By Shawn Bone, Managing Director, Cavu Corporate FInance
So here we are. 14 years after establishing Cavu Corporate Finance I guess I can say we are past the start up phase. Back in 2013 we started with no people (other than myself ), no office, no brand, no clients, no pipeline. Just a reputation and a determination to create something.
Needless to say I am delighted with what we have built over 14 years. Now firmly established as a mid market specialist in M&A with a focus on private equity transactions.
But now is not the time to sit back and muse over 14 years of trading. Instead we relentlessly focus on our clients, the next deal, 2026, plans for 2027, geographic expansion, continuing to invest in our people. Underlying that we continue to focus on quality. Client service and clients experience of Cavu is something that underpins every deal and is essential to our reputation. And whilst delivering exceptional outcomes for clients is very much what we are about it is also important to focus on the journey, the time we take with clients before a deal is launched and during active negotiation phase to ensure their experience of Cavu is as good as it can be.
Looking back over the last 12 months its been another busy period for Cavu Corporate Finance with notable deals including…
BGF £22m investment in Everflow alongside a debt package of £22m;
Alcuin Private Equity investment into Oddballs;
The £57.5m acquisition of Wood T&D for our client United Infrastructure backed by Apollo – a complex carve out and creating the foundation for a business in the Power sector for our client United Infrastructure; and
And in the last few weeks the acquisition of Hodgson Sayers again for United Infrastructure.
These deals highlight much of what Cavu is about;
Advising on complex deals often involving private equity and utilising our experience and deep knowledge of that market;
Working with founders to achieve their objectives;
A relentless focus on high quality service so founders are well advised and the private equity community receive the quality of engagement to support a deal;
Developing deep client relationships.
Picking up on the latter – deep relationships are so fundamental to our business. They underpin what we do and the trust clients give us to deliver excellent outcomes.
So what does having a deep relationship with a client really mean. For us its time, listening, making clear what is to come and a clear articulation of the journey and the outcome and even life beyond the outcome. Its about always being there, dealing with stress and anxiety that can sit behind a deal, dealing with softer issues and making sure at all times clients are comfortable with the process and outcome.
On the outcomes we repeatedly test client objectives such as valuation and ideal deal structure as its common that some clients are not clear on the detail of what they want and this often requires explanation as to what is possible and refinement as you move through the deal process especially where there are multiple clients and they may all have differing objectives. By testing outcomes throughout the deal process we refine and ensure clients are clear about what a deal looks like before we arrive there.
But a deal is more than just outcomes. It’s the softer things that are often discussed at length and take the most time – for example selling a business can feel like letting go of a lifetimes work – in some cases a business may have been owned for several generations so the emotional consequences of letting go need to be fully understood by an adviser, discussed and resolved. Early in my deal career I had a client who changed their mind at the 11th hour on selling their business- they decided not to sell.
If I am being honest I hadn’t spent enough time talking to them about what was clearly some underlying anxiety of doing a deal and letting go. The deal was good but for them they were not ready. I never forgot that experience and in some ways its shaped the way I deal with clients now and was partly why I established Cavu to offer a more personalised service.
I spent several decades working for larger firms and rightly or wrongly my experience of that time was too much focus on “process”. Not enough time listening and validating what the client wanted to achieve. What I took out of those years was that there needed to be more focus on relationships and truly understanding what clients want. More engagement. More tailoring of the deal to match varied and complex requests that clients often have. If we get that right then quality outcomes follow – yes the numbers have to be right for a client but there is so much more to a deal than just the numbers.
In essence that is what Cavu is about – deep relationships, listening, tailoring, to deliver high quality outcomes.
I would hope if some of my clients are reading this they will recognise what I am saying.
www.cavucf.com