Sponsors
Acquisition finance for private equity
From the first structural consideration in the deal through to close, with direct access to the relevant lenders.
Context
We turn financing into a lever for your deal and your returns.
A bank club costs less and delivers more slowly; a unitranche costs more and delivers certainty on timing, size and covenant package. We run both routes against each other, across debt funds, international banks and bank clubs, make the difference visible in your numbers, and manage the process so the financing follows your timetable. Every lender then works from the same materials to the same deadline, while your deal team runs due diligence and the SPA. For infrastructure funds the same logic applies at the level of the holding, while the asset underneath is financed on its own footing.
Focus areas
- Buy-and-build platforms
- Carve-outs
- Secondaries
- Public-to-private
- Infrastructure holdings
- Minority stakes
Profile
Private equity and infrastructure funds with their portfolio companies.
No recourse to the fund, leverage capacity as a return driver, a defined exit horizon, a fixed process rhythm.
Structures & instruments
- Acquisition & LBO financing
- Add-on & portfolio financing
- Refinancing & dividend recap
- Unitranche, senior & club structures
Common questions
Questions on acquisition finance
- How quickly can a financing commitment be in place?
- That depends on the instrument and the state of your information package. A unitranche delivers a reliable indication within three to four weeks. A bank club, with committee dates, needs closer to eight to twelve weeks to a signed term sheet. Both periods start once the financial model, due diligence reports and business plan are available. At the outset we clarify which route carries your timetable and set the process to that rhythm.
- We closed all-equity. Can the structure be levered afterwards?
- Yes. In tight credit markets this is a deliberate route that provides certainty of funds in the auction and moves the financing to after closing. The financing is then negotiated at portfolio company level, typically with the first full reporting year under your ownership as the data set, which often improves the negotiating position. The distribution to the fund, the holding period and any planned add-on programme should be built into the structure before negotiations start.
- What is different about add-ons?
- The financing framework already exists, which shortens the route. Whether a bolt-on is funded through the accordion, an upsize or a separate structure determines the time and cost of the entire buy-and-build programme. That question should therefore be settled in the initial financing.
Next Services Situations About
Ahead of an acquisition, a refinancing or a dividend recap.
Club deal, unitranche or a combined structure: which routes stay open depends on the case and on the window. Talk to us early. Short-notice, confidential conversations are the norm in deal situations.