Have you been offered you the opportunity to become the owner of a business through a management buy-in (MBI)? Or have you set about to find an opportunity to acquire a platform for your new venture? Our management buy-in advisory service and M&A experts support management teams to secure the funding and manage the process to ensure the transition to new company 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 buy-in (MBI) is a complex transaction where an external management team purchases a controlling stake in a business, normally using a mix of own funds and third party finance. For businesses that are not reaching their full potential, a change in management can improve business performance.
However, one drawback of MBIs is that the incoming leadership team have a steep learning curve getting to grips with the new business. A poorly managed MBI can have a long-term negative impact on the business, and the new management team’s relationship with employees.
We work with high quality management teams with demonstrable track records who have been offered, or want to bring about, the purchase of a business. Management teams must be willing and able to provide a meaningful equity investment from personal reserves.
The target business will have an Ebitda of £1m+ and potential for further growth. For many of our clients, a management buy-in is their first corporate transaction. We show you the way through the complexity of an MBI.
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MBIs are notoriously challenging and fraught with risk. A poorly managed MBI can be frustrating and distracting for all parties, it may not happen at all and can have a long-term negative impact on the target business if structured incorrectly.
Here are some common mistakes that management teams make when attempting to buy into a business:
To successfully undertake a management buy-in, your strategy needs to achieve these key objectives:
Our "buy-side" advisory services help you identify the right business targets to build your portfolio, secure the deal, pay the right price, and manage risks. We can also help you secure business financing if you don't have the funds in place to make the purchase. These are the different ways we can help you to buy a business:
We challenge you to consider the key features you are looking for in a target business and importantly, prioritise them. Whilst compromise will most likely need to be made on criteria, defining what an ideal target looks like directs your search and informs the decision-making process throughout.
Learn moreUsing desktop research, our networks and yours, we make sure that we map the available market as completely as is possible. This ensures that you can truly compare any target against what might be available in the future.
Learn moreA business that is worth acquiring will get approached frequently. We ensure that your approach to purchase the business stands out and is taken seriously. Achieving that first conversation is the key step in bringing about a deal.
Learn moreEvery management buy-in 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 help you quickly and efficiently validate initial assumptions about the target business you wish to buy. We give you confidence to proceed by ensuring that key requirements of the criteria are met.
Learn moreWe help you formulate a valuation and offer that will be attractive to the seller whilst securing the deal at the right price for you. We show you how to structure offers to appropriately share risk between seller and buyer whilst protecting deal value.
Learn moreWe help you co-ordinate and deliver the diligence you need to be confident to proceed with your business acquisition. We work closely with your legal teams to ensure that contracts align with identified risks so that you can bring together a complex transaction.
Learn moreBy instructing us to manage your MBI transaction as well as arranging finance for your deal, you ensure an integrated and coherent approach to your transaction.
It is often easy to get caught in ‘deal fever’ and proceed when you shouldn't. Our independent point of view helps keep decisions logical rather than emotional. We are there to support you with those difficult decisions.
We have completed numerous MBIs and can guide you around the pitfalls before you get there. Ensuring that the MBI option is right for you and your seller is critical before investing months in a process.
We can help you structure and finance a management buy-in 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.
Yes, we have completed cross border transactions on numerous occasions, and we are part of the Ecovis global network. We are fully capable of accessing international buyers and investors directly or through our global partners. Equally, we can deal with complex cross border compliance and structuring challenges. Ecovis gives us direct access to global network of deal makers, accountants, tax advisors and lawyers.
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 the MBI. It is possible to complete MBIs 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 most uncertain period is identifying a target and negotiating initial terms, quite often your target is not ready to sell and it can take months or years until they are. But once negotiations start and sufficient information is in hand to start the process of raising finance, a period of 6 to 9 months is common depending on how well prepared for the target is for the process.
The amount of funding that can be raised is complex and depends on a number of factors. This includes the amount of equity the MBI 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 MBI team and a Private Equity investor to partner on the acquisition.
All fees for acquisition 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 MBI advisory fees if the deal does not happen. 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 MBI are contingent on completion.
Debt is often preferred by MBI teams as the terms of a debt facility are simpler than an equity investment. When the debt is paid off the MBI 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 MBI 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 MBI, 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 MBIs lend themselves to raising equity, particularly where the MBI team have a pre-existing relationship with the equity partner from a previous deal for example.
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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