Services

Managing the sale of unquoted companies.

Our Corporate Finance team has 25 years track record securing maximum value for shareholders and corporate entities on the sale of business. Whilst the deals advised on in the 25 years range across many commercial sectors there is a significant focus and experience in its services.

We strive to bring two significant value adds to each sale process:

• The right buyers willing and able to pay a premium price
• The experience to creatively conclude a deal on advantageous terms for their clients

Whether there is only one potential buyer in the process or many, we will maintain confidentiality and minimise the entrepreneurs distraction from his business.

 

The acquisition of companies on behalf of management, backed by equity and/or debt finance.

Corporate Finance have an outstanding track record of advising management teams, across a wide variety of sectors, on gaining ownership of the businesses they run on a day-to-day basis. The team have advised on well over 100 MBO’s and MBI’s.

Having built up key contacts within the banking and private equity communities we are able to quickly establish the viability of an MBO and give clear guidance on the path to completing the transaction. We see our role to be getting the management team to a start line in the best possible shape so as to maximise the likelihood that the team will make a commercial success of the post buy out phase and realise substantial personal wealth.

 

Assisting corporate clients in making selective acquisitions.

Making an acquisition is a critical decision for any business and it is said that the majority of acquisitions fail to achieve their objectives.

Corporate Finance experiences indicate that problems with acquisitions arise because:

• The price is too high
• The commercial benefits are overestimated
• Too little headroom is built into the financial structure to cope when stress is applied

Our advice is very much aligned to mitigate those potential risks.

Assisting clients with the due diligence process, providing financial due diligence, co-ordinating with other advisors and applying commercial logic to risk mitigation.

There are three extremely compelling reasons why we are a leading due diligence provider:

• We have real world commercial experience running businesses in senior management roles
• We perform our work as if we are using our own hard earned cash for the acquisition - it is extremely important to us
• We give our opinions verbally and in writing.  We don’t sit on the fence

We focus on deal sizes ranging from £1m to £30m. The team’s background and experience means that the quality of our advice and the service we provide to our clients are of utmost importance to us. We work alongside our clients to ensure their needs are met.

Key aspects of our financial due diligence are:

• Partner involvement – we guarantee that the Partner you meet at proposals will be actively involved in the assignment to ensure the risks, opportunities and broader implications of the due diligence exercise are identified
• Flexibility – in how we work as well as success/abort fee arrangements
• Concise reporting – we provide a concise summary of what you need and want to know.  Non-critical information is included in appendices
• Sale & Purchase Agreement - co-ordinate with your other advisers specifically lawyers to ensure the SPA mitigates your risk and maximises price adjustments in your favour by understanding the mechanics of the business
• Customer referencing – typically performed when the target has a high dependency on a small number of key customers. Customer views are sought on target performance and future volumes of work to support forecast assumptions

 

Assistance in the preparation of detailed financial models for day to day use by businesses or specific to transactions.

Whether you are modelling for an acquisition or forecasting the impact of a new contract win the team at James Cowper Kreston Corporate Finance have an excellent record of providing bespoke and timely financial models across all sectors and to a varied audience.

Our ability to assist in the production of an integrated model has proved invaluable to a wide range of clients with turnovers as small as £500,000 to Groups with turnover in excess of £50,000,000.