This company is a substantial independent recruitment business, with turnover in excess of £20M, operating primarily in the oil & gas sector. The founder of the business had died in 2009 and, with no day to day involvement, the family concluded in 2012 it was the appropriate time to sell.
The separation between ownership and management meant, while the Managing Director attended Buyer meetings to answer questions about the operations of the business, we represented the interests of the vendor. This required us to be particularly sensitive in managing the dialogue between buyer and seller since there was no opportunity for them to independently develop a sense of trust.
We generated significant interest in the business both domestically and internationally and from both trade buyers and private equity players. The eventual purchaser was a trade buyer, looking to extend their reach in the oil and gas sector.
A short term downturn in performance coincident with a structural change in the business created some downward price pressure, but we managed to mitigate the effect to a large degree through the negotiation of a performance related element to the deal structure.