. You have played around with the deal for let's say 18 months, but you haven't generated any leads. You have changed terms a bit to make it more acceptable (in favor of) buyers. Still not even a single interested buyer. Some buyers wanted a full IM and spreadsheet, but they then politely declined. How long do you wait to kill off a deal? Obviously, you hate to see the resources that we have spent during the origination stages wasted and you don't want to damage a relationship with the client either.

When I say tried, I mean you have called up about a couple of hundred different buy-side contacts and they all said no.

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Sometimes you have to reassess and see if the client can improve whatever is detracting from their attractiveness as an acquisition target. Usually it's not the bank that kills a deal, sometimes the client will up and hire someone else if they feel you guys can't do it for whatever reason. Regardless on the bank's side, you'll probably let it ride until something changes assuming you got a retainer from the client and it'll turn into a zombie deal.

 
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