ma
MBI is deal shorthand for management buy-in: an external team is taking the company, typically with private equity. It is the counterpart abbreviation to MBO, not a type of loan.
If MBO is “the people in the building are buying it,” MBI is “a team from outside is buying it.” Same Invest Europe family of buyouts; opposite management sourcing.
In conversation:
Illustration only.
IC paper title: “Project Harbour — MBI.” Body: CEO identified, CFO still to hire, COO is the sitting plant director who will roll 8%. That paper is an MBI with a partial MBO slice. Filing it as a clean MBO would mis-state key-person risk.
When you only have the abbreviation, diligence the bench: signed heads of terms with the incoming CEO, non-competes, and whether the seller stays as a consultant (knowledge transfer) or leaves on day one.
Deal coding, teasers, LP reporting.
MBI says nothing about leverage, warranty package, or whether a strategic is still in the process. It is a label for management provenance.
Dazur’s structured deal type uses management-buy-in, not the abbreviation alone, and requires a named incoming team field before we treat the file as executable.