Business Acquisitions Advisory Service

BUSINESS ACQUISITIONS

If you're thinking about acquiring a target company, we can help you through the acquisition process. The most successful acquisitions can accelerate business growth and financial performance. Our advisory service will help you buy a business for the right market price, on the right terms, and with the right funding package in place.

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Buying A Business

Business Acquisitions

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WHAT IS BUSINESS FINANCING?

Business 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.

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HOW MUCH BUSINESS FUNDING CAN YOU SECURE?

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.

See our deals and success stories.

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BUSINESS FINANCING – COMMON PITFALLS TO AVOID

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:

Failure to fully explain your business model;
Poor articulation of your value proposition and value drivers;
Inconsistent, incoherent or incomplete financial information;
Weak financial modelling and incomplete forecasts;
Presenting a biased view of business performance and risks;
Funding proposals that exclude critical information that lenders expect to see.

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BUSINESS FINANCING – HOW TO DO IT RIGHT

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:

Create a robust business plan that stands up to funder scrutiny;
Articulate that plan in a balanced and coherent way that funders can understand;
Approach the right partners to fund your plan as part of a competitive process;
Defend value in due diligence and close your transaction professionally.

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.

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BUSINESS FINANCING ADVISORY SERVICES

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:

WHAT IS A BUSINESS ACQUISITION?

A business acquisition (or corporate acquisition) is where an acquiring company purchases complete control of a target company to become the majority shareholder or owner. There are many business reasons to make an acquisition including, but not limited to, gaining market share, acquiring intellectual property, better access to the supply chain, new technologies or capabilities to enhance your value proposition.

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But company acquisitions carry risk if you don’t have the right strategic rationale in the first place or take a 'Laissez-faire' approach to conducting due diligence. You must be clear on what your business lacks and whether the investment will deliver the anticipated return.

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Learn more about acquisitions by visiting this page at Investopedia.

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WHO DO WE WORK WITH?

We work with UK SMEs and small-cap PLCs that have the ambition to grow their business by acquisition. We often act as an outsourced Corporate Development team helping clients meet their strategic goals through business mergers and acquisitions.

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See our deals and success stories.

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STRATEGIC ACQUISITIONS - COMMON PITFALLS TO AVOID

We can confidently say that acquiring a target company can be time consuming and fraught with risk. Being unprepared in your approach could mean that you end up failing to bring together a deal, or pay above the market rate for a less favourable company.

Here are some common mistakes made by firms when trying to buy a target company:

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The acquiring company not seeking professional advice;
Failure to define acquisition criteria that meets strategic fit and organisational fit in advance;
An overly bullish assessment of target firms, their business assets and defining criteria ‘on the fly’ to justify opportunities;
Taking an unstructured approach to assessing the market, thus failing to find the most suitable targets;
Unrealistic valuations resulting in failure to secure targets, or worse still, overpaying the true purchase price;
Inefficient processes resulting in the absorption of significant management time;
Poor financial due diligence process resulting in the acquisition of unexpected risks;
Unstructured approach to communications with internal and external stakeholders;
Lack of a post-transaction integration plan to best protect acquired value of the new business entity.

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ACQUIRING A BUSINESS - HOW TO DO IT RIGHT

To successfully acquire a business, your acquisition strategy needs to achieve these key objectives:

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Set out your acquisition criteria, thinking carefully about what best drives your own strategy;
Take a structured approach to identifying targets that meet those criteria so you can develop a pipeline of potential targets;
Develop a professional approach strategy to deliver the conversations you need with potential sellers;
Have a clear view on valuation and ensure you are able to offer and justify market pricing;
Make sure you have a well-defined process from offer to completion that ensures risks are identified and mitigated;
Develop a robust post-acquisition integration plan that protects value.

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BUSINESS ACQUISITION ADVISORY SERVICES

By using our business acquisition service, our M&A experts add value by ensuring rigour in your acquisition search and execution. Working with us will ensure that you identify the right targets to make your acquisition happen. We'll secure the deal, ensure you pay the right price and manage associated risks. Our funding specialists can also help you secure business acquisition financing if you don't have the funds up-front. This is what our advisory service provides:

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Defining your criteria

We challenge you to consider the key features you are looking for in a target business and, most importantly, how to prioritise them. While you will almost certainly need to compromise on criteria, defining what an ideal target looks like will underpin your search and inform the decision-making process throughout.