Strategic Review
Our service starts with a strategic review. Whether you are looking to raise capital, buy or sell a business, float on the stockmarket, or perhaps to resolve a shareholder dispute, we will spend time with you to help clarify your objectives and how they can be achieved. We will also examine alternative strategies with you and help assess their associated risks, and advantages or disadvantages. We can also advise on any steps that may be necessary or desirable to ensure that you are best placed to implement your chosen strategy successfully.
Making an acquisition or selling a business cannot normally be reversed - it pays to take the time to explore the possibilities thoroughly and to make sure that the right decisions are taken.
Capital Raising
Capital raising is not just about ensuring a business has access to the funding it needs, but it is also about making sure that the amount and type of funding reflect the true needs of the business. It is important that the funding for a new venture or project reflects the risks and expected timescales: financing a risky but potentially lucrative business acquisition solely through additional short-term borrowings is not normally to be recommended!
We have extensive contacts in the venture capital and banking communities and can help you raise finance cost-effectively, devising capital structures and instruments which strike the right balance between risk and return.
Making acquisitions
A carefully chosen and well-negotiated acquisition is probably the fastest way to grow a business. Getting an acquisition wrong though can be the quickest way to bring a business to its knees. We can help you to avoid the pain of a failed acquisition by guiding you through the process, from identifying potential targets, approaching them confidentially, and negotiating and structuring a deal designed to minimise risk. Our transaction support team can carry out extensive due diligence before contracts are signed to help ensure that there are no unwelcome surprises once the acquisition has been completed and that the price you are paying is based on the correct assumptions.
Selling a business
Deciding to sell a business which may have taken years to build up is one of the hardest decisions many shareholders and owner-managers will take, and it is essential to understand the full implications of a sale and what it can achieve. Taking the decision to proceed with a sale is, however, just the start of a process which is fraught with potential pitfalls and traps for the unwary. All too often the vendors of businesses find themselves caught out by earn outs (deferred consideration based on post-acquisition performance) that don't deliver, clawback clauses that bite, and share consideration which proves to be worth far less than expected.
Our aim is to steer our clients through the process, protect them from the pitfalls and to deliver a completed transaction as quickly and cost-effectively as possible on the best possible terms. We approach carefully researched and selected buyers with a comprehensive information memorandum. This is designed to provide buyers with all the information they need to make an informed and deliverable offer, whilst at the same time protecting the commercial interests of the vendors. We will lead the negotiations throughout the process and will work closely with other advisers, such as your solicitors, right through to legal completion.
Management buyouts
We can help management teams to buy the businesses they work in, or perhaps a business they have targeted. Our service encompasses everything from evaluating the target company, determining the right price to offer, structuring the transaction, and raising the finance through our extensive network of venture capital and banking contacts. We recognise that the resources of management teams may be limited and aim to tailor our fees to link our rewards closely to the team's successful completion of the transaction.
Stockmarket flotations
Many companies aspire to a floatation on the stock exchange, and the success of markets such as AIM over recent years bears testimony to the benefits a stockmarket floatation can bring. On the other hand, the number of companies taken private over the same period has shown that the stockmarket is not for everyone.
Reeves+Neylan Corporate Finance has extensive experience of stockmarket floatations in many different markets. We can assist companies in deciding whether a stockmarket float is the right move, and through our wide-ranging contacts with stockbrokers and investment banks, we can identify the most suitable sponsors and brokers. We can arrange beauty parades of potential advisers, make sure they are asked the right questions, and negotiate their terms.
Shareholder issues
Many companies find that there comes a point when it is clear that the interests of their shareholders have diverged. A different view on the way a business should be managed, or perhaps in relation to its dividend policies or long term aims, can be a cause of tension and may act as a brake on a business' ability to develop. In many cases these differences can be addressed through a buyback of shares or by one group of shareholders acquiring the shares held by the other faction, whether this comprises a single shareholder, an institutional shareholder, or a group of shareholders.
We can help resolve these issues in a tax- and cost-efficient way using mechanisms such as share purchases, share buybacks and de-mergers tailored to the specific situation.
Tax Advice
Understanding - and minimising - the tax consequences of a proposed transaction is essential. Our experience is that, in most cases, the earlier that tax advice is taken, the more effective it is likely to be, whereas delaying a transaction whilst a tax restructuring is effected or tax clearances are obtained can be highly damaging. Our team of tax advisers is highly experienced in giving both corporate and personal tax advice and we recommend an initial consultation as soon as a transaction strategy has been agreed.
Our approach to fees
We adopt a flexible approach to fees, and we aim to ensure that, as far as practicable, our rewards are linked as closely as possible to your success. For this reason we do not offer a standard tariff, but design our fee structures to reflect the specific requirements of each transaction.
Initial consultations are free and without obligation. You will only incur fees once we have agreed with you the detailed terms and scope of our engagement.
Please contact our Corporate Finance team to find out how we can help you.