Have you been offered you the opportunity to become a business owner through a management buyout (MBO)? Our MBO advisory service and M&A experts support business management teams to secure the funding and manage the buyout process to ensure the transition to new ownership happens.
Book a meetingBusiness financing is sought for the specific purpose of funding business activities which can include acquiring another business, management buy-ins (MBIs) or buyouts (MBOs), a key growth project or investing in new talent. Business financing can help you achieve your growth objectives and strengthen your overall competitive advantage. But the process to secure the business funding you need can be time consuming, stressful and costly if you don’t know what you’re doing.
We work with ambitious, high-growing businesses that have funding needs in excess of £2m and regularly approaching £100m. Our clients’ needs will typically be for sophisticated finance products such as cash flow based lending or private equity investments. Our value lies in helping clients access funding that relies on confidence in future trading and cash flows.
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We can confidently say that every client we engage is unprepared to take their funding proposal to their business bank or alternative lender. Being unprepared for funder scrutiny can significantly reduce, or entirely remove, your chances of getting the financing your business needs. Remember: first impressions count.
The typical things that can erode funder confidence and jeopardise your chances of securing a business loan include:
To successfully secure business funding, whether it’s for supporting an acquisition, a management buyout (MBO) or organic growth, you need to achieve four fundamental objectives:
Funders need to have confidence in you and your business from the beginning to the end of the financing process. In the world of funding first impressions matter and you must never approach the funding market until you are truly ready. We can help you get ‘market-ready’ to deliver funder confidence and secure the funding you need to make your ambitions happen.
By using our business funding advisory services, our experts will ensure that your funding proposal stands up to funder scrutiny and gives you the best chance of securing the funding you need. Below are the different types of business financing we can help you secure:
A management buyout (MBO) is a complex transaction where a company’s management team purchases the business they currently run. It can be a life-changing opportunity for the management team which has the potential for significant financial reward.
However, making the transition from being an employee to a business owner comes with more responsibility and potential for loss. Additionally, a poorly managed MBO can have a long-term negative impact on the business, as well as the relationship the acquiring management team has with its current owner(s).
We work with management teams that have been offered, or want to bring about, the purchase of the business in which they’re employed. The management teams will typically oversee an Ebitda of £1m+ and have ambitious plans for the further growth of the business. For many of our clients, a management buyout is their first corporate transaction and we will show you the way through the process.
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Negotiating a management buyout is fraught with danger. Poorly handled MBO discussions can result in relationship breakdowns and damage to the underlying business. The typical errors that management teams make include:
A successful MBO is one where the management team and the current owners work collaboratively to deliver a solution. For a successful MBO a team must put in place:
All parties need to develop confidence in the deal process which is maintained from beginning to end. With parties wearing many hats, the MBO requires delicate management. We can help you navigate the pitfalls and deliver a successful deal.
By using our management buyout advisory service, our M&A experts can advise you through the complex MBO process giving you confidence in achieving the result you want. We increase the chances of your MBO being successful by delivering vendor and funder confidence that all complex moving parts of the deal are in hand. This is what our MBO advisory service provides:
We help you agree a set of terms that are balanced and reasonable giving you the best chance of closing the deal. This may be in a competitive sale process or one-to-one negotiation with the vendors. We advise on valuation, structure and details such as liability caps and transfer arrangements. We ensure that all key issues are dealt with early and fully.
Learn moreEvery management team will require a business plan to achieve third party funding to support the deal. This support might be in the form of debt or equity finding. We can help you develop a plan that is robust and stands up to funder scrutiny.
Learn moreEvery MBO needs to be financed, typically from more than one source. A combination of equity, debt and vendor finance is common. We can help arrange third party finance and ensure it works alongside any form of vendor finance.
Learn moreWe support you in working through the details of due diligence, and the commercial aspects of facility agreements, investment agreements and shareholder agreements all of which are required to complete an MBO. We manage the process so that you can focus on running the business.
Learn moreBy instructing us to manage your MBO transaction as well as arranging finance for your deal, you ensure an integrated and coherent approach to your transaction.
An MBO leads to a shift in the relationship dynamic from employer and employee to seller and buyer. Having a third party assist in the negotiations ensures difficult conversations can be handled whilst relationships are protected.
We have completed numerous MBOs and can guide you around the pitfalls before you get there. Ensuring that an MBO is for you as a management team is critical before investing months in a process.
Our funding specialists can help you structure and finance a management buyout that can be funded by debt, equity, or a combination of both.
We can use our industry knowledge to provide an independent valuation of the business you wish to acquire.
We can help develop your strategy and unlock maximum strategic value when it’s time to exit your business.
No - We work exclusively with UK-based SMEs and small cap PLCs. However, our clients often have international activities and we regularly transact with overseas buyers and investors or arrange overseas acquisitions on behalf of our UK clients.
We work with businesses with EBITDA of £1m and above. A business needs to be profitable with good visibility of cash flow to support the finance structure of an MBO. It is possible to complete MBOs on smaller businesses, but we are unable to advise.
When supporting mergers and acquisitions (including MBIs and MBOs) our fees are based on time at our prevailing rate cards. We do not work contingently when buying a business.
No, we do not act contingently when buying a business. We believe that continent fee arrangements when supporting the acquisition of a business lead to a conflict of interest between advisor and client.
We have specific sector knowledge derived from many years of collective deal making experience. However, we pride ourselves on the diversity of sectors we work with which challenges us to think creatively. This creative and challenging approach brings huge value to our clients when helping them to build robust business cases.
Certainly not! Our aim is to become part of your extended team keeping you up to date with all developments. All decisions are yours to make. Our aim is to make those decisions easier.
We take all of our clients through a carefully crafted journey. Firstly, to ensure that we are a great match for each other and once engaged, to ensure we deliver exceptional client service that exceeds expectations.
The amount of funding that can be raised is complex and depends on a number of factors. This includes the amount of equity the MBO team are committing. It is not unusual for this to be in the region of 20% of the purchase price or amount borrowed. Other factors include the level of sustainable profits in the target business to service any debt or the willingness of an MBO team and a Private Equity investor to partner on the acquisition.
All fees for MBO work are charged on a per hour basis and are not contingent on the deal happening. That means that yes, you will be required to pay our MBO advisory fees if the deal does not happen. It is common for the target business to provide support to an MBO team for these fees. This structure ensures we remain aligned with your interests. The best advice that we might be able to give you is not to proceed if new information is discovered at the very last minute. Success Fees relating to raising finance for an MBO are contingent on completion.
Debt is often preferred buy MBO teams as the terms of a debt facility are simpler than an equity investment. When the debt is paid off the MBO team own the business without having to contemplate a further transaction. However, the amount of debt that can be raised limited to a proportion of business value and therefore using debt alone will limit the price an MBO team can pay for a business as any gap will need to be filled by management equity or vendor deferral. Debt can also put cash flow pressures on a business and this needs to be carefully considered.
An equity partner can bring a more flexible funding package to your MBO, and a partner to help you develop and grow the business. However, this also adds a complex further dimension to your transaction and the business post deal that may not be welcome. Certain MBOs lend themselves to raising equity, particularly where the ambition of the MBO team is significant and the teams background is more corporate or indeed they have worked with private equity previously.
Depending on the willingness of the parties to transact and the complexity of the funding structure, and MBO can be completed in a relatively short time scale of 4 to 6 months. However, this depends on the bandwidth that management are granted alongside their day jobs to complete the transaction and the readiness of the business for external due diligence as will be required by a funding partner.
We have extensive experience with MBO negotiation and finance for management led transactions. We understand the key drivers to making an MBO successful. We can bring together our expertise to make your MBO happen.
Why Shaw & Co
Our highly talented people are creative, innovative and thrive when faced with a deal-making challenge. It's no surprise that we make deals happen and turn your ambition into a greater outcome.
Fees & charges
Our objective is to ensure that our fee more than pays for itself from the value we create for you and your business.
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