Private equity Open kimono all round

What should a board do when a private equity firm asks to have a squint at the books? Say no and run the risk of sounding intransigent – especially when the potential bidder is dangling a high price? Or say yes and end up being left embarrassingly in the lurch – as happened with Woolworths? Its bidder, Apax, took a look at the books and walked away. There’s probably no way to eliminate completely the risk of being jilted. But one way to reduce it is to make disclosure symmetrical: the board open...