Acquisitions and succession
Two transactions, two distinct routes. Buying means verifying what you are paying for and testing debt capacity. Selling means getting the business ready before you present it.
An acquisition buys future earnings with today’s money
We establish what the target is worth, what it costs to fund, and what the whole thing does to your cash.
What the target is worth
Multi-method valuation, earnings adjustments, dependencies identified.
What the structure can carry
Debt capacity is tested under several cases before you commit to a price.
What has to be verified
We separate what must be diligenced before signing from what can be dealt with afterwards.
From target to completion
Cadrage
Target criteria, investment capacity, expected effect on your own business.
Target analysis
Restated accounts, valuation, points of weakness, the questions to put to the seller.
Offer and structure
Price offered, funding structure, security, payment timetable.
Due diligence
Financial, employment and legal workstreams run alongside your advisers.
Completion and integration
Price adjustments, signing, then the first hundred days tracked if you want it.
Three documents before you sign
Each one is there to decide with, not to document a decision already taken.
Target analysis note
Restated accounts, valuation, dependencies, questions still unanswered.
Structure model
Debt service, consolidated cash, upside, base and downside cases.
Diligence plan
What has to be verified before signing, by whom, and what is dealt with afterwards.
We sign nothing on your behalf and we do not draft the documents. The paperwork stays with the lawyers; we hold the financial consequences.
A business sells better when it has been prepared
We deal with what discounts the value, then run the process with a limited number of qualified buyers.
What discounts the value
Owner dependency, client concentration, opaque accounts, contracts never put in writing.
What gets prepared
Normalised earnings, processes documented, the transaction perimeter fixed with your advisers.
Who we speak to
A qualified shortlist, approached under NDA, rather than a wide circulation.
From preparation to signing
Sale readiness review
What carries value, what discounts it, what can be fixed before going to market.
Preparation
Normalised accounts, information memorandum, answers to the objections you can anticipate.
Approaching the market
Buyer shortlist, contact under NDA, first indications of interest.
Offers and negotiation
Offers brought to a like-for-like basis: price, warranties and earn-out negotiated.
Due diligence and signing
Data room maintained, responses controlled, price adjustments tracked through to completion.
Three documents before the approach
Nothing goes to market until these three are ready and signed off by you.
Sale readiness review
Discount factors quantified, remedial actions, a realistic timetable to go to market.
Information memorandum
The business, restated accounts, outlook, written for a professional buyer.
Buyer list
Trade and financial buyers, the reason each would be interested, the proposed order of approach.
Confidentiality is the rule. No name is released without your agreement, and approaches are made in stages.
What each missing condition costs you
Ready to go. Nothing left to prepare before opening the process.
Yes, on both routes. The search runs on a qualified shortlist, built with you, rather than by wide circulation.
We prepare the financial content that goes into the long-form documents, in particular the warranty and indemnity mechanics, the earn-out and the net debt adjustment. The drafting and the sign-off are done with your lawyer or, where you need one, with one of our legal partners.
Yes, and it is often the right order. The valuation can be commissioned on its own, then serves as the basis if the deal firms up.
On the buy-side, yes: financial integration, consolidated reporting and debt service monitoring, under the fractional CFO engagement.
A transaction in view, on either side?
One meeting is enough to scope the route, the timetable and what has to be ready before we start.