What does a database of prospective buyers of £1m-£10m T/O companies look like?

Collaborative competitors

Many B2B marketplaces feature multiple competitors who collaborate with each other to offer an improved service and this is true for M&A consultancies like Swan.

When we take a new business to market, we’ll inform some of our competitors that a company is now being offered for sale (all details are anonymised so that your business can’t be identified). We’ll share with them general, non-specific details about our client, the market they operate in, their position in that market, broad financial information, and more.

We don’t inform all of our competitors though especially those with a poor track record in selling their clients’ businesses and those with negative online feedback. We vet the competitors we work with just as they vet us.

Every reputable business broker in the UK over time builds up their own extended database of accountants, solicitors, advisors, investor groups, and family offices. And its through discrete enquiries to and from our competitors that many clients are able to affect a quick sale.

HNWI accountants, solicitors, and financial advisers

Accountants, solicitors, and advisors manage the legal and financial affairs of high net worth individuals (HNWI) and we have our own well-established network of them working with us.

HNWIs in most cases have experience in founding and growing successful businesses. Many of them want to purchase their competitors or to purchase companies in neighbouring markets where there is the opportunity to cross-sell or upsell to each other’s clients.

The bigger a company, the higher price it can achieve at sale. Many of these entrepreneurs are specifically focused on growth through rapid acquisition with the goal of creating then selling a very large company to private equity firms – it’s a lot faster to grow this way than to grow organically.

Over time, we have learned what the clients of each of our partner accountant, solicitor, and financial advisory firms want from an acquisition opportunity and, when a relevant client choose us to take their business to market, we approach our partner with an anonymised briefing to gauge their interest and to take enquiries forward.

Family offices

Family offices are responsible for protecting the wealth of individual families or groups of families. In recent years, the number of family offices has increased significantly.

The prime focus for many family offices is investing in assets, property, and stock likely to increase in price over the longer term releasing cash when it’s needed by family members.

However, in recent years, the number of offices making direct purchases of businesses in which the family has expertise or in areas of interest to the family has increased. Family offices are often a small part of a much larger group of companies each with their own experienced management, sales, and fulfilment teams.

Sourced B2B data

As extensive as our own network is and the wider network we can access in collaboration with other M&A agencies, motivated buyers with no connections to family offices, investment funds, and HNWI advisors can be found by identifying the types of companies which would benefit the most by acquiring your business.

For this, we use a number of different B2B data firms to approach decision makers, often by either telephone marketing, email marketing, and postal marketing.

Our specialist copywriter will create teaser documents designed to highlight the advantages of owning your business in its current form and the opportunities for growth and expansion under their ownership.

And that’s just the UK…

The UK is one of the world’s most advanced and richest economies and, at any given time, there will be a number of individuals and companies interested in purchasing your business.

But it’s the UK’s economy which makes acquisitions very attractive for overseas companies looking to establish a foothold in this country.

We also work with M&A agencies, professional advisors, family firms, and data owners around the world with a view to broadening the base of prospects interested in your company as wide as possible.

A broker that’s part of the bigger picture

With every client, we use every avenue open to us to find the right buyer willing to offer you the best price on the most favourable terms.

For an informal, confidential conversation on the types of individuals and companies most likely to be interested in purchasing your business, please call us on 0800 634 9679.