Due Diligence & Business Planning Services
JERROMS CORPORATE FINANCE
Due Diligence & Business Planning Services
Due Diligence is a critical step in the investment, acquisition or sale process. It provides an independent assessment of the business from which a potential investor or funder can make an informed decision.
The Due Diligence investigation is conducted by our experienced team who have extensive experience in a variety of transactions across diverse sectors. Our reports address your requirements in a clear concise format, highlighting any fundamental concerns.
We appreciate the importance of working to a tight timetable which is why we ensure regular two-way communication and agree the scope of the review at the outset.
We take great care to deliver reports that reflect our client’s needs but at the same time remain objective. If we uncover sensitive or critical issues, we bring these to your attention immediately and work with you to evaluate the implications and assess how best to proceed.
JERROMS CORPORATE FINANCE
Business Acquisition Due Diligence takes a variety of forms and the scope of each project is tailored to the precise needs of the project in hand. Jerroms Corporate Finance offers a wide range of buy-side transaction due diligence services including:
- Financial Due Diligence (Full scope and Bespoke)
- Tax Due Diligence (Corporate, Personal and International)
- Vendor Due Diligence (VDD)
- Investigative Due Diligence
JERROMS CORPORATE FINANCE
Banks, Debt providers, Equity/Mezzanine fund managers will often engage expert professional third parties during their due diligence process to undertake full scope or bespoke reports on aspects of the deal.
Due Diligence reports for Finance providers take a variety of forms and the scope of each project is tailored to the precise needs of the project in hand. Jerroms Corporate Finance offers a wide range of investment transaction due diligence services including:
- Financial Due Diligence (Full scope and Bespoke)
- Tax Due Diligence (Corporate, Personal and International)
- Vendor Due Diligence (VDD)
- Investigative Due Diligence
JERROMS CORPORATE FINANCE
Awarding Bodies often seek third-party, expert and professional due diligence reports at the grant award stage of the project, during the project delivery phase or at the end of the grant award process to seek confirmation that the scheme has met its objectives.
Due Diligence services to grant awarding bodies have many similarities with those carried out for finance providers but there are some subtle (but important differences):
- Confirmation that the project meets (or did meet) the grant scheme objectives
- Confirmation that the grant recipient can (or did) meet their funding contribution commitments to the project
- Confirmation that the outputs promised (or delivered) are feasible (or met the grant award conditions)
- Confirmation that the scheme will meet (or did meet) external regulatory objectives such as State Aid rules
- Commentary on the efficiency, objectivity and governance aspects of the scheme’s operation
Jerroms Corporate Finance has a great deal of experience of providing due diligence services to Grant Awarding bodies.
JERROMS CORPORATE FINANCE
Once the need to raise finance (equity, debt or trade finance) has been identified it is necessary to prepare the collateral needed to support the application for funding. Just about the most important document that you will produce as part of this process is an Investment Proposal (or Business Plan). The Investment Proposal document must secure the attention of the prospective investor, it must make a good first impression and it must persuade the investor to take the funding application to the next stage.
Remember most prospective investors (equity, debt or trade finance) will receive many Investment Proposals and only a small proportion of these will make it through to the next phase of the investment process (typically a meeting with the management team). In short you may only get one chance to grab the prospective investor’s attention, and make an initial good impression - often that one chance takes the form of the Investment Proposal.
What is an Investment Proposal?
The Investment Proposal typically comprises of two sections; a descriptive section and a set of financial information.
- The Descriptive Section – This section sets out in words the history of the company/business proposition, details of the product/services, details of the market sector, the management team, the competitive landscape and the plan/reasons for which the funds are being sought.
- The Financial Information – This section will set out the historic and current trading position of the company, detail its current balance sheet and financial forecasts (typically 3 years) showing why the funds being sought are required, how they will be used and what they will produce (in terms of profit/cash).
Having made the point you may only get one chance to grab the attention of prospective investors it follows that at Jerroms Corporate Finance we are not fans of the standard template Investment Proposal documents that can be downloaded from the Internet. You would not sell your products or services by producing a brochure that looks like all your competitors, so don’t try to sell your company to investors with an Investment Proposal that looks like all the others!
The most important aspect of your Investment Proposal document is to set out what is unique or different about your business and to do so succinctly, clearly and early in the document. This differential might be your people, your product, your service, your intellectual property, your competitive position in the market, your geographic location, your marketing approach, your range of offerings, your customers, your partners, your suppliers or even your pricing model or many of these factors but it is nothing less than essential that you know how/why your business is different and that you get this message across clearly and early in the Investment Proposal document.
What should be in an Investment Proposal?
Each Investment Proposal should be unique to the business that is making the application for funding and the level of detail expected by prospective investors will differ depending upon the type of investment (equity, debt or trade finance) that you are seeking. That said, there will be an expectation on the part of prospective investors that certain information will be included (within the body of the document or its appendices).
The broad headings that are likely to be included in most Investment Proposals include:
- Executive summary including (amongst other things) a clear explanation of the amount of funding that is being sought, the purpose for which the funds are being sought, an explanation of how the funds sought will be used and summary of the planned outcome/consequences of this investment
- The history of the company, its products/services and its founders
- Details of the products/services offered, how these differ from others in the market, the roadmap for the development of the products/services and details of any intellectual property
- Details of the target market(s), the routes to market, the sales/marketing plan and the competitive landscape
- Profiles of company founders, directors and other key managers
- Details of the historic, current and forecast financial data typically at a profit/loss, balance sheet and cash flow level
- Some sort of risk or SWOT analysis for the business
- Where appropriate, information on key customers/suppliers
- Where appropriate, information on any key regulatory or compliance framework within which the business must operate
- The Exit strategy and likely routes
Jerroms Corporate Finance offers a service to assist its clients in the preparation of the Investment Proposal document. Our experienced corporate finance team have the advantage of working with many of the prospective investors (equity, debt and trade finance) in the market and as such, we have an insight into the sort of investment proposals that they are looking for, the information that they will expect to see and the way that they prefer to see the information presented. Additionally, we have considerable experience of preparing financial forecast models for funding applications.
In short, we can help you to create an Investment Proposal that is designed to make that all important first impression.
JERROMS CORPORATE FINANCE
The establishment of a new investment fund (debt/equity or mezzanine) is a complex process and this challenge is compounded in the public sector where procurement rules often dictate that organisations with aspirations to manage the fund that is being created should not be involved in the development of the business plan/funding model (since their involvement at this stage would represent an obvious conflict of interest).
Jerroms Corporate Finance has considerable experience of helping to establish investment funds (public and private) and is one of the UK’s leading experts in the development of business plans and financial models for the public sector. Jerroms Corporate Finance services in this area include:
- Development of outline business case/proposals for funds to be set aside for the purpose of creating an investment fund (term or evergreen)
- Design and option appraisals for funding structures, fund types, governance structures and likely outputs/deliverables
- Ex-Anti assessment of the case for an investment fund
- Option appraisal on fund term or evergreen
- Procurement of Sub-Fund managers
- State Aid Implications
- Green Book Reporting implications
- Fund Financial models – including debt, equity, mezzanine and fund-of-funds models
- Review of the feasibility of co-investment options and leverage
- Review/Due Diligence/Audit of fund managers performance – against fund objectives and contemporary comparisons
JERROMS CORPORATE FINANCE
The establishment of a new grant scheme is a lengthy and complex process and this challenge is compounded in the public sector where procurement rules often dictate that organisations with aspirations to manage the scheme that is being created may not necessarily be involved in the development of the business case for the scheme (since their involvement at this stage would represent an obvious conflict of interest).
Jerroms Corporate Finance has considerable experience of helping to establish and manage grant schemes. Jerroms Corporate Finance services in this area include:
- Development of outline business case/proposals for funds to be set aside for the purpose of creating a grant scheme
- Design and option appraisals for grant approval process, governance structures and likely outputs/deliverables
- Ex-Anti assessment of the case for the scheme
- Procurement of the managers of the grant scheme
- State Aid Implications
- Green Book Reporting implications
- Review of the feasibility of outputs, co-investment targets and other deliverables
- Review/Due Diligence/Audit of existing grant schemes
Got a Question?
Ask us using the form below.
Get In Touch
We offer an initial consultation free of charge which gives us the chance to meet and discuss your needs, with no obligation.
Corporate Finance in Solihull
Lumaneri House, Blythe Gate,
Blythe Valley Park, Solihull, B90 8AH
0121 693 5000
Services
Other Services
