Search funds

October 2023

Insearch Ltd: Searching for a company to buy

By Simon Webster

By March 2022 Steve Webb had spent more than three years looking for a company to acquire. He was in final negotiations to buy a company, but he and the vendors did not see eye-to-eye on its valuation. Steve was also concerned about how to structure an offer. He was in a difficult financial situatio...

May 2023

Nova Ventures: Searching for gems in the UK

By Luisa Alemany, Florin Vasvari

Zakib Sari, an aeronautical engineer and entrepreneur who had worked for Shell UK for several years, decided to pursue the entrepreneurship-through-acquisition path after his first year of the MBA programme at London Business School (LBS). In January 2016 he analysed several career options and concl...

June 2017

Propay Ltd (B)

By Keith Willey

Rick Stein is faced with taking rapid action to both save his business and at the same time take advantage of a surprise exit opportunity. As usual there’s a cash squeeze but should the business take more money and if so where from and on what terms?...

January 2018

ProPay Ltd (A)

By Keith Willey

Rick Stein gazed out at Propay Ltd’s car park where his fifteen-year-old car now languished.A year ago ProPay’s previous owner parked his Maserati in the exact same spot – a contrast that seemed oddly symbolic of Rick’s current predicament. He had bought the payments gateway business after r...