Serious sellers at your table in 90 days.
An independent buy-side M&A specialist, in Glasgow and London. We find the owners who aren't selling yet, approach them on your behalf, and bring the right ones to you. For founder-led groups, PE-backed platforms and family offices that want more acquisitions without running the search themselves.
A briefing is a free 30-minute call with Michael. No obligation.
You've seen what acquisitions can do. The problem is how slowly the next one comes.
Auctions
Every brokered deal draws a crowd of bidders and pushes the price up.
Silence
Owners ignore approaches that look like every other letter they get.
Never urgent
The search matters, but the day job always wins.
Pressure
Your board or investors want a pace you can't deliver alone.
What happens, week by week
Criteria agreed
What you'll buy, where, at what size and price, and what you'll walk away from.
Market mapped
Every business that fits, agreed with you before any approach.
Owners approached
Senior-led, anonymous, owner by owner. Fortnightly pipeline reports.
Owners at your table
At least five serious sellers at your table, guaranteed.
After day 90: optional support through offer, due diligence and completion. We coordinate buy-side due diligence with your accountants and lawyers, so the findings feed the price and the contract rather than arriving too late to use.
How this compares
| Acquisitiv | Business broker | Corporate finance house | Hiring in-house | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works for | You, only | The seller | Mostly sellers | You |
| Deals you see | Off-market | On-market, auctioned | Mostly on-market | Depends on the hire |
| Who approaches owners | A senior adviser | n/a | Often a junior team | Your hire |
| Cost | Fixed fee, agreed up front | Built into the price | Retainer plus success fee | £100k+ a year |
| Time to start | Week one | When a deal appears | Varies | Months to recruit |
Off-market works when it's done properly.
In our experience, 15–30% of well-researched owners respond positively to a personal, anonymous approach. Most have never been asked. The best buyers already work this way: private equity investors class almost half (48%) of the deals they close as proprietary, not won in an open auction.
Source: Gompers, Kaplan and Mukharlyamov, What Do Private Equity Firms Say They Do?, Journal of Financial Economics (2016).
A deal Michael led: a wealth management group needed a discretionary fund management capability without a three-year organic build. Off-market only, with cultural fit as a hard filter. Completed in 7 months from mandate.
Led by Michael in prior advisory and principal-side roles. All four deals →
Michael Ferguson, Partner
Former head of M&A at William Grant & Sons and finance director at Capita. Partner at CDI Global. The person who runs your briefing leads every stage after it: no hand-offs to juniors.
About Michael →Built for acquirers who want more deals, faster
Founder-led groups
Growing by bolt-on without hiring a deal team.
PE-backed platforms
The add-on pace your investors expect, inside the hold period.
Family offices
Direct deals, sourced off-market, without an auction.
Scotland
Buy-side only, based in Glasgow. For Scottish acquirers and buyers of Scottish businesses.
Scotland →Instead of hiring
Outsourced corporate development: the work of a head of M&A, without the year-long hire.
Compare →Not sure you fit?
Who we work with, and who we don't.
Who we work with →Buy-side due diligence that changes the price, not just the paperwork
Due diligence is where buyers protect themselves, or don't. We coordinate it for you: we agree the scope with your accountants, lawyers and any specialists, keep it focused on the risks that matter for this deal, and turn the findings into price adjustments, warranties and completion conditions.
It's included in our post-day-90 support, and we can also coordinate due diligence on a deal you've found yourself. See our due diligence checklist →
Questions buyers ask us
Won't you just bring us deals a broker already has?
No. We only approach owners who aren't on the market, and you agree the list in week 3.
Who actually speaks to the owners?
Every owner approach is senior-led, never handed to a junior team. Approaches are anonymous until an owner agrees to talk and signs a confidentiality agreement.
What if owners don't respond?
That's what the guarantee is for. If you don't have at least five serious sellers at your table by day 90, we keep going at no extra fee until you do.
Why not hire a head of M&A?
Worth it if you'll do several deals a year. For most acquirers, a fixed 90-day project costs less and starts in week one. The full comparison →
Do you ever act for sellers?
No. We only act for buyers.
Will you run the same search for a competitor?
No. We work for one client per target market at a time. Target lists and owner details stay confidential, under NDA, and are seen only by Michael and the named members of your search team.
What does it cost?
A fixed fee for the 90 days, agreed in writing before any work starts: no hourly billing, and no extra fee if we need longer to reach five owners. We'll talk it through in your briefing.
What happens after day 90?
No retainer. If you want us to stay on through offer, due diligence and completion, that support is agreed per deal and paid only if you complete.
How does Acquisitiv relate to CDI Global?
Acquisitiv is an active member of CDI Global, a mid-market M&A firm with 45 offices in more than 30 countries and more than 50 years of cross-border deals. That gives your search three things: reach, through colleagues who can approach owners in their own market and language; deal knowledge, from hundreds of cross-border transactions; and senior oversight from Mark Ledger-Beadell, CDI Global's Head of EMEA.
Acquisitiv only ever acts for buyers. CDI Global also advises on sales, so your search, target list and owner details stay confidential to your named search team.
Not ready for a search? Start with a Strategy Review
A review of your acquisition strategy, or an outline one if you don't have it yet. For groups planning several deals. Making your first acquisition yourself? The Accelerator is built for that →
Ready to see who's in your market?
A free 30-minute call with Michael. No pitch deck, no obligation.