Deals Michael has led.

A global wealth management group wanted to add DFM. DFM is short for discretionary fund management. It means managing clients' money and making the investment choices for them. Building it from scratch meant hiring a team and getting the right permissions. It also meant setting up an investment process and winning clients. That was expected to take three years. So the board chose to buy a business instead. Three things were must-haves: a good culture fit, keeping the advisers, and looking after clients. Speed and keeping things quiet mattered just as much.

The job had four rules. Owners were contacted one to one, with no formal sale. Culture fit was a must-have, not a nice-to-have. Advisers agreed to stay before the deal completed. A plan to look after clients was agreed before the deal closed.

Result: the deal completed 7 months after the job started. The group gained DFM without three years of building it. It also avoided the risks of hiring staff and getting approval from the regulator.

A buy-and-build investor grows a group by buying smaller businesses and adding them to it. This UK investor needed two firms in mainland Europe within 18 months. The aim was to show the group was growing fast. It also had to get bigger before being sold to a bigger firm. Only family-owned firms would do. Each owner had to be contacted one to one. The investor had tried brokers, with no luck.

The job had four rules. Two deals had to complete within 18 months. The firms had to be family-owned. Messages to owners were about their legacy, not about taking money out. Owners were contacted one to one, never through a sale. The search covered four European markets.

Result: the first deal completed 5 months after the job started. The second completed at 14 months, inside the 18-month window.

A US software firm wanted to enter Europe. It was backed by private equity (PE), meaning investment firms owned a stake. It sold software on subscription, known as SaaS. Its investors had backed a plan for £15m of European ARR within three years. ARR is annual recurring revenue: the subscription income a business can count on each year. Building that from scratch would take 18 to 24 months. The brief was clear. Find a profitable UK or European business whose software automates routine office work. It had to be run by its founder, with solid customers that were large companies. And it had to be found before it went up for sale.

The job had four rules. The business could not be up for sale yet. Gross revenue retention had to be above 90%. That means at least 90% of last year's customer income had to stay, not counting growth. Customers had to be large companies only. The founder had to still run it, and fit the US buyer's culture. This was checked before the deal closed.

Result: the deal completed at 5.2x ARR. That means the price was 5.2 times its annual recurring revenue. The buyer gained 67 large business customers and £7.4m of ARR. Building that from scratch was expected to take 18 to 24 months.

A group of infrastructure services firms was backed by private equity. It wanted to buy three to five regional firms over 30 months. These firms test and inspect building work. The sector was split into many small firms. The plan was to bring some together, then sell the group to a bigger firm. The firms were technical and run by their founders. At this size, no brokers were selling them. The main check was simple. Did the founder want to protect what they had built?

The job had four rules. Each owner was contacted one to one, never through a sale. Messages were about legacy and keeping things going, not taking money out. Each technical founder had to pass a proper check. And several deals had to complete while the investor owned the group.

Result: two deals completed. When the job was reviewed, a third business was being checked in detail before purchase (due diligence).