Turning a Competitor’s Failure into 50% Revenue Growth: A Distressed Deal Case Study Distressed Acquisition We Advised On We don’t usually do these but thought I’d share the case study. We don’t normally touch them because they are messy, time compressed, legally constrained, light on diligence, heavy on execution risk, and emotionally draining for everyone involved. Most buyers underestimate the cash required, overestimate how quickly synergies arrive, and forget that in an insolvency process you are buying problems, not just assets. That said, we recently advised on a distressed situation where the strategic logic was unusually compelling — and where the downside was well understood and actively managed. This article outlines why the deal made sense, and then walks through a live deal analysis, covering the real world considerations buyers need to think about when acquiring a business out of administration. The strategic backdrop A year ago, we helped a JV partner acquire a profitable construction business: • £11m turnover • £1.1m EBITDA • Well-run, scalable, and operationally disciplined Recently, a direct competitor — operating in the same region, with overlapping customers, assets, and workforce — moved toward administration. From the outside, the distressed business looked unattractive: • Loss making • Overstaffed head office • Factored receivables • Asset heavy • Operationally fragmented across multiple sites But from the perspective of an experienced operator already in the sector, it represented something else: An opportunity to add almost 50% to turnover, improve margins through scale and consolidation, and acquire hard assets at a fraction of replacement value. This wasn’t a financial engineering play. It was a strategic bolt on rescue, driven by operational synergies. The core investment thesis The buyer’s logic was straightforward: • Revenue upside • Retain core customers • Cross sell into an existing client base • Renew live contracts • Margin improvement

That’s the value of four term sheets issued in the last two weeks for four deals - four different industries, a US deal, Ireland, UK and Australia. Two accepted with due diligence now under way. Two in negotiations . Term sheets are a great way to capture the core components of a deal and something that can be referred back to in the event of any disagreements later down the line. We generally present them after a formal presentation is gone through with the seller(s) that doesn’t just go through the financial and legal components of the deal but sells us a buyer (track record, future plans for the company etc). It’s a simple 4/5 page document - If anyone is interested in having a copy of the template we use like this post or comment and I’ll send it to you.

Hello Paul, I know you say to be looking for deals of a certain size, however I have a few UK based deals that are small from around 50k-250k ebit, 500k revenue to around 2 million revenue just wondered if there is lending available for deals in this range in the UK and if you could tell me about the best options. Some have a good tangible asset base and some not so much. Thanks in advance.

Most dealmakers spend all their time learning how to close… but forget the part that actually creates deals — sourcing. In the past 15 years, I’ve completed over 100 acquisitions across 12 countries. Only three of those came from brokers. The rest came from a disciplined, repeatable sourcing system I’ve built — one that now consistently generates qualified, fundable, direct-to-owner opportunities every single week. I’ve written a new short guide that breaks down the exact process: How to define your target filters and build lists that actually convert. The personalised outreach method that gets a 25%+ response rate. How to read owner psychology and spot the real motivations to sell. The system I use (and teach our JV partners) to keep deal flow consistent month after month. If you want a copy, comment “sourcing strategy” below and I’ll send it to you directly. No fluff. No theory. Just the exact method that’s produced 1,000+ qualified leads and multiple closed deals this year alone.

I’ve put together a practical playbook that explains: - How to set and test target working capital - What really happens to cash and debt in a cash-free, debt-free deal - How surplus cash should be handled (without sparking arguments) - Worked examples showing how equity value changes under each approach Download the document here and make sure you don’t leave money on the table.