Transaction Advisory Services

Reduce stress and maximise your chance of success with expert-led transaction advisory services. We’ll complete or support your team with due diligence to close deals quickly and smoothly.

Transaction advisory services

Get your agreed deal to completion

You have a preferred bidder — or you're about to sign exclusivity. CapEQ's senior team runs the data room, sharpens the numbers, and negotiates the deal through to completion. No full sale process required.

Most transaction advisory pages assume you're starting from scratch. You're not. A buyer has emerged — through an approach, a relationship, or a process you've run yourself — and you need experienced people to hold the line on value and get from agreement to completion without the deal drifting or unravelling.

That is the job we do here: negotiation and deal management for a transaction that already has a counterparty. We do not run a full competitive auction. We take the deal you have and make it complete on the best defensible terms.

  • A few terms, in plain English. A preferred bidder is the one buyer you've chosen to take forward. Exclusivity (or a no-shop) is a short agreement to negotiate only with them for a set period. Heads of terms set out the shape of the deal — price, structure, timeline — before the lawyers draft the binding contract. A data room is the secure online space where the buyer's advisers review your documents.

Senior M&A adviser negotiating a deal for a founder — CapEQ transaction advisory
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What this service is — and what it isn't

We are clear about our remit, because a clear remit is what gets deals done.

We do:

    • Run and manage the data room, so information reaches the buyer's advisers in the right order, at the right time.
    • Assess your numbers against our robust, data-informed financial analysis.
    • Negotiate on your behalf — from heads of terms through to the signed sale and purchase agreement (SPA).
    • Keep every adviser aligned and the timetable moving.

We don't:

  • Run a full competitive sale process, screen a field of buyers, or write a sale prospectus. That is our selling a business service.
  • Provide tax advice, or conduct legal or financial due diligence. We run the data room that supports the buyer's due diligence, and we keep your accountants and lawyers moving — we don't replace them.
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Purpose-driven M&A - why CapEQ is leading the change

What working with us looks like

Financial analysis, not guesswork

We build a clear, data-informed view of the numbers — and defend it in the room. Robust analysis is what turns a number you hope for into a number you can hold.

A data room that keeps the deal moving

We run the data room, anticipate the buyer's questions, and manage responses so momentum never stalls. Deals rarely fall over on price. They fall over on delay.

Momentum to completion

We work to your timeline, chase the detail, and keep every adviser pulling the same way — so the deal doesn't drift once the hard part starts.

Straight talk when it counts

Weekly updates, an honest read on where the deal really stands, and coaching before the meetings that decide the outcome. You pay us for judgement, not reassurance.

Who's in your corner

The people negotiating your deal shape the outcome as much as the number on the page. Here is what to look for — in us, or in anyone you consider.

Whatever help you need, experience matters most when it's paired with understanding. A partner in your corner works through the fears and frustrations to find the gains you both want.

 

CapEQ adviser supporting a founder through the emotional side of a business sale

Trust and confidentiality are non-negotiable at a pivotal point in your company's history. Work with people who treat that as instinct, not policy.

 

Confidential handling of sensitive information during a CapEQ M&A transaction

Deep commercial knowledge, clear thinking, and hard-won pattern recognition keep a deal calm when it gets complicated. Ask what someone has actually completed.

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Look for rigorous analysts and steady negotiators who leave no stone unturned to reach the best defensible result — and stay composed under pressure.

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Expect full transparency, regular updates, clear milestones, and people who can command a room and deliver the point that matters in the meetings that count.

 

CapEQ adviser giving a founder a clear, transparent deal update

The best part of this work is understanding you and your business well enough to negotiate for what you actually want. That takes time, patience, and genuine interest.

 

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Track record you can check

Our founding Partners have worked on more than 200+ transactions, and we're Europe's first certified B Corp M&A boutique (2021) — an audited standard for how we treat clients, people, and process. Both are easy to verify: see our completed transactions and our B Corp status.

Common questions

Straight answers on how the service works, what we handle, and the risks that most often catch founders out on the way to completion.

What is a preferred bidder?

The single buyer you've chosen to take forward — usually into exclusivity — rather than continuing to talk to a field of interested parties.

Can you help if I've already signed exclusivity?

Yes. Ideally we join before exclusivity so the opening terms are right, but we regularly step in mid-deal to steady the negotiation and drive it to completion.

Do you run the full sale process?

Not on this service. Here we negotiate and complete a deal that already has a buyer. If you need to find and run a competitive process among buyers, that's our selling a business service.

Do you help structure the share purchase agreement (SPA)?

We negotiate the commercial terms that go into the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) — the contract that transfers the business. That means price and deal structure, how much is paid on completion versus deferred, and any earn-out (a portion of the price tied to future performance).

Your lawyers draft and advise on the legal document; we make sure the commercial position it captures is the one we negotiated for you — and that nothing quietly softens between heads of terms and signing.

What regulatory risks could hold up completion?

The one that catches founders out most often is the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act. If your business operates in one of 17 sensitive sectors — including artificial intelligence, energy, defence, and advanced technology — an acquisition that crosses certain control thresholds (broadly, more than 25%, more than 50%, or 75% or more of the shares or voting rights) must be cleared by the government before completion. It applies whatever the buyer's nationality, there is no minimum deal size, and a deal that should have been notified but wasn't is legally void.

Other clearances — for example competition or merger control — can also apply. We flag early whether your transaction is likely caught, build any clearance into the timetable, and work alongside your lawyers, who handle the filing itself — so nothing surfaces late and stalls the deal.

Do you provide tax advice or due diligence?

No. We don't give tax advice, but we can conduct vendor due diligence if required. We run the data room, provide the financial analysis, negotiate the terms, and keep your accountants and lawyers moving.

What size of deal do you work on?

Our focus is UK and European independently owned businesses in the £5m–£100m enterprise value range.

Still weighing something up? Talk it through with Mark — no obligation.

Mark, CapEQ's transaction adviser, available to talk through your deal
Speak to our expert, Mark

Whether you're ready to start or just want to talk something through, Mark is happy to help. No pressure, no obligation — just an honest view of where your deal stands.

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