What does the M&A process typically look like?

The Chelsea Corporate Process

On every Chelsea Corporate transaction you'll have a consultation with an Acquisitions Specialist, to establish your acquisition criteria; a dedicated Deal Leader to managed your search, offers and acceptance and a Transaction Manager to see you through the due diligence stage and on to completion.

Onboarding
Once we have onboarded you as a client and we've started working together, we'll satisfy KYC and Proof of Funds requirements and then it's time to get started.

The Research Call
We'll then arrange a welcome call with our research team to go through your acquisition criteria in more detail and we will create a buyer profile which enables us to build a rapport with the sellers of businesses that we approach on your behalf.

Sourcing Opportunities
For more information about how we source opportunities, see our video on the topic https://youtu.be/uy0mzz9s15c
Once we source an opportunity, we will share all the available information about the seller and arrange a call to explore the opportunity.

The Exploratory Call
On this call, we find out more information about the seller, but also build a relationship and see if there is a good fit in terms of objectives.

Follow up Analysis
Afterwards we'll sit with you to analyse the last few year's accounts and formulate an appropriate deal structure for the acquisition.

Offer
We'll advise on the best way to put forward an offer and help you to negotiate the price that you'd like to pay for the business. We'll also provide you with market comparables to help you through this phase with confidence.

Offer Accepted
We put together "Heads of Terms" - subject to due diligence - which establishes exclusivity over the deal for a period of time. The purpose of this is to stop your offer getting shopped around to other buyers while you're doing your due diligence.

Due Diligence
We'll facilitate the exchange of documents and financials during this stage, between you, the seller and your lawyer and accountant. We'll make sure we hold the seller accountable through the due diligence process and suggest appropriate remedies where any deficiencies are identified right through to completion.


If you’re looking to buy a business in the UK, start your search with Chelsea Corporate. We’ll make sure you have all the information you need to make a well-informed decision. You can register as a business buyer, browse current off-market sellers that you won’t find anywhere else, or for more fantastic insights, register for one of our weekly webinars for business buyers.

Register as a business buyer https://chelseacorporate.com/buy-a-business/

Browse off-market sellers https://chelseacorporate.com/off-market-sellers/

Sign up for our webinar for buyers https://chelseacorporate.com/events/
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