Kevin Briggs

Interim Financial Management

Raising funds from external parties and the elements of private company acquisition

Raising funds from third parties is a task that often falls on accountants at least in part. To raise funds successfully there needs to be a sound business case for the numbers to support and it is important to ensure that the strategic case and the forecast profits and cash support each other. Examples of the finance that I have raised include:

Raising finance
Company	Year	Transaction
Fiddes Payne Ltd	2009	Raised £2.5m equity capital from VC's
	2010	Raised £0.9m additional invoice discounting finance
SMF Displays Ltd	2002	Raised £1m quasi-equity bank overdraft finance
Interconnect Ltd	1993	Raised £1m invoice discounting finance to replace £0.2m overdraft facility
	1993	Raised £1.5m equity capital from VC's
	1994	Sale of the business to Securicor Group plc for £1.5m
	1992	Negotiate lease asset finance for customers of c£0.5m
	1992	Raised R&D grant from the EU of £150k
Ultralife Batteries (UK) Ltd	1998	Manage UK side of $50m public offering on NASDAQ
	1998	Negotiate insurance claims of £7.5m
TTML	2000	Negotiate lease asset finance for customers of c£3m

An approach to raising funds through business angels.

Once the business case is prepared, the process of negotiation takes place; normally these are followed up by a degree of due diligence by the external party before agreeing to the arrangement. Whilst the due diligence process is not an exercise that will kill a deal in itself, its an important aspect of it.

Often due diligence is regarded as a financial exercise. However if it is done properly, the whole business plan will be subjected to the process, not just the numbers. The components of this process normally include:

• Financial (including tax)
• Commercial
• Legal
• Human resources (including culture)
• Managerial and organisational (including IT)
• Technological
• Environmental
• Overseas aspects, both supply side and demand side

I have prepared separate descriptions of my experiences of raising funds from external sources, the job of managing the relationship with the bank, formulating acquisition strategy and the acquisition of SME's. In addition, there are some fornlaic ways in which finance can be raised from VC’s, the questions that VC’s typically ask and there are things that VC’s will not necessarily tell you.

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What is interim management? Key staff replacement / backfilling Business integration and startups Computer implementation Raising funds from external sources

Geographical area Turnaround and divestment Management education Basic financial skills