Corporate Finance & M&A Advisory in London

Most business owners sell a company once in their lives — while the buyer across the table may do deals for a living. Lead advisory redresses that imbalance. As your lead adviser, we manage the transaction end to end: preparing the business and its numbers for scrutiny, identifying and approaching potential buyers or targets, managing the information flow, negotiating price and terms, and coordinating lawyers, tax advisers and lenders through to completion.

Our role is equal parts analyst, negotiator and project manager — keeping the deal moving, protecting your position at each stage, and shielding you from the hundred distractions that can derail both the transaction and the business you still have to run while it happens.

Whether you are acquiring a competitor, merging with a complementary business, or planning an exit, M&A success is decided long before completion. On the buy side, we help you define acquisition criteria, evaluate targets, build the valuation and funding case, structure the offer, and manage due diligence and negotiation through to a completed purchase — including deferred consideration and earn-out mechanics that protect you if performance falls short.

On the sell side, preparation is everything: we get the financial story straight, address the issues a buyer's due diligence will find before they find them, prepare the information memorandum, run a competitive process where the market supports one, and negotiate the headline price and the small print — working capital adjustments, warranties and completion mechanisms — where value is so often won or lost.

We also advise on management buyouts and buy-ins, share reorganisations and succession-driven transfers, coordinating closely with tax advice so the structure is efficient for all parties.

Private equity investment can transform a business — but the process is demanding, and the terms matter as much as the headline number. We support management teams and shareholders through the full private equity journey: preparing the business plan and financial model investors expect, positioning the equity story, managing investor Q&A and due diligence, and advising on term sheets — valuation, preference structures, leaver provisions, governance rights and the mechanics that determine what management actually receives on a future exit.

For businesses already backed by private equity, we provide ongoing support: portfolio-company reporting, bolt-on acquisition advice, refinancing support and exit readiness — helping management deliver the plan the investment was made on.

Due diligence is where deals are saved or sunk. Buying a business on unverified numbers is a risk no sensible acquirer takes; equally, a seller who understands their own weaknesses in advance negotiates from strength.

Our financial due diligence examines the substance behind the headline figures:

• Quality of earnings — how sustainable are reported profits once one-off items, aggressive judgements and owner-related costs are stripped out?
• Working capital and cash conversion — does profit actually turn into cash, and what working capital does the business genuinely need?
• Net debt and debt-like items — the hidden liabilities that adjust the price
• Customer and revenue analysis — concentration, churn and the durability of key relationships
• Tax exposures — historical positions that could become the buyer's problem

We deliver buy-side due diligence for acquirers and lenders, and vendor due diligence or exit-readiness reviews for sellers who want to control the narrative before buyers start asking questions.

Every significant transaction and financing decision rests on a model — and a flawed model produces confident, precise, wrong answers. We build robust, transparent financial models: integrated profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow forecasts, scenario and sensitivity analysis, covenant headroom testing, and funding structures modelled properly rather than bolted on.

Our models follow disciplined construction standards — clear separation of inputs, calculations and outputs, no hard-coded mysteries, and documentation that lets a lender, investor or future finance director follow the logic. We also review and stress-test models built by others, a service lenders and investors frequently rely on before committing funds. Beyond transactions, we build budgeting and long-term planning models that give management a living tool, not a spreadsheet that dies after the deal.

What is the business actually worth? The question arises far beyond sales: shareholder disputes and exits, matrimonial proceedings, share schemes and employee ownership, tax valuations for HMRC, raising investment, and succession planning all demand a defensible number.

We prepare business valuations using the approaches appropriate to the company and the purpose — earnings multiples benchmarked against comparable transactions, discounted cash flow for businesses with distinctive growth profiles, and asset-based approaches where they fit — and, critically, we explain the judgements behind the figure. A valuation is an argument, not just a number; ours are built to withstand challenge from a counterparty, a tribunal or HMRC.

Because valuation drivers are visible long before a sale, we also advise owners on value enhancement: reducing customer concentration, strengthening management depth, cleaning up the balance sheet and improving the quality of financial information — the factors that move multiples.

Growth consumes cash, and raising it on good terms is a project in its own right. We support businesses across the funding spectrum — bank term loans and working capital facilities, asset-based lending and invoice finance, growth debt, and equity from angels or institutional investors — helping you determine how much to raise, in what form, and from whom.

Preparation drives outcomes. We build the lender- or investor-ready pack: a credible financial model, a clear articulation of the funding requirement and repayment capacity, and answers ready for the questions that will be asked. Our credit enhancement work strengthens the proposition itself — improving the quality and timeliness of management information, tightening working capital, addressing covenant pressure points and structuring security sensibly — so the business presents a stronger credit and commands better pricing and terms. Where refinancing is the goal, we run the process competitively rather than defaulting to the incumbent bank's first offer.

Companies engaging with the capital markets — listing, issuing debt, or reporting as a public company — face reporting and assurance demands well beyond private-company norms. We provide capital markets support including financial information preparation for offering documents, working capital reporting, reporting accountant liaison, and comfort procedures on financial data included in prospectuses and debt offering circulars.

For smaller companies weighing a public listing against private capital, we offer honest, independent analysis of readiness and cost — the ongoing reporting burden, governance requirements and management time a listing truly demands — so the decision is made with eyes open. Where clients proceed, we help build the financial reporting infrastructure a listed environment requires, working alongside brokers, lawyers and sponsors.