Public company LBO, should I be using the latest quarterly balance sheet for post transaction adjustments instead of financial year end?

Hey guys,

I’m currently doing an LBO for a public company during a 3 day case study for a PE.

The firm gave me historic financials for the last 3 years and the financial year end is September - latest annual report is sep-23. I’m assuming an entry at Sep-24 for simplicity.

Im currently building the post transaction balance sheet and noted there’s an updated balance sheet from the quarterly report as of Dec-23.

My question is should I be using the dec 23 balance sheet to make the post transaction Balnce sheet or stick to the sep-23 balance sheet? The reason I ask is because the dec-23 figures aren’t in the model provided by the PE, however the debt structure has significantly changed over from sep23-dec23 so it seems wrong to be using the sep-23 BS.

Thanks a lot anyone who can help!