Letter of Intent (LOI)

A letter of intent, or LOI, is a letter in which one company tells another that it wants to invest in it, buy it, or work with it, and sets out on what main terms it is prepared to go further. It comes before the definitive agreement: it gives the other side something concrete to react to, and it lets both sides decide whether the effort of due diligence and negotiation is worth starting.

This template is written as a business letter, with a table for the key terms (instrument, price, stake, use of funds, governance, or whatever your deal turns on). It then says plainly that the letter is not legally binding, so that neither side is obliged to sign a final agreement, and lists the few provisions that do bind once the recipient countersigns: confidentiality, an optional exclusivity period measured in days, each side bearing its own costs, and the governing law. The country selector changes the greeting and closing, the seal and signature habits, and the local notes.

• You want to invest in a company and need to set out the main terms before the investor’s committee and lawyers spend time on it.
• You plan to buy a business and want to agree confidentiality and a short exclusivity window while you do due diligence.
• Two companies want to explore a joint venture or long-term cooperation and need a common starting point.
• A seller or founder asks for something in writing before opening the books.

1. Fill in your company as sender and the recipient with a contact person, then choose what the letter is about.
2. Name the target company or project and, if you wish, the proposed amount.
3. List the key terms in the table: one row per point, each with your proposal.
4. Add conditions, a due diligence estimate, a target signing date and a date until which the letter is open.
5. Decide which provisions bind: confidentiality, exclusivity and its length, and whether the recipient countersigns.
6. Pick the country, check the greeting and the notes, then print for signature or download as Word.

• Leaving exclusivity open-ended; an exclusivity period should have a clear number of days.
• Writing promises into the proposal table that read like firm commitments and undercut the non-binding statement.
• Sending the letter without knowing which provisions should bind, so that confidentiality is missing when documents are shared.
• Breaking off talks abruptly after the other side has spent money on due diligence at your encouragement.
• Treating the letter as the deal; it is only the step before the definitive agreement.

1. Fill in
2. Check the preview
3. Save as PDF, Word or Excel

Pick the country you need. Each version uses the wording and layout commonly found there; a version marked “check with local advice” should be read by someone who knows the local rules before it is used.

• International (XX): Written in English, Korean, Japanese, German
• United States (US): Written in English – check with local advice
• United Kingdom (GB): Written in English – check with local advice
• Korea (KR): Written in Korean, English – check with local advice
• Japan (JP): Written in Japanese, English – check with local advice
• Germany (DE): Written in German, English – check with local advice