Services
Sale, acquisition, succession, financing.
Sale strategy, transaction structuring, financial projections and marketing documents, a view on value and timing, data room, negotiation through to closing.
Acquisition strategy, identification and approach of target companies, valuation, structuring and support through to signing.
Advice on complex financings, drawing on a network of banks, mezzanine providers, private debt funds and investors.
Succession solutions for owner-managed companies, from the search for the right successor through to signing, together with partners from our network.
Who we work for
The path
A company sale in nine steps. Acquisitions, succession and financings follow different paths.
Scope, fee and mandate are set down in writing, together with the question of who on the seller's side is in the know. Work begins only after that.
First an anonymised short profile that a buyer can read without knowing which company it is. Once the non-disclosure agreement is signed, the full presentation follows, with the numbers and the plan, together with the letter that sets out the process and the deadlines.
Who could realistically buy: strategic buyers, financial investors, a successor from within. The list is deliberately long, and the seller strikes out anyone who is not to be approached. Competitors are nearly always up for discussion.
The long list becomes the short list, and the short list is approached. Every name carries a documented state of contact, so it is clear at any point who has seen what and who needs following up.
The non-binding offers come in and are made comparable. This is where it becomes clear that the highest price is not always the best offer: structure, proof of funding and the buyer's intentions for the site and the workforce belong in the same table.
The buyer examines, the seller supplies. Documents sit in a structured data room, questions run through a single list, and management presents in person. This stage takes up more of the seller's time than any other, and it is exactly what an adviser is there for.
Now the structure is settled: how much is paid at completion, how much later, what depends on targets, whether the seller rolls over, whether there is a vendor loan. Anyone who negotiates only the headline price is negotiating half the deal.
The sale agreement is negotiated and signed. The lawyers draft; UCF makes sure the commercial points agreed in the negotiation actually appear in the contract.
Between signing and completion sit the conditions: consents, merger clearance, financing. Once they are met, the price is adjusted and paid, and the company changes hands.
Every transaction begins with a conversation.
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