How we are paid

We set out how we are paid because the way an adviser is compensated determines the advice a client receives, and because a seller is entitled to understand that before appointing anyone.

We are paid in two parts. A monthly retainer runs for the duration of the mandate. A completion fee, calculated on enterprise value, is payable on closing. Engagements are exclusive, carry a minimum fee, and are subject to a twenty-four month tail on transactions with parties introduced during the mandate.

The retainer exists for the client's protection, and it is worth being direct about why. An adviser paid only on completion has an interest in any transaction closing, not in the right transaction closing at the right price. He also has an economic reason to spend as little as possible on the preparation that determines the outcome — the financial remediation, the diligence readiness, the construction of a genuine buyer universe. A retainer removes that pressure. It is the reason we can advise a client to reject an offer, or to withdraw from a process altogether, without that advice costing us anything we would not willingly lose.

The exclusivity and the tail exist for the same reason. A process only produces competitive tension if one party controls the information and the timetable. A business represented to the market by several intermediaries at once is a business that buyers understand to be for sale on any terms, and it is priced accordingly.

We do not accept contingent-only mandates. Fee arrangements are set out in full in the engagement letter before any work begins and are not varied during a process.