Why insight is at the heart of all transactions

Corporate Finance: Forward

That could be a desire to sell the business and step away, finding an equity or debt partner to support more ambitious growth, or making an acquisition. 

“We are looking for some help and someone recommended you.” Perfect, let’s talk!

First conversations

From that first conversation, knowledge, vision and insight, both ours and yours, will be at the core of our relationship, all working in partnership to deliver the right outcome. That partnership evolves in stages.

In the first instance, we can use our knowledge and insight to help you to map out your options by asking questions, by understanding what you and your management, other shareholders or family want, and by helping you to understand what is realistic. If there feels like a route forward, we can help develop that plan with you.

Telling the story

Secondly, we need to understand and help you to tell your story. As an entrepreneur running a successful business, it is almost certainly going to involve insight. The insight to do something different and to build a business to deliver it. It could be your products, your unique service, your systems, your approach to your customers…or most probably a combination of them all. And these will not have appeared overnight; they will have evolved along the journey to where you are now. But we need to explain all this to your buyer or investor. Most of it will not be immediately obvious to anyone else except you and your team. We can help tease it out.

The successful search

Thirdly, we have to help you to go out and find your buyer, investor or lender. We don’t just open the Yellow Pages; putting together that target list requires further research, knowledge and analysis. We ask questions, again looking for insight to unlock opportunities and ideas. What does a good buyer look like? What might a buyer be interested in? Are you a good candidate for PE investment? Research creates the long list, but insights will create the important shortlist.

And so, to the deal

So, we’ve been really successful and you have received multiple offers for the business. What next?  They are all structured differently and are full of jargon: deferred consideration, loan notes, preference shares, earn-outs. Is a £10m up-front offer better than £7m on day one with £5m of earn out? There is no right answer, but again we can use our knowledge and expertise to help you to compare, contrast and work out which one is best for you.

Finally…

What insight means for us is getting under the skin and figuring out what makes your business successful, what type of buyer will make a good fit, or which deal is best for you. That is what ultimately delivers the best outcome for you, and that is all we are trying to do.