Helping people and businesses borrow is their day job.
An existing accountant/lawyer may be excellent for day to day transactions but despite what they might say how many deals like yours have they done recently: their expertise lies elsewhere.
So, before committing to your existing support: ask around; take up references.
If you want to still involve your existing advisors use them as a sounding board but appoint specialist advisors for this transaction.
A Corporate Finance or Debt Advisory advisor will have relationships with appropriate funders.
Just remember, your existing bank is not the only funder (and these days High Street banks have little appetite for debt that isn’t secured or Government supported). So, in the long term, you are better off looking into more options anyways, that an advisor can support with.
Even with a ‘friendly’ deal, e.g. a MBO, an external advisor can provide much needed ‘distance’ and objectivity between the vendor and his MBO team.
In most of these cases, emotions can rise and personal relationships can be damaged – particularly difficult if the transaction doesn’t happen and you have to carry on working with each other.
The transaction will be time consuming and, especially towards the end, almost all consuming.
So, let someone else, who has done it many times before, manage the deal – you still have a business to run!
Author: Stuart Watson
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