Selected mandates.

A global wealth management group needed to establish a Discretionary Fund Management capability without building the team, permissions, investment process and client base from scratch. Organic build was estimated at three years. The board committed to acquisition, but cultural fit, adviser retention and client continuity were non-negotiable. Speed and discretion were equally critical.

The mandate required: an off-market approach only, with no formal sale process; cultural fit as a hard filter, not a soft consideration; adviser retention secured before completion; and a client continuity plan confirmed before close.

Result: acquisition completed in 7 months from mandate. DFM capability established without the three-year organic build, or the regulatory and recruitment risk that comes with it.

A UK buy-and-build investor needed two Continental European bolt-on acquisitions within 18 months to demonstrate platform momentum and build scale ahead of a trade exit. Family-owned targets only. Off-market outreach only. The investor had already exhausted broker routes without result.

The mandate required: two completions within 18 months; family-owned targets, with messaging that spoke to legacy, not extraction; off-market approaches only; and reach across four European markets.

Result: first completion at 5 months from mandate, the second at 14 months, inside the 18-month window.

A PE-backed US SaaS platform needed European market entry. The investment committee had underwritten £15m of European ARR within three years; organic build would take 18–24 months. The brief: a profitable, founder-led UK or European workflow automation business with a clean enterprise customer base, found off-market before it reached a formal process.

The mandate required: a target not yet in a formal process; gross revenue retention above 90% as a hard filter; an enterprise customer base only; and founder-led, with cultural fit with the US acquirer confirmed before close.

Result: acquisition completed at 5.2x ARR. 67 enterprise customers and £7.4m ARR acquired, against an organic build estimated at 18–24 months.

A PE-backed infrastructure services group needed three to five regional construction testing and inspection bolt-ons over 30 months to consolidate a fragmented sector and position for trade exit. The targets were technical, founder-led businesses with no broker market at this scale. Founders' wish to protect what they had built was the main qualification filter.

The mandate required: direct off-market approaches to every target; messaging built around legacy and continuity, not extraction; technical founder assessment as a hard qualification step; and multiple completions within the hold period.

Result: two bolt-ons completed, and a third in due diligence at the mandate review.