01
Something real behind it
A freehold, a plant, a contracted revenue stream, a book of receivables. We want an answer to the question of what remains if the plan does not happen.
We underwrite the downside and let the upside look after itself.
Our capital is not borrowed from anyone and is not owed back on a date. What follows from that is a narrower filter, a slower process, and a much shorter list of things we will actually own.
What we look for
Four tests, applied to everything.
If a proposal fails any one of these, the rest does not really matter. We would rather tell you that in week one than week nine.
02
Cash that has already arrived
We look at what a business has earned, not what a model says it will earn. Profitable history counts for more with us than projected growth.
03
People we want to be in business with
Minority positions mean living with the decisions of others for years. We spend as much time on who is running it as on what it earns.
04
A price that forgives a mistake
Every underwriting we do is wrong about something. The entry price is what decides whether being wrong is survivable or expensive.
How a proposal moves
From first email to signed documents, this is the whole of it. There is no separate committee and no second layer of approval.
Read
Send us what you have. Accounts, a short description of the situation and what you are looking for is enough. A polished deck is not necessary and will not help you. One of the directors reads everything that arrives, usually within a few days.
Meet
If there is something in it, we meet. This is a conversation rather than a presentation, and it is normally the point at which we work out whether the two sides want the same thing. We will tell you at the end of that meeting whether we are continuing.
Underwrite
We do the work ourselves, with advisers brought in for legal, tax and technical matters. We will want to see the detail beneath the numbers, and we will want to meet the people who are not the founder. This is usually four to eight weeks.
Commit
Because the money is on our own balance sheet, there is no financing condition and no syndicate to assemble. When we say yes, the funds are available. Documentation is the only thing standing between agreement and completion.
What we will not do.
We do not invest other people's money, and we do not take discretionary mandates. We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and we do not provide investment, legal or tax advice to anyone.
We do not back businesses at the concept stage, we do not participate in auctions run to a fixed timetable, and we will not sign a term sheet we are not certain we can fund.
If any of that rules us out, it is better established now than after both sides have spent three months on it.
Tell us what you are trying to do.
Accounts and a paragraph will do. If it is not for us you will know inside two weeks, with the reason.