Exit strategy is one of the hot topics of the moment with mergers and acquisition activity increasing as a result. Consequently, many high-level professionals are unable to see how they can successfully exit from their firms without incurring major costs with run-off cover and/or losing the ability to realise the value in a firm which they may have spent many years building into a profitable and well regarded business. In achieving a successful outcome for you, we spend time making sure we understand clearly your overall objectives together with all critical considerations in achieving your end goals.

As with all time intensive processes, the challenge comes in making sure you spend time only with those that have a serious interest given the boundaries within which you want to work. These boundaries relate to how the business will be incorporated, how clients will be treated, sale price (if appropriate), location plans and many other esoteric points. There is a danger of spending a lot of time on futile pursuits with M&A work and we will work hard to minimise time commitment and consequent loss of fee income by filtering all interested parties into those with a realistic chance of completing.

Search Process

Following the preparation of a prospectus, and identification of potential suitors, we will make contact with the relevant people and provide you with a summary of responses together with recommendations of those we believe will be most suitable for achieving your end goals and the successful continuation of the business beyond your departure. We then engage realistic targets in detailed discussions in order to compile a briefing note on each one that goes to shortlist ensuring you are provided with all the information required to have productive discussion with a purposeful agenda.

Full briefing and debriefing will take place before and after each meeting to ensure a full understanding by all parties of the positive reasons for engaging talks together with ensuring decisions can be made quickly to either progress with momentum or end at the soonest point to minimise time spent on a project that will not complete. Colin White will attend these meetings with you as a facilitator and with a mind to minimising your time commitments to the mechanics of the process.

In addition to this, we can make recommendations of other professional advisors providing additional services that we are unable to resource within our own firms.

Other critical issues that we will look at include sharing feedback gained along the way that may also be useful in refining the business offering and making plans to maximise buy-in from existing staff to make sure that there are no regrettable losses that could potentially lower the value of your asset at such a crucial time.