Services | Knight

How we can
help you

We spend time understanding a client’s business and know where to unlock hidden value and opportunities. We take time to understand our client aspirations to ensure that we can deliver on time and to expectations.

Strategy

Making ambitions real starts with the right strategy. We tailor our strategic consulting to your needs and expectations. Many clients work with us on an on-going basis, where we act as an advisor to the board. We can also take on short term projects such as strategic reviews. Whichever way you choose to work with us you can be confident that you’ll get the most value for shareholders.

What we do:

 
  • Understand and review current strategy
  • Detailed analysis of the business, including a comprehensive SWOT analysis
  • Vendor assist and transaction planning
  • Financial and commercial due diligence
  • Exit planning

Funding

We have strong relationships with a range of funders, including private equity, venture capital, traditional banks, challenger banks and venture debt providers. We will be able to identify the most appropriate source of funding based on your specific requirements.

These include:

 
  • MBO/MBI
  • Acquisitions
  • Cash out of minority shareholders
  • Equity release of founders
  • Growth capital
  • Refinancing and debt consolidation

  • Preparation

    We take time to understand your business and your ambitions to ensure that we can identify the most appropriate sources of funding for you and build an information pack to target these parties.

  • Marketing

    We assess funders interest and provide the information pack which includes a deadline for offers. We communicate with parties during this time to drive competition and elicit firm written offers.

  • Heads of Terms

    A funding package comprises many factors other than the quantum and cost of capital. We negotiate with parties to reduce conditionality and help build a detailed set of terms for the funds.

  • Completion

    To complete the funding transaction, a business will undergo a due diligence process where legal, financial, technical and commercial information is checked and verified in fine detail. Alongside, the Heads of terms are translated into legal documents. Knight supports its clients providing disciplined project management, data-rooms and negotiation support through to a successful completion.

Acquisitions

Our industry experience and long history of M&A in the sector ensures that we can advise and provide support on all elements of an acquisition process. We have advised clients on numerous acquisitions where we can offer a hands-on approach to the process.


This unique industry experience in technology and telecoms M&A ensures that we can provide genuine insight and significant additional value to clients during a process.

These include:

 
  • Valuation and deal structure
  • Negotiation of key terms
  • Due diligence
  • Project management of the process
  • Post completion planning

  • Valuation

    Knight brings its industry leading experience to bear in providing an indicative value range for a target business.

  • Due Diligence and completion

    Knight will project manage due diligence and can also provide its own commercial diligence services alongside negotiation to a successful completion.

  • Post Completion Planning

    Integration is the key to a successful acquisition. Knight can assist in planning so that key strategies are in place ready for Day 1 after completion.

Exit

The sale of a business is often a life changing event for shareholders. As a prolific sell-side advisor in the UK technology and telecoms sector, we know what it takes to succeed. Which is why we take time to understand what you and your shareholders want, so we can deliver a process that ensures ambitions are realised.

We can help you with:

 
  • Thorough preparation ahead of starting the deal
  • Competitive tension taking advantage of our sector experience
  • Designing a bespoke process to minimise business disruption
  • Working to unlock value and go beyond shareholder expectations
  • Typical process runs for 5-9 months and provides Knight’s clients with total confidence in delivering maximum shareholder value

  • Vendor Assist

    Vendor Assist is a due diligence dry-run. Our technical accounting team create a detailed report on your business identifying potential issues that may have an impact on a deal so they can be addressed before a transaction commences.

  • Preparation

    We take time to understand your business to ensure that we can identify the most appropriate acquirers for you and build an information pack to target these parties.

  • Marketing

    We assess purchasers’ interest and provide the information pack which includes everything a buyer needs to make an indicative offer together with an offer deadline. We communicate with parties during this time to drive competition and elicit firm written offers.

  • Heads of Terms

    The sale of a business comprises many factors other than the quantum and cost of capital. We negotiate with parties to reduce to deliver a detailed set of terms that set out the key terms of a transaction. We can also use the Vendor Assist report to extend the period of competition and reduce the impact and timetable for due diligence.

  • Completion

    To complete the transaction, a business will undergo a due diligence process where legal, financial, technical and commercial information is checked and verified in fine detail. Alongside, the Heads of terms are translated into legal documents. Knight supports its clients providing disciplined project management, data-rooms and negotiation support through to a successful completion.

  • I knew the process was likely to be challenging. Until we started the journey, we did not fully realise how complex and demanding the transaction could be and the value of having Knight as an advisor. We were so impressed just how much support and expertise Knight provided through out every step of the due diligence. As we also had our day jobs to do, it was a huge help to have Knight on our side. We are in no doubt Adam and the team overcame a number of obstacles, including keeping the conversations going through lockdown at the height of the pandemic and successfully defending our position on key commercial points in diligence to ensure that we were not susceptible to any late price negotiations. From the get-go, Knight ran a professional and efficient process, ensuring we were prepared and negotiated a deal that we are delighted with. Knight exceeded our expectations in every way

    Tony Cook

    Union Street Technologies

  • We engaged Knight initially to prepare ourselves and the business for a potential exit. The results and recommendations gave us confidence that that our price aspirations could be achieved. With Knight’s experience and sector knowledge, we were able to negotiate an agreement that met the expectations of all our shareholders. They professionally managed the process despite lockdown and were always on hand during the engagement

    Firas Bilbeisi

    CMT

  • We engaged Knight to take the business through a dry run due diligence process (Knight Vendor Assist) to ensure we were prepared for our eventual exit and the timing turned out to be perfect. Knight delivered a deal that allowed us to realise the wealth we had locked up in the business with plenty of upside as part of the team at Kerv

    James Passingham

    Foehn

  • I’ve known Knight for over 10 years having worked with Adam on the sale of my first business. Knight managed the process and ensured a highly complex deal ran extremely smoothly. When you agree the initial terms of a deal it seems very simple but it’s never the case. With Knight at my side, we were able to navigate the intricacies of the merger to a successful completion; it would have been tough without them

    Steve Burges

    DoubleEdge

  • Having worked with Adam and the Knight team on our debt funding three years ago, we knew Knight had the expert knowledge of the sector and strong funder relationships to deliver a deal that would meet the business’ growth ambitions.

    Kevin Timms

    EACS

  • Knight’s industry expertise was invaluable in running a disciplined and professional process. We were delighted with the outcome, having found an ideal partner in Babble Cloud, where the two business cultures are so closely aligned.

    Erica Lewis

    Diva Telecom

  • We’ve enjoyed the journey with Knight. They ensured the business and our team were fully prepared for the transaction and delivered a deal that fully realised our aspirations for the business. I enjoy working in the hospitality sector and now have the firepower to develop the business at home and abroad, potentially with another bite of the cherry in due course.

    Simon Catterick

    QDOSsbl

  • I have worked with Paul Billingham at Knight for a number of years and his advice has been invaluable. Whilst I was not expecting to sell the company at this stage, the opportunity from Enreach was too good to turn down. The Knight team ensured that we got the right deal for everyone at Network Telecom and the transaction could be completed efficiently with the minimum of disruption to the business.

    Paul Maxfield

    Network Telecom

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