We share the secrets & tools employed by professional buyers, so that together we can build an extraordinary exit for your business
SMEs are poorly served
In over multiple decades working on M&A transactions and more recently full-time via our parent business (Independence Capital) we have observed continual shortcomings in how SME business owners are served. The market is flawed in three ways:
Unprepared Owners
Most owners have never sold so are very unprepared in terms of understanding their value, how to articulate that, what the process will entail and what to do and not do through that in order to maximise their outcome
Market Gap
Most top-of-market advisors (the Big-4 and Investment Boutiques) very deliberately target working with Medium & Large businesses. They need very large fees to cover the cost of their very expensive teams – SME businesses prove a costly distraction
Limited Expertise
Most of the Corporate Finance businesses who focus on serving SME are either Brokers – call-centre style operations staffed by juniors - or Regional Accountants – who may only do 1 or 2 deals a year, so have limited deal experience. M&A requires different skills to Compliance & Tax
SME business owners are set up to fail with the markets current offering and this leads to too many instances of failed process (costing shareholders time and money) and when they do complete there are too many instances of deals structured with poorly fitting buyers, on uneconomic prices and (or) on unfavourable structures and terms. With more forethought and a different model of guidance these shortcoming could very often have been avoided.
Why work with Independence?
Our founding
In our founding business we are a full-time acquirer of SME businesses. We therefore appreciate better than any traditional advisor what a Buyer will and won't want to see.
Funding expertise
We have expertise in funding M&A transactions via decades of banking and investment experience. We know what is and isn’t possible to be structured.
Ownership experience
As owners & operators of businesses ourselves, we appreciate first hand that “value” in a business is more than just quoting EBITDA.
Research
We are a research & data-led operation, levering extensive investment in our own technology, this research helps us best put the story of your business and its potential into context.
Fee
Our fee structures share risk and encourage delivery against your performance priorities.
We are excited to share our model of corporate finance advice with SME owners and give them an alternative, which affords them partner-led support from real business owners with real-world experience.
We can build a plan to suit
all circumstances & timelines
We can build a plan to suit
all circumstances & timelines
Corporate Finance M&A advice covers a very broad range of circumstances and scopes. At Independence Exits, we pride ourselves on being an alternative to the cookie-cutter approach of the national brokers, who just want to list your business. Instead we invest significant time in developing often a range of workstreams to best facilitate the ambitions of the business owner. Hover over each header to understand oversight of what that workstream can involve.
Work with shareholders to build a plan for maximising exit within a 5yr time horizon
Work with shareholders to execute on a plan for maximising exit within 3-months, focusing in surety of deliverability
Work with shareholders to provide a discrete and targeted exit to a highly profiled cohort of potential buyers, maximising privacy
Work with shareholders and management to design and execute a transfer of shares to management looking to support continuity of trade whilst providing market value to shareholders
Working with shareholders to effect a partial disposal of their shares such that they materially de-risk ahead of a future full exit event
Working with corporate shareholders and (or) subsidiary or divisional management to affect an exit of the part of the group to either management, trade or private equity
Providing for shareholders an illustration of both valuation of their shares and what key factors most influence the determination of value in any future event
Qualifying for shareholders all inbound acquisition interest such that the credibility and extent of interest is clearly established before any management time is required, minimising distraction
Working with shareholders to understand the extent to which they are ready for the process of exit and what remediating actions can be undertaken to facilitate best future exit
Providing shareholders with clear and concise reporting regarding either a sector or business model - set against either expected future trading outcomes or detailing the frequency, texture and composition of M&A activity
Work with shareholders to build a plan for maximising exit within a 2yr time horizon
Work with shareholders and (or) insolvency partners to execute on a plan for maximising exit without worsening an insolvent trading position
Work with shareholders to undertake acquisition of a company which helps enhance the exit of the enlarged group shortly afterwards
Working with shareholders to deliver an exit where tax outcome is a primary objective - reducing Capital Gains potentially to 0%
Working with shareholders to achieve minority investment into their business and in doing so unlock a greater future exit event with the support of seasoned professional investors
Working with shareholders, investors, bankers & management to illustrate the various routes to exit available to them and what decisions can be made within each route which might influence a future exit event, include running multiple processes simultaneously
Working with shareholders to map actions over time which bridge an existing valuation to an aspirational target
Working with shareholders to review, often multi-channel, the likely range of future buyers for their shares. Profiling the buyers financial and operational circumstances & modus operandi such that current best and potential future best buyers can be identified
Providing shareholders with clear comparison of their company against direct and indirect peers of present and past. Identifying for shareholders areas of strength, weakness, opportunity and threat
Providing shareholders with analysis of overseas direct and indirect trading peers, along with commentary regarding the M&A texture prevailing in that geography
Who do we help?
Who do we help?
SME businesses contribute in excess of 50% of the country's GDP. At Independence Exits, we are committed to serving only the entrepreneurs and owner-managers who toil away underappreciated and often poorly supported. Realising maximum value from all those sleepless nights is vital but an art more than it is a science. We understand the world of an SME unlike many other advisor and look forward to sharing the learnings built over cumulative decades of deal-making. SME businesses contribute in excess of 50% of the country's GDP - thats a huge part of the economy to be underserved in the manner they are.
Buyers we have worked with
Hear what our clients
have to say
“We actually first started dialogue with the target years ago but the process (with previous advisors) failed to materialise. It was clear almost immediately that this time round the company was prepared, willing and able to meet the requirements of our deal process. We are excited to be able to add Milestone Communications to our group and look forward to years of shared success. Independence providing great deal stewardship in helping us both to get the outcome we wanted.”
“We had not conducted a transaction before and were certainly unaware of the deal options that were open to us. As a second generation owner operator, we took great comfort from being able to de-risk continuity but also benefit from the significant advantages of sale to an Employee Ownership Trust. Independences guidance over multiple years and straddling difficult Covid years proved great value and insight.”
“Our first two deals into our buy-build strategy were fraught with complication and delay which proved costly and put each deal at risk. Working with Independence on our third deal was like night and day - the process was conducted in less than half the time and end-to-end it never felt like the deal was at all at risk. A Carlsberg moment.”
“We had been approached continually by trade and private equity buyers but seemingly never found the right party or deal. The process was hugely distracting for a business already navigating high growth and all the pains that brings. Working with Independence we quickly established a perfect combination of the right buyer and the optimal transaction shape and with thorough preparation the deal was completed in weeks not months and with an outcome shareholders could not have dreamt of beforehand.”
“The world of M&A is very new to us but Independence very quickly helped manage our expectations on what our options were and what the process would look like. They took the time to really understand our business and we ran a successful marketing process, with pleasing volume and variation in buyers and offers. In the end, we found both a buyer and transaction shape which gave us the best of both worlds and using their software too we found the diligence process to be far less painful than first feared.”
“Having already aborted a previous sale process led by a national advisor, I was skeptical about what could be achieved, especially coming out of Covid. Independence ran an accelerated process geared at minimising risk & budget whilst proving concept quickly. The transaction completed to plan and their fee structure geared at sharing risk suited us well.”
