Your company’s external M&A department
Large groups have a department that constantly looks for companies to buy, screens incoming offers and runs the transactions. A mid-sized company acquires once every few years – it makes no sense to keep such a team on the payroll, so the management board ends up running the deal alongside the day-to-day business. We are that department on demand: on an ongoing basis or for a single transaction.
Building the market
Ongoing outreach to owners of companies that fit your acquisition strategy.
Screening offers
When someone approaches you with a company for sale – whether to proceed and at what price.
Running the transaction
Offer, due diligence, negotiations – through to transfer of ownership.
What we do
- we agree with the board which acquisitions make sense: sector, size, region
- we reach the owners of companies that fit – including those not up for sale
- we hold confidential first conversations, often without disclosing who is behind the enquiry
- we report regularly who is willing to talk and on what terms
- we review the company and its numbers before the board spends its time on it
- we say plainly whether the deal is worth pursuing and at what price
- we prepare the offer and lead the talks with the owner
- structure: what to pay at closing and what to tie to future results
- coordination of due diligence, lawyers and tax advisers
- negotiation of the agreement through to signing and transfer of ownership
- abroad through our partners at Fusio Global Advisors: UK, DACH, Benelux, Spain, Lithuania
How we work
- An experienced Red Herring partner leads the project – from the first conversation to closing. We run a handful of such mandates at a time, no more.
- A fixed monthly fee for the team’s time plus a success fee payable on closing.
- We never run a sell-side and a buy-side mandate in the same sector – the client always knows whose side we are on.
What are the next steps?
Planning an acquisition, or received an offer to buy a company and not sure what to do with it? Talk to a Red Herring partner – no commitment and no pitch.