Mergers & Acquisitions
A founder may be weighing a full exit, a family a succession, a principal the sale of a minority stake. We advise on whether and when to sell, how the business is prepared and presented, which counterparties see it and how the sale is structured.
Before a sale
A sale is prepared in confidence, with counterparties we already know.
Counterparties we already know
Our more than 200 investor relationships, across pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, family offices and private wealth in the United States, Europe and the Gulf, include family offices that invest directly in companies.
A relationship for every mandate
Each kind of mandate we accept, the sale of a business included, is matched by at least one standing investor relationship.
Held in confidence
Live mandates are never named. When asked who we work with, we give sector and size only, and the first conversation about a sale is held in confidence.
The sale
Price is the last question in a sale. The first is whether to sell, and to whom.
A full exit
For a founder or owner selling outright. We advise on how the business is prepared and presented, which counterparties see it and in what order, and how the sale is structured and timed.
A succession
Passing a business to the next generation, to management or to an outside owner. We plan the change so that the business and its people carry on through it.
A minority stake sale
Selling part of the business while keeping control, usually to an investor who brings more than capital. We settle what the owner keeps, what the investor receives and how the two will work together.
When owners come to us
A sale is brought to us at one of these points.
If you are weighing a sale of the business, come to us.
We confirm what the owner wants before any work on value begins, and we bring the counterparties the sale needs.
If the terms of a sale are being questioned, come to us.
We review the terms against the market before a counterparty does, and we tell the owner what to change.
If you want an owner who will build the business, not only hold it, come to us.
We bring counterparties whose plan for the business includes operating support and follow-on capital, and we confirm that fit with you before either side hears the other's name.
The other side
A counterparty buys the people who run the business along with the business itself. Fit is confirmed on both sides before any conversation begins.
Strategic acquirers
Companies buying in their own or a neighbouring market, and the in-house teams that find, assess and negotiate acquisitions.
Companies and sponsors
Growth equity investors
Funds taking minority or majority stakes, and the investment arms of operating companies, often with a plan to grow the business before a later sale.
Allocators
Long-term owners
Multi-sector groups and holding companies that buy to hold, with no fixed date for a sale.
Who we adviseInfrastructure sponsors
Long-term owners of energy, transport, utility and digital assets, buying the businesses that build, serve or operate them. They assess a business over a long holding period.
Real estate platforms
Owners and operators that buy assets, portfolios and the businesses that run them, often to add a team along with the property.
Industrial and strategic groups
Groups buying to add capacity, capability or a new market, often in a sector next to their own, where the people who run the business matter most.
Related reading
How we take on a sale and hold it in confidence
Mandate selection
How every mandate is reviewed by our senior team before we accept it, and what we look at.
Read more
Our Standards
Confidentiality, an equity focus, a disclosed regulatory arrangement and written engagements, held on every mandate.
Read more
Private equity
How private equity capital is raised and what its investors look at, for an owner whose likely counterparty is a fund.
Read the guide