The mandates we decline

We decline more mandates than we accept. The criteria below are applied consistently and are not negotiable, and we set them out so that an owner can assess in advance whether an approach to us is worth his time.

We do not act where the business falls below ₦300 million in enterprise value. Beneath that level the work required to run a proper process cannot be justified against the fee it can support, and an owner is better served by a different kind of adviser.

We do not act on a non-exclusive basis, or alongside other intermediaries.

We do not act where the shareholder group is not genuinely resolved to sell. A process launched to test the market damages a business, and the damage is not recoverable in a second attempt.

We do not act where financial records cannot support a diligence process and the shareholders are unwilling to remediate them. We will advise on that remediation. We will not take a business to market without it.

We do not act where a conflict cannot be eliminated, where the source of a counterparty's funds cannot be established, or where the transaction would place the firm or its client outside the applicable regulatory perimeter.

Where we decline, we will say why, and where we can point an owner to a more appropriate adviser we will do so.