M&A Deal Management

(Level 4 –
Value Realisation)

An excellent transaction is the greatest test for a founder

A study by the Exit Planning Institute revealed that only 5% of business owners are satisfied with the net proceeds of their exit(*).

While this seemingly infers that the odds are stacked against the founder, it’s also important to know that 83% of the respondents said they were unprepared and without a proper plan for their capital event.

While a capital event can be unsuccessful for many reasons, lack of preparation and execution should never be a factor.

An excellent investment transaction is the last great test for an entrepreneur. The majority, however, are left with regret and remorse.

The stakes are far too great to become another bad statistic.

(*) 2013 State of Owner Readiness Survey – Exit Planning Institute

Successful Relationships

Capital raising, scaling, readying for sale and maximising value

“I remember meeting Matt for the first time at CUB Business Club and he lights up a room with his energy and passion.

I was looking for advice, mentoring and guidance in regards to capital raising, scaling a business, readying it for a sale and maximising value, and Matt delivered in spades.

His incredible knowledge, experience and ability to communicate even advanced ideas in digestible and workable pieces is extraordinary. He helped guide my businesses to a successful capital raise and now continues to help scale it.

I now consider Matt a good friend and colleague and I’d absolutely recommend Matt to anyone looking for business advise especially in the growth, scaling and selling phases.”

Matt helped me add millions of dollars of value to the business.

“Matt’s experience in corporate, business optimisation and NLP/ EQ greatly assisted in resolving both shareholder and team issues, and in completing a transaction his pitching, negotiation and contract skills helped me add millions of dollars of value to the business.

His real world experience from scaling businesses and preparing them for a successful exit was a particular stand out to me. I was in the process of deciding whether it was viable to sell, and after working with Matt on preparing my businesses for a successful transaction it was evident that I had found someone who could assist me in navigating through the complexities of a potential sale.

I would recommend Matt to any business owner needing assistance with growing and scaling a business, strategy formulation, deal preparation and negotiation as well as preparing for a successful exit. ”

Program Overview

Having an acquirer invest in your business is the culmination of years of hard work and long hours. For many, it’s the largest transaction of a lifetime, plus they are transacting their greatest asset. However, many founders enter the deal of their lifetime inexperienced, with limited bandwidth and unprepared on how to successfully complete it. Burn-out, poor deal leadership, deal-fatigue and founder-remorse post-transaction are real and common risks.

Further, corporate advisory skills, whilst essential to any deal are typically limited to their fundraising, financial / accounting, and legal roles, and are not well placed to provide founder coaching, project management, and team coordination from inside the founder’s team.

Matt’s deal management and his team provide founder-side coordination and management support in negotiating the lead-up, the transaction itself, and post-transaction follow-through by providing a structure to decrease risk, maximise value and maximise the founder’s personal transaction leadership capacity.

Program Key Steps

1

The initial activities are all about deal preparation. Matt will work with you on the transaction expectations and strategy, while his team aggregate key information and perform a thorough pre-diligence assessment.

Once done, we build a powerful Information Memorandum, a redacted ‘Teaser’, and an international list of appropriate markets and segment by buyer pools.

Further information will be accessible in a proofed Data Room, including key drivers consideration to initiate valuation range discussion.

2

At this stage, we engage with the market by:

  • Developing an investors shortlist and reach out to effectively position the company (no name).
  • Sending Teaser to Interested Parties.
  • Executing NDAs.
  • Sharing Information Memorandum.
  • Conducting First Level Intermediary Meetings with Interested Parties.
  • Identifying Interest and Probability of Success in the next round.

3

We finally enter negotiation (and then the sell process), with selected Interested Parties, which includes:

  • Providing Top Level Data Room Access (redacted where appropriate).
  • Conducting second (management introduction and intermediary) meetings.
  • Developing Non-Binding Letter Of Intent (LOI).
  • Pursuing final LOIs.
  • Critique the opportunities.
  • Entering final negotiations and settling for Preferred Investor.
  • Conducting onsite Due Diligence
  • Completing long form legals (Sale Purchase Agreement) negotiations including buyer / seller protections and employment agreements.
  • Negotiating warranty insurance.

Program Outcomes

Typical program outcomes include:

  • Pre-transaction leadership and business preparation
  • Risk evaluation and de-risking
  • Transaction strategy
  • Founder alignment
  • Value maximisation opportunities
  • Founder commercial decision making
  • Circuit breaker activity
  • Protecting deal cadence
  • Smoothing the external Corporate
  • Advisory and Legal team communication
  • Internal WIP project management

What Founders say about Matt

Ready for your next step?