We can help management teams secure more than £2 million to finance a MBO. We focus on articulating your buyout plan to generate funder interest and confidence. Our expertise spans debt financing, equity financing and everything in between. We present your MBO plan to the right funders, in the right way and negotiate the best terms for the company management group. This gives the best chance of making the buyout process happen.
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.
See our deals and success stories.
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:
Management buyout finance is often needed when an existing management team has the opportunity to acquire the business from its current owner(s). But the process to secure MBO funding can be time consuming, stressful and costly if you don’t know what you’re doing. That's why it's important to work with a management buyout funding specialist.
Learn more by visiting this page at the ICAEW.
Our funding specialists work with ambitious management teams that require in excess of £2 million to finance a management buyout. Our clients’ needs will typically be for sophisticated MBO financing products such as cash flow-based lending or private equity investments. Our value lies in helping clients access funding that relies on funder confidence in future trading opportunities and cash flows.
See our deals and success stories.
We can confidently say that every management team we engage with is under-prepared in terms of taking their MBO proposal to funders. If you are unprepared for funder scrutiny, you are less likely to secure funding. Remember: first impressions count.
Here are some things that can erode funder confidence and jeopardise your chances of securing MBO finance:
To successfully secure finance for a management buyout, a management team needs to achieve five fundamental objectives:
Funders need to have confidence in your management team and the MBO plan from the beginning to the end of the process. First impressions matter and you must never approach the funding market until you are truly ready to commit to the management buyout process.
Our advisory service helps you secure MBO finance. We do this by optimising your financing proposal to build funder confidence. This gives you, and the management team, the best chance of securing the necessary finance to make the transition to company ownership happen. This is what our advisory service provides:
We add exceptional value by reviewing and challenging your MBO plan to ensure it is robust. We will request business information (under a non-disclosure agreement) to analyse business performance and properly evaluate the opportunity. Our experts know exactly where funders will make challenges and what they expect to see in your MBO proposal.
Learn moreWe add further value by making a site visit to assess how ready, and aligned, the management team is to take over the business. We will assess the level of capital available to support the transaction. We will then advise you on the overall viability to finance your management buyout.
We will show you how to optimise your financial modelling and forecasts. This will give funders confidence in your ability to takeover a business. We check ratios and returns making sure your projections will meet funder requirements. If not, we revisit the plan.
Learn moreIf your MBO is fundable, we will deliver funder confidence by drafting a proposal that presents your business in a balanced and professional way. It will answer critical funding questions and leave a positive lasting impression of the business you wish to own.
Learn moreWe approach the funding market on your behalf. We do this by acting as your agent in the market, and only recommending products that are in your best interest. We save you significant time, hassle and stress by knowing which funders to approach. We will present the best version of your business and MBO strategy to maximise interest among the funding community.
Learn moreWe deliver confidence by keeping you informed at every stage of the MBO funding process. We provide transparency by advising what impact each funding package will have on your business. Our process allows you to make an informed business decision on what MBO funding solution to go for.
Learn moreWe add exceptional value by negotiating better terms with your preferred funder. We do this by leveraging our independence and extensive market knowledge. We know where, and where not, to push funders.
Learn moreWe add further confidence and value by managing the funder’s due diligence process on your business. We will save you significant time by helping you answer the funder’s questions in the way that they require.
Learn moreWe will deliver confidence and save you time by managing the final offer and facilitate the legal closing process on your behalf and to your required timeline. As soon as the legal contract for the MBO financing has been signed, the funds will be transferred to your company bank account.
Learn moreWe’re 100% independent of any funder. Unlike brokers, we are not tied to certain funders or products. Neither do we accept commissions which create conflicts of interest. We leverage our independence to get you the best deal. Let us deliver confidence.
We save you considerable distraction advising you on exactly what funders need and how their requirements change. Don’t risk a funding rejection by guessing how to create a funding proposal. Let us show you the way.
We work with the funding market on a daily basis. We save you considerable time knowing who to approach and what they need to see as well as knowing current market rates and practices. Let us add exceptional value.
We can offer buy-side or sell-side advice on your acquisition strategy and make the MBO happen.
We can use our industry knowledge to provide an independent valuation of the business you wish to takeover.
We can help you secure the most appropriate funding, whether that’s debt, equity or a combination of both, to finance growth.
Our Masterclasses will put you at an advantage when an opportunity arises to takeover a 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 pride ourselves on understanding the requirements of, and having access to, funders in both the debt and private equity markets for funding in the range of £5m to £100m. Our team actively maps the ever-evolving funding market to give you confidence that all suitable options are being considered on your behalf. Our aim is to provide you an ‘all of market’ appraisal of your options.
That very much depends on your funding proposal. A huge benefit of working with Shaw & Co is that we do not have any bias towards a given lender, investor or type of funding, and we have the breath of expertise to advise across both debt and equity products. Both debt and equity have pros and cons, so our team can talk you through each so that you can make an informed decision and find the right solution.
No. Funders appreciate a robust proposal and opportunity that has been thoroughly prepared and which they can engage with. They get frustrated by poorly prepared approaches and having to waste precious time coaching businesses on the information they need. Although funders will know that they are in a competitive process when receiving a proposal from Shaw & Co, they would much prefer this approach rather than dealing with ill prepared applications and patchy information. We give funders confidence that the information they are assessing is saving them both time and money - and by doing some of their work for them, we are able to negotiate lower arrangement fees.
Yes, of course. We work with you to agree which funders we will approach and discuss with you why we think that they will be good for your business. You ultimately decide the preferred funder to work with (or any to avoid!).
Certainly not! When arranging your business funding, we are careful to agree how the process will be run, what the timescales are, which funders we will approach, and what outcome we are looking to achieve. From then on, we will we keep you informed every step of the way.
We are remunerated only by our clients (not the funders). Our fees are predominantly 'Success Fees’, meaning that we get paid on completion of the deal. We take great care to make sure our fees are aligned with your goals, and we take pride in our fees always being a proportion of the value we add. We do also ask for a 'Commitment Fee' on all transactions which is calculated as a modest percentage of the expected ‘Success Fee’. Everything we may receive on a transaction is completely transparent to our clients.
No, because we think that it is wrong. Some funders, particularly debt lenders, typically pay a referral fee to third parties for introducing a borrower and the client has no control over these arrangements. We believe this creates a conflict of interest and puts any client at a disadvantage, because any third party whose business is based on receiving a referral fee will be incentivised to ‘recommend’ the offers that earn them the biggest fees, rather than that which is best for the client. Furthermore, nothing is ever free. A referral fee paid by a lender to an introducer still comes out of the borrower’s pocket because the lender adds the referral fee onto the lending fee it charges for agreeing the facility. The lender and the introducer are in fact working against the client. If we are offered a referral fee, we either ask the lender to net it off the arrangement fees, or we pay that fee straight through to our client to make sure the client benefits, not us.
Absolutely not! Here is a reminder of what we do for you: We optimise your proposal, your financial model and articulate your USPs. Very few, if any, businesses are ready to, or know how to, approach a provider of finance. We approach the right funders in the right way on your behalf. By offering a professional, well thought through, easy to engage with proposal to funders, we create interest and run a competitive process which reduces funding costs. We can help to negotiate the entire package on your behalf, not just the price. There is so much more to an offer than the headlines. All this results in three benefits for you 1) a higher chance of securing the funding you need; 2) We can save you money by driving down funding costs, and 3) peace of mind that you have secured the right funding for your business.
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.
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.
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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