Buying a business can be an exciting process. It can help you become an owner, strengthen your market position, or expand your existing portfolio. To successfully buy a business, your acquisition strategy needs to be carefully planned and executed. Our 'buy-side' advisory services can help you buy a business at the right price, with the right terms and with the right funding in place.
Book a meetingThe advantages of buying an established business can be achieving scale more quickly, acquiring a capability that your organisation doesn’t have, or it can simply be a route to business ownership (through an MBI or MBO) which fulfils a personal ambition.
But buying a business requires a large up-front investment, a significant amount of due diligence, and careful management of internal and external stakeholders. Additionally, you must also remember that you’ll be paying forward many years' profits, so you need to ensure the purchase will return this investment - and more.
We work with seasoned entrepreneurs and high quality management teams in UK SMEs and small-cap PLCs that have the ambition to achieve scale by acquiring or merging with other businesses. In merger and acquisition transactions we often act as an outsourced Corporate Development team helping our clients meet their strategic growth goals.
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Regardless of route, buying a business is not a trivial endeavour – it’s stressful, time consuming and fraught with risk if approached in the wrong way. A professional and considered approach is critical to ensure you buy the right business at the right price and maintain the value after the deal is done.
Here are some common mistakes that individuals make when trying to buy a business:
To successfully buy a business, your acquisition 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:
Our 'buy-side' experts can help you find and acquire the right business to support your strategic growth objectives.
Learn moreOur 'buy-side' experts offer buy-side advice to help you develop the opportunity to acquire your next business supported by credible funding packages.
Learn moreOur 'buy-side' experts offer buy-side advice to help you negotiate the purchase and arrange funding to acquire the business that you work in.
Learn moreOur 'buy-side' experts can advise on bringing together businesses with shared goals and ambitions to grow faster together.
Learn moreM&A transactions are complex and your acquisition or merger target needs confidence in your ability to close the deal. We use our experience to gain buy-in and confidence of the target organisation.
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.
Leverage our networks and connectivity to get access to opportunities that might otherwise not be possible. Use our deal credentials to support your approach and open doors.
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 assist in the acquisition of a wide variety and scale of businesses. The strategic importance of a business to a buyer is not always linked to scale.
We act for businesses and individuals who are serious about buying a business and who are prepared to invest in our services to make that happen. We do not accept contingent search, or contingent acquisition mandates.
No, we don’t offer formal due diligence, although we do offer targeted early-stage diligence as part of our gated assessment process. We work with external providers to scope and deliver the due diligence you need to support your acquisition.
For businesses that see M&A as key to their growth we offer an outsourced Corporate Development function. We work alongside your senior executive team to develop and deliver upon your M&A strategy. Our flexible approach delivers a long-term solution without fixed costs.
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.