Sweetheart deal

It is a kind of abnormal contract made secretly between two parties, often associated with mergers and acquisitions jobs or in different investment options that provide inappropriate benefits to the involved parties.

Such contracts are made under political influence or through lobbying, negotiation power, or offering benefits like employment to the government agent.

The merger booms led to the use of the word sweetheart deals, Sweetheart deal where the company would use unusual methods for the ready-to-be-sold unit to persuade the other party to get away from the deal.

They sometimes used “poison pills” or deliberately reconstructed the whole plan to reduce its attraction to the bidder. 

The firm's director may be involved in such deals where they would sell the best bits of the firm on favourable terms to benefit personally. The contract would compensate the directors, management, or a few employees with perks. 

In 2019, the 19th-century lighthouse, the centrepiece of US President’s Trump Turnberry Hotel and golf resort, was billed as one of the finest suites using marble, gold, and mahogany by global real estate investment experts.

It is owned not by Trump but by the Northern Lighthouse Board of Edinburg, and it was described as a sweetheart deal that linked the Trump brand to Scotland, where NLB has a lengthy lease deal with Mr Trump’s firm.