No, we are not brokers. We are professional advisors. Whilst our role often involves the introduction of parties to a deal, our value is much greater than a simple introduction service. We support you in the development and articulation of your business case, the negotiation of terms and the management of completion - all of which materially improve the end result, adding significant value to your transaction.

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.

Commonly yes, you can extract more value when selling to a trade buyer as they are able to better access both sales and cost synergies and thus offer a strategic premium. However, a well-structured Private Equity deal can see an owner make considerably more over two or more transactions than they might on a single transaction with trade.

Yes, absolutely! We use a variety of techniques such as using our networks, desktop research and direct approach. A well-presented business as part of a professional process will get the attention of serious buyers. We have repeatedly proven our ability to access key buyers of any scale.

On average this can take between 6 weeks and 16 weeks depending on the complexity of the deal and the quality of information available.

In certain circumstances yes, but in others no. A sale to a management team can at first appear more straight forward, but funding such a transaction can give rise to its own specific challenges. Equally, personality issues can also prove challenging when selling to a connected party with little room for either side to go if negotiations do not proceed well.

This is a common situation. Many owners don't think about selling until they receive an unsolicited offer. We can add significant value in helping you assess the offer, negotiate its improvement or often this is the spark that leads to taking the business to market more widely. Getting from offer to completion is a complex and fraught process, the opportunities for us to add value are no fewer even if you have an offer in hand.

Selling to another business, also known as a trade sale, can offer certain advantages that alternatives such as a Management Buyout (MBO) or Private Equity sale cannot. These include the possibility of achieving a strategic premium, greater career opportunities for your employees, a cleaner exit for owner managers and less focus on the ability of retained management, which can be a barrier to an MBO or Private Equity sale.

A premium price may be achieved when selling to another business but to justify this price the buyer may wish to realise certain synergies. This can sometimes result in the centralisation of certain functions and therefore redundancies. A buyer may wish to go further and change your current brand to align with theirs or change the culture within the business. Each brings about risks to the longevity of the business post acquisition if not handled delicately.

Trade sales go wrong when owners enter them under-prepared or in an opportunistic fashion. A sale places significant demands on senior management which can distract from business performance. Often a potential buyer will make an approach and an unexperienced owner will entertain this only to find that considerable time and energy is wasted before an offer is received. Quite often, this offer is disappointing as the business hasn’t performed.

We are experts in trade sales. We have managed sale processes on behalf of clients involving some of the world's largest businesses (such as Unilever) as well as much more modest ones. We can ensure that your business is fully prepared for the transaction and maximise its value by positioning the business with buyers in the best way. Our experience lets you know what is coming so that you can stay several steps ahead of negotiations. Selling a business is the largest transaction of many business owners' lives. It is not the time to "learn on the job" but the time to ensure that you have the absolute best experts alongside you.

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. We take pride in our fees always being a proportion of the value we add.

Corporate finance transactions are not an everyday activity and it is unlikely you will have the up-to-date knowledge you need in your team to navigate a deal. We provide expert advice when you need it to get the right solution for you.