The buffer
We negotiate with the owner so you never
have to negotiate against your own
employer. The relationship survives the
transaction.
Management Buyout
Buyout advisory for management teams buying the business they already run.
The structure, the funding, and the negotiation with the owner, carried by one firm, in confidence, from feasibility to keys. By introduction. In confidence.
Nobody knows the business better
than the team running it.
The only things missing are the capital and the playbook,
and both are arrangeable.
We test whether the deal can stand, structure it, arrange the debt and equity behind it, and run the negotiation with the owner so that you do not have to negotiate against the person who signs your payslip.
The mandate suits teams whose owner is approaching an exit, corporates carving out a division to its managers, and families whose succession answer is the team rather than the next generation.
The buyout takes several forms.
The retiring founder
The owner is ready, the team is the natural buyer, and everyone would prefer it stayed quiet. The most common buyout, and the most delicate.
The corporate carve-out
A group sells a division to the people running it. Separation, transition services, and funding, structured together.
The family succession, sideways
No heir wants it; the team does. Often the outcome that protects the name and the workforce best.
The sponsor-backed buyout
Institutional equity behind the team. More capital, more governance, and a partner chosen for year three, not week one.
The partial buyout
The owner sells most and keeps a stake, staying invested in the team's success. Alignment, purchased.
The process.
Six phases, the same discipline every time.
Most buyouts run four to eight months from feasibility to completion.
I
Screening
The conversation first, under NDA always in this mandate. The business, the team, the owner's position, and whether the deal can exist. If it cannot, we say so before anyone risks a relationship.
II
Feasibility & the number
What the business can carry in debt, what the equity must cover, and what price works for both sides. The deal is tested on paper before a word is said out loud.
III
The approach
The owner approached at the right moment, in the right way, by us. The single most dangerous conversation in a buyout is the first one, and the team should not be the one having it.
IV
Funding
Debt, sponsor equity, vendor finance, and the team's own commitment, arranged in competition and assembled as one structure.
V
Terms & documentation
Price, warranties, transition, and the team's equity terms negotiated whole. What the team owns, and on what conditions, matters more than the headline.
VI
Close & day one
Completion run to timetable. The company the team ran on Friday is the company the team owns on Monday, and the customers never
felt the difference.
The buyout fails in the first conversation more often than in the last one. Sequence protects the deal, the jobs, and the relationship with the owner, in that order.
Where the money comes from.
An illustration: a US$20m purchase, funded without the team writing a US$20m cheque. Every number is an assumption; the feasibility phase runs yours.
Source
Illustration
The point
Senior debt
US$10m
Carried by the company's own cash flows
Sponsor or private equity
US$5.5m
Institutional capital behind the team
Vendor finance
US$3m
The owner stays invested in your success
The team
US$1.5m
Meaningful to you, credible to everyone else
The stack.
How ownership transfers without the team funding all of it.
Management equity
smallest cheque, real ownership
Sponsor equity & vendor finance
institutional capital, and the owner staying invested
Debt
carried by the company's own cash generation
The vendor exits
The team owns what it runs
The company buys most of itself. The team's cheque buys the ownership, not the whole price.
The stack is designed so the smallest layer carries the ownership. Getting the layers in the right order is the mandate.
Why Teams Engage Us
The funding, arranged
Debt, sponsor equity, and vendor terms, put in competition and assembled around the team, not around a lender's preferences.
Feasibility before exposure
The deal tested on paper before a word is
spoken. If it cannot stand, nobody ever
knows it was contemplated.
Your equity terms
Vesting, leaver provisions, and governance negotiated as hard as the price. What the team owns on paper is what it owns in a bad year.
Senior on the mandate
The people you meet are the people who run the process. Nothing is handed down.
Discretion, engineered
Until the owner is approached, nothing
exists. After, the circle widens on a
sequence, never by accident.
What we act on.
The firm acts on buyouts of profitable businesses by the teams that run them, where the cash generation can carry the structure and the owner has a path to yes.
Typically founder-held companies and corporate carve-outs, typically with the funding arranged as part of the mandate.
We act for the team. Terms are set out plainly in the Engagement Agreement before any work begins.
Asked before most mandates.
We do not have the money. Is this real?
Most transactions complete within six to twelve months. Timing depends on preparation, buyer diligence, regulatory requirements, and transaction complexity.
How do we explore this without the owner finding out?
No. Engagements include full company sales, majority and minority transactions, recapitalisations, divestitures, and management buyouts.
What is a fair price when we know everything?
Potential buyers receive information progressively. Anonymous profiles are used initially, with names disclosed only after confidentiality agreements are executed.
Will the owner say yes?
An unsolicited approach can become a structured process. The firm assesses the proposal, alternatives, valuation, and buyer landscape before recommendations are made.
What do we personally have to put in?
Valuation is considered alongside buyer demand, transaction structure, market conditions, and strategic fit. The objective is the best overall outcome, not simply the highest headline price.
What does it cost?
The engagement terms are agreed before work begins. The firm's principal fee is realised at completion and is aligned with the transaction outcome.
No public references.
The firm does not name clients, counterparties, or terms.
Not in marketing, not in conversation, not after the fact. What appears on this page is generalised beyond identification, and the clients best placed to vouch for the work are the reason we
will not ask them to. If discretion matters to you before a sale, it
should matter to your advisor after one.
Adjacent to this mandate.
The best buyer already
has the keys.
Every mandate begins with an initial discussion. If you would like
the firm to review your situation, request an initial discussion. If appropriate, the proposed scope of work and next steps will be set out. Confidentiality arrangements, including an NDA where required, can be established before detailed information is shared.