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Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory

20+
Years of M&A Experience

You will sell this business once. The buyer across the table does it for a living.

That asymmetry decides the price. It works the other way too: the owner you approach to acquire has spent two decades building value and knows exactly what their company is worth to an outside buyer.

We sit on your side of the table and run the process, acting strictly as an advisor rather than a lender or a broker. Sell-side or buy-side, you keep running the business while we execute the deal.  

50+
Completed M&A Transactions 
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95%
completion rate

Mergers and Acquisitions AdvisoryMergers and Acquisitions Advisory

 Selling a business you spent years building is high-stakes; buying one without uncovering hidden risks is just as tough. We understand the friction on both sides. Whether you are preparing for a clean exit or acquiring your next growth engine, we sit on your side of the table to run the entire process—so you protect your value, secure the right terms, and keep running your company without the disruption.  

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What Owners and Boards Actually Ask Us

Some of these will sound familiar. They're what we get asked in first meetings, before anyone has decided anything. 

You may be thinking of selling:

"I know the business is valuable. I'm just not sure buyers will see it the way I do."

“I don’t know whether to sell now, wait two years, or bring in investment instead.”

“I want to protect my team and what we’ve built, not just chase a vanity valuation.”

You may be looking to acquire:

"We know buying beats building from scratch, but we don't have a pipeline of off-market targets."

“We’ve identified a potential target, but we don’t know if the valuation and risk profile actually stack up.”

“We need an advisor to manage diligence and deal structuring without pulling our leadership out of daily trading.”

You may be mid-process already:

“We received an unsolicited inbound offer and need an independent benchmark before we engage.”

 "Our deal is losing momentum and we're not sure whether to push, renegotiate or walk."

“We need senior, independent due diligence and SPA negotiation support before signing binding terms.”

 

M&A Challenges

Where Deals Lose Value

Price gets agreed early. Value gets decided later, in diligence, in the legals, and in the gap between a headline number and what actually lands in your account.

Seven places that happens, and what we do about each. 

One Senior Lead, Start to Completion
Confidential From the First Call (Mutual NDA) 
We Carry the Process Workload

01. Proving What the Earnings Really Are

Most owners find out what their company is worth from a buyer, which is the worst possible source. Earnings adjustments, owner add-backs, customer concentration: if these aren't sorted before talks start, a buyer finds them in diligence and prices them in.

02. Building Competition Into the Process

One offer is never a market. With one buyer at the table, you end up negotiating against yourself. We run a controlled group of trade and private equity acquirers bidding against each other, and we hold confidentiality together while we do it.

03. Protecting the Business While You Sell It

Running a sale is a full-time job. Hundreds of hours of diligence requests, data pulls and management meetings. And if your numbers dip while a buyer is reading them, you pay for it twice. We absorb that workload, and we manage who knows what and when.

04. Reducing Reliance on You

Buyers pay more for a business that runs without the founder in every meeting. If the customer relationships and the management depth demonstrably aren't just you, more of the price arrives at completion and less of it sits in an earn-out.

05. Defending Value Through the Legals

Between the term sheet and your bank account sit the working capital target, the warranty schedule and the earn-out. All three get negotiated after you've agreed the price. We stay in it to the final Sale and Purchase Agreement.

06. Getting Through Diligence

Between heads of terms and completion is where deals quietly lose value. We run the four diligence workstreams, technical, financial, commercial and legal, on a stage-gated plan. The difficult questions surface in week two. Week nine is too late.

07. Raise, Sell or Restructure With One Team

Debt, M&A and restructuring sit in one advisory relationship. So the question behind most board conversations, "do we raise or do we sell?", gets tested properly rather than answered by whichever firm you happened to call first.

Two Mandates, One Process

Sell-Side Advisory

Protecting the Number You Actually Take Home

Selling the company you built is personal, and the transaction process is exhausting. We take deal management off your desk and negotiate on your behalf so you stay focused on business performance; the most important factor in defending your valuation.

Carrying the Workload

We absorb the hundreds of hours of buyer questions, diligence requests, data room management and scheduling, so you can stay focused on running the company and hitting targets.
Telling the Real Story Behind the Numbers

We normalize owner add-backs and build the growth case out of your own numbers. Buyers pay for the forward view when somebody puts it in front of them properly.
Staged Confidentiality
Your staff, customers and competitors find out when you want them to. We control who sees what at which stage, and we hold that line with you.
More Than One Buyer at the Table
We bring a controlled group of trade and private equity acquirers in at the same time. Optionality is what lets you say no to a bad number, and better terms come from optionality far more often than from negotiating harder. 
Reducing Key-Person Risk
We sort the handover and the management structure early, which strips out the buyer's argument for a long lock-in or a heavy earn-out. 
Holding the Terms to Completion

We stay in it through the legals: the earn-out mechanics, the working capital target, the warranty schedule. This is the stage where deals quietly lose value.  
Buy-Side Advisory

Buying Without Inheriting the Problems

Buying is the fast way to add capability or market share. It's also the fast way to pay a premium for somebody else's problem.

We find targets that aren't on the market, then test whether the numbers and the risks hold up. For corporate acquirers, sponsors and their portfolio companies. 

Finding Targets That Aren't For Sale 

We approach owners directly, before a process exists, so you're negotiating with one seller in a private conversation. 
Bolt-Ons and Buy-and-Build
We work with sponsors on programmatic buy-and-build mandates, and with corporate acquirers adding capability or geography. Repeat acquirers need a process that still works on the fourth deal.  
Testing Whether the Revenue Holds

Customer concentration, key-person reliance, real margins once the add-backs come out. We pressure-test the commercial case so you know what you're buying before you commit capital.  
Stress-Testing the Model

Synergy assumptions and the financial model, tested against a downside case, before you sign binding terms.  
Funding the Acquisition
 Senior debt, unitranche, deferred consideration and rollover equity, put together so the acquisition doesn't strand your cash flow. This is the same debt capability we've used to raise over £500m.
Running It to Completion

One investment lead owns the mandate from the first call to completion, coordinating legal, tax and diligence, and writing the transition plan. No handover to a junior once the paperwork's signed.

Exits Are Won Long Before a Process Begins.

Sell-side execution is fundamentally about control, certainty, and outcome optimisation. In sponsor-backed businesses, realised value is shaped well in advance of buyer outreach and is most often eroded through execution issues rather than headline valuation alone. Late surprises, process slippage, and loss of leverage can materially affect outcomes.

Fuse Capital advises sponsors and boards on exits and separations where precision, timing, and execution discipline are critical, balancing value maximisation with certainty of outcome.

Exit Positioning & Value Narrative

Positioning the asset to withstand buyer scrutiny by shaping a clear equity story, supported by sustainable earnings, defensible growth drivers, and a credible future-state plan. We address potential valuation friction early, including complexity, concentration risk, and structural issues that typically surface during diligence.

Process Design & Buyer Strategy

Designing controlled sale processes that balance competitive tension with execution certainty, including buyer universe construction across strategic and financial counterparties. We manage timing, information flow, and sequencing to preserve leverage and avoid premature loss of control.

Diligence & Execution Risk Management

Anticipating and managing confirmatory diligence risk, including Quality of Earnings pressure, working capital mechanics, and separation complexity. Our focus is on addressing issues before exclusivity to minimise price chipping, conditionality, or execution slippage.

Negotiation Through Signing & Completion

Leading negotiations across price, deal structure, consideration mechanics, warranties and indemnities, and completion accounts or locked box mechanisms. We manage execution through signing and closing to optimise value, certainty, and timing while limiting residual exposure.

Buying Is Easy. Buying Well Is Not.

In sponsor-backed environments, acquisitions are rarely about deal access. The real challenge is deploying capital in a way that balances growth, leverage, and integration without compromising the investment thesis. 

Fuse Capital supports sponsors and portfolio companies on acquisitions where pricing, structure, and execution complexity directly affect returns and future optionality. We act as a disciplined counterweight in fast-moving processes, helping sponsors distinguish conviction from momentum and ensuring acquisitions strengthen the platform economically and structurally, rather than introduce friction that surfaces later in the hold period. 

Target assessment and valuation discipline

We assess targets beyond headline EBITDA, focusing on the quality and durability of earnings, normalisation risk, and the interaction between operating performance, integration complexity, and existing leverage. Underwriting assumptions are pressure-tested against downside scenarios, synergy realisation, and the impact on covenant headroom. 

Deal structuring and funding strategy

Designing acquisition structures that balance price, leverage, and control, including consideration of rollover equity, earn-outs, deferred consideration, and acquisition facilities. Capital structures are assessed with future add-on capacity, refinancing optionality, and exit mechanics firmly in view.

Negotiation and execution management

Leading commercial and structural negotiations across valuation, consideration mechanics, representations and warranties, and conditionality. Our focus is on protecting downside, managing completion risk, and avoiding late-stage re-trades that erode value or delay closing.

Execution risk and integration readiness

Identifying operational, financial, and structural risks early in the process, including integration complexity, management bandwidth, and post-close governance. Issues are addressed pre-completion wherever possible to avoid value leakage being absorbed into the platform during the hold period.

Proven Execution Across the Mid-Market

UK Solutions
Transaction Value
£21,000,000
heart internet
Transaction Value
£34,000,000
United Hosting
Transaction Value
£11,000,000
VENUS
Transaction Value
£14,000,000

Funding an Acquisition: Two Starting Points 

Debt & Restructuring, When the Deal Needs It

Deals rarely stop at a clean sale agreement. If your transaction requires acquisition debt raised, a legacy balance sheet restructured, or a carve-out managed, that work runs alongside the main mandate with the same team. 

Debt Advisory & Acquisition Financing
Debt Advisory & Acquisition Finance

Getting the funding mix right, at £2m to £25m. .

  • Acquisition and growth facilities: senior debt, unitranche and asset-backed lines to fund a buyout or an expansion.
  • Covenant headroom: terms negotiated so the debt sits comfortably against cash flow rather than against a forecast.
  • Refinancing: releasing liquidity from the balance sheet to close a deal or fund operations.
Restructuring & Special Situations
Restructuring & Special Situations

Clearing balance sheet problems before or during a deal.

  • Carve-outs and separations: standalone financials and a clean operating perimeter before a sale.
  • Legacy debt: restructuring the stack and steadying cash flow ahead of going to market.
  • Stalled processes: stepping into a tired or complex deal to get the parties back to completion.

Trusted by Companies Backed by Leading Global Investors

We have supported businesses backed by leading institutional investors through complex capital and transaction decisions. Our exposure to sponsor-led governance, diligence, and exit processes shapes how we advise on equity strategy, alignment, and long-term outcomes.

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Perspectives on capital, structure, and transactions

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Once we receive your details, we start with a conversation.

1. Initial Consultation We arrange a discovery call to understand your business, funding requirements, and growth ambitions, and to assess whether there is a strategic fit.
2. Information Gathering & Review If we proceed, we work closely with you to gather key financial and operational information and conduct an initial review to develop a clear, accurate understanding of the business.
3. Investment Committee Review Your opportunity is reviewed by our investment committee. We take a selective approach, progressing only where we believe we can add meaningful value. Where aligned, we recommend an appropriate funding strategy and outline next steps.