Financial Consulting & Transaction Advisory / SME Transaction Advisory
Transaction Advisory for SMEs
Transaction advice for SME owners, evaluation, structure, tax and negotiation support for deals that may happen once in a lifetime.
Overview
What this means in practice
For most SME owners, buying or selling a business is a once-or-twice-in-a-lifetime event, negotiated against counterparties who do it far more often. The transaction advisory practice levels that field: evaluating the deal, structuring it for tax and risk, testing the numbers behind the price and supporting the negotiation through to closure. The work is led by a partner who combines chartered accountancy with CFA training and years of credit and financial risk experience.
Who this is for
- ✓SME owners selling a business or bringing in an investor
- ✓Buyers acquiring a company, business unit or stake
- ✓Family enterprises restructuring ownership between branches or generations
- ✓Promoters evaluating partnership, exit or succession offers
What we help with
Deal evaluation: price, terms and the assumptions hiding inside both
Transaction structuring with tax, regulatory and risk implications worked through
Financial modelling and scenario analysis for the decision
Coordination of due diligence, legal documentation and closing conditions
Negotiation support from term sheet to closure, and post-deal follow-through
Documents typically required
- ✓Financial statements for the last three years
- ✓Any term sheet, offer or draft agreement on the table
- ✓Details of ownership, entities and group structure
- ✓Key contracts, loans and obligations that transfer with the deal
- ✓Projections or business plans relied on in the price discussion
Common Questions
Questions clients bring to this practice
Do you know what the business is genuinely worth before you start negotiating?
Is the deal structured for tax and risk, or just for speed?
Who on your side is testing the other side's numbers?
Our Process
A structured CA-led process from records to resolution.
Understand the commercial objective and what a good outcome looks like for you
Evaluate the deal and structure options before terms harden
Run or coordinate diligence and resolve the issues it surfaces
Support negotiation and documentation through closing and handover
FAQs
Common questions, answered plainly
At what point should we involve you?
Before any number is agreed, ideally when the idea becomes serious. Structure and price logic set early are very hard to reopen later; advisors brought in after the term sheet mostly document what was already conceded.
We are selling. How do we prepare?
Clean books, resolved compliance gaps, documented contracts and a defensible story for the numbers, assembled before buyers start asking. Sellers who prepare get fewer price reductions during diligence, which is where most deals quietly lose value.
Do you work on small transactions?
Yes. SME deals are the core of this practice, and scope is sized to the transaction, a focused review for a small acquisition, full support for a company sale.
How do you charge for transaction work?
Typically a scoped fixed fee for defined stages, agreed before work begins, so the advice is not coloured by whether the deal closes.
Do you replace our lawyer in the transaction?
No, we work alongside legal counsel. We handle the financial, tax and structuring substance; lawyers handle the drafting and legal risk. Deals go wrong when either side works without the other.