n Industries offers a permanent home for outstanding UK industrial businesses
We acquire high quality businesses that have inelastic demand for their product or service from their customer, giving strong pricing power.
We have a flexible approach to acquiring. For those looking for a complete exit, we can buy 100% of your business. For owners who want to stay with the business, typically you can retain up to a ~25% stake in the business – enabling you to share in the continued success of the company.
We do not look to resell businesses we buy. We will not run your business for cash or look to flip it for a higher price to another buyer – we will work together with the business management to generate long-term value for all stakeholders.
We enable succession plans when an owner is looking to exit. We also partner with owners and managers to provide strategic, operational and financial support to take the business to the next level.
All our subsidiaries operate autonomously. We work closely with management as engaged owners to enhance value through our executive and advisor team. Our incentive structure enables senior management at our businesses to share in the success that we generate together.
Our Acquisition Criteria
We look for UK-based industrial businesses with £2-15mn in revenue. Businesses should have a good track record of underlying profitability and cash flow generation.
Our businesses typically have the following characteristics:
A niche or specialised market position
Diversified customer base
Relatively inelastic customer demand for their product or service
Strong management team in place, or capable second tier that can step up
High level of repeat or recurring business
Opportunities to grow above GDP
Low risk of disruption
Our investment process
Selling your business is a major life event. We seek to make the process as transparent and fair as possible. We value your time. We seek to understand quickly if there is a good cultural and business fit. We want our interests and objectives to be aligned before we move forward.
01
1-3 days
Introduction
- Sign NDA
- Initial meeting or call
- Provide 10 years of historical accounts
- Initial alignment of interests
02
4 weeks
Due diligence
- Management meetings
- Site visits
- Alignment of transaction objectives and direction for business
- Formulation of deal
- Indicative offer
- Head of Terms signed: price, terms, timeline
03
6-8 weeks
Deeper dive
- Onsite due diligence
- Legal and accounting due diligence
- External industry due diligence
- Agree growth plan
- Finalise sale and purchase agreement
04
1-7 days
Completion
- Completion and payment
- Communicate with team
- Day 1 – management focus on business (continued autonomy)
- From day 1: availability of full suite of our tools and resources
Other considerations
We like our management teams to retain a minority interest in the business to align interests.