Click
here
to find out how successful executives have managed
to attract outside investment into their businesses:
the results from recent interviews with MDs and FDs
who have raised significant funding, conducted in
conjunction with Cambridge University.
Click here
to find out how top finance directors get the most
out of their banks
Download true confessions
on Enron [here],
re-printed from Real FD magazine, the UK's largest
circulation monthly mag for finance directors.
Download the report "Exit Routes" [here], produced in conjunction with Cambridge University. It's a research report looking at the links between ownership structure, growth rate and exit strategy for privately owned businesses. |
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When selecting a corporate finance advisor you should:
- find someone whose counsel you value;
- find someone you can see yourself spending a lot of
time with (you will inevitably end up burning a fair bit of
midnight oil together); and
- find someone for whom this project
will be important.
Don't be afraid of asking some searching
questions:
- how many corporate finance projects do you deal with
in a year? A huge list of deals may look impressive but also
may tell you something about how much effort goes in to each
one;
- how many corporate finance projects do you deal with
at one time? Comment as above;
- what is your daily/ hourly rate? Don't let
your corporate finance advisor be shy about this. Everyone
has a daily
or hourly rate they target. If they're shy about it,
perhaps it's embarrassingly high. The day rate will
tell you something about how quickly your corporate finance
advisor
will start to
lose interest in your project;
- which staff will you assign to this project? You may
have met an impressive senior corporate finance advisor whose
job it is to sell the project to you, but how much of his time
will you actually get? A huge team assigned to selling your
business may seem impressive but it can also be a ploy to apply
junior
and cheaper labour to your job;
- how much of your time will this project absorb and
how much of their time will it absorb? Comment as above;
- what is your fee target for the year - how
big a proportion of the target will this project account
for?
Again, an indication of how important this project will be
to your
corporate finance advisor;
- how are you remunerated? It's all very
well agreeing a big success fee with an organisation but
it's worth finding
out how much of that success fee the corporate finance specialist
doing the work for you will share. If he only shares a proportion
then that's bound to affect how much personal effort
he will apply on your behalf. He's only human!
Aside from all that, certainly don't
be afraid of asking advisors to agree fixed or success related
fees with you!
Mark Robson of Keen Advice is a corporate finance advisor specialising
in buying and selling businesses, and mergers and acquisitions.
>Client testimonials
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Keen Advice specialises in providing corporate finance
advice to clients selling businesses or participating in mergers
and acquisitions.
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