Buying Businesses (Acquisitions)

Buying a business is a lot more than just paying over money to a business seller. You must understand what you are buying and have a clear plan how you intend to:

1. Protect the business’ culture, reputation and position in the market.
2. Protect it’s relationships with suppliers and clients and employees, and,
3. How you intend to grow it further.

This is not always easy. That’s why having sector/ industry experience plays such a key part in getting it right.

Rutland is currently focused on building portfolio companies in the following sectors –

• Group 1: Construction Services – Design side
• Group 2: Construction Services – Site side
• Group 3: E-commerce – Cash flowing website assets
• Group 4: Specialist R&D Tax Consultancies

Group 1: Construction Services (Design Side & Project Management)

Rutland Capital Partners is buying, merging and investing capital in “Best-in-region” construction and property services consultancy companies. This new group that is being created is focused on offering it’s property-developer and house-builder clients all services under one roof, to help them design new buildings more intelligently – called Intelligent Design.

The Group Mission

The Big Picture is to grow, nurture and develop the group to:

1. Become a key component in solving the UK’s epidemic housing shortage.
2. Significantly improve delivery (time/ cost/ quality) of UK building construction.
3. Become the voice of the construction and property industry.
4. Use it’s collective shared knowledge, insight, expertise, skill-set, innovation and technology to advance future building design.
5. Influence government housing and construction policy – reduce red tape, encourage new technology, simplify the planning process, model policies from faster-developing countries who have got it right.

The Seven-Year Group Vision

Through strategic acquisition and organic growth, the group will grow to £50 million annual revenue and 500 employees:

• With a national and international capability and presence.
• Working in multiple sectors for the best FTSE 1000 property clients.
• And becoming known for improving building design, efficiency and delivery by using technology and the group’s insights.
• With influence and participation in government policy-making.
• And offering graduates a fully-fledged training academy to draw in the best talent and future leadership of the group.

What Companies We Are Looking For

Rutland are looking to acquire companies with the following specialities across multiple sectors and regions:

• Building / property services.
• Architecture.
• MEP design.
• Structural / civil design.
• Project management.
• Quantity surveying.
• Ground and environmental surveying.
• Cost consultancies.
• Buyers agent.
• Other related consultancy and management service providers.

This criteria remains flexible but companies should be established for a minimum of 10-years, have a provable historic financial record, have at least 20 employees, and have a steady £3m+ revenue for at least the last three years,

Please get in-touch if you’d like to discuss your business by email or tel us on 0203-745-8086.

Group 2: Construction Services (Site Side & Specialist)

Rutland Capital Partners is buying and investing capital in South East regional construction companies that offer specialist services and construction products or finishes. This portfolio group works with SME developers, house-builders, housing associations and trusts to deliver construction projects all across the region.

The Group Mission

The Big Picture is to grow and develop the group to:

1. Deliver projects on-time, on-budget, on-quality and without hassle.
2. Become the go-to supplier for high-yielding specialist site services and products.
3. Become the absolute best regional solution for property developers.

The Seven-Year Group Vision

Through specialist acquisitions and organic growth, the group will grow to £20 million annual revenue and 150 employees:

• With a regional capability and presence.
• Working in multiple sectors including residential, commercial, infrastructure, hotel, leisure and healthcare.
• Be known for delivering projects on-time, on-budget, on-quality.

What Companies We Are Looking For

• Based in the South-East of UK.
• MEP site installers.
• Joinery companies.
• Steel fabricators and installers.
• Architects / Planning consultancies.
• Development management.
• Construction management.

Please get in-touch if you’d like to discuss your business by email or tel us on 0203-745-8086.

Group 3: E-commerce (Cash Flowing Web Assets)

Rutland Capital Partners, in partnership with a conversion-rate-optimisation agency, has created an acquisition platform to acquire and operate small digital e-commerce, publishing and software-as-a-service (SAAS) websites. Particularly focusing where Rutland is able to acquire these assets at low-multiples and then dramatically changing their earnings and growth profile by:

• Optimising conversion / Improving design
• Changing the pricing model
• Improving search engine rankings
• Developing the brand profile
• Opening up new markets (such as China and India)
• Developing new revenue strategies (e.g. subscriptions, new product lines, advertising, affiliate marketing)
• Cross-selling across the portfolio

The Group Mission

The Big Picture is to grow and develop this e-commerce group to:

• Develop systems to acquire high-quality web assets for low-multiples
• Develop in-house specialist teams to increase earnings by at least 50% for each acquisition
• Build a portfolio group around the largest markets online; From weight loss, fitness, health, beauty, relationships, self-improvement/ education, personal finance, tech or pets.

The Nine-Year Group Vision

Through Rutland’s targetted acquisition strategy, organic growth and capable team, the group will grow to £100 million revenue and 15-23% Net Profit Margins:

• With web assets that serve all the major regions in the world.
• That offer all-year-round income all-economic season income potential
• That provide multiple offers to each of the large market sectors such as health, beauty and pets.
• That drive revenue from multiple sources including advertising, retail and SAAS services.
• That take advantage of the trending changes in retail and online delivery.

What Companies We Are Looking For

Web assets that are at least 36 months old, generate £300,000 revenue per annum and has over 20,000 unique visitors per month.

Please get in-touch if you’d like to discuss your business by email or tel us on 0203-745-8086.

Group 4: Specialist R&D Tax Consultancies

Rutland Capital Partners, in partnership, are consolidating Research And Development Tax Consultancies that specialise in providing tax refunds for innovation to UK SME businesses. The strategy is to create a high-quality, reliable and efficient national presence that can serve any Limited company in the country.

The Group Mission

The Big Picture is to grow and develop this R&D tax consultancy group by:

• Acquiring already-good, well-established, regional and sector-specific R&D consultancies
• That are already highly-regarded / trusted by HMRC.

The Three-Year Group Vision

By finding and acquiring targetted tax consultancies, the group will grow to £8 million revenue and a minimum of £2 million EBITDA:

• With a national presence across several offices
• Providing a full range of sector-specific R&D tax advice and services
• Providing back office services to other R&D tax consultancies and accountancy firms

What Companies We Are Looking For

Established R&D tax consultancies that generate at least £1 million EBITDA per annum.

Please get in-touch if you’d like to discuss your business by email or tel us on 0203-745-8086.

Our Offer to Business Owners (in Principle)

What does Rutland bring to the table?

Rutland offers you, as a retiring business owner –

• A safe pair of hands to protect your employees, clients, culture, legacy and long-standing heritage.
• A thoughtful, reliable deal structure to give you what you need when you sell.
  A hands-on corporate team to provide you with strategic business advice in operations, marketing, sales and HR.
• Timely capital investment to enable the business to grow after you’ve exited.
• Experience and expertise from managing directors who have built large companies during their career.
• Access to an established network of property professionals.
• A chance to do some “Joined up thinking” working in collaboration with other portfolio companies to provide an even better service to your clients.
• A Bigger exit for your company in 5 to 7 years when Rutland sell or float the portfolio.

Rutland Are Driven by Values and Principles

When considering whether to buy a business Rutland work closely with you, right up front, to find out exactly what you want to achieve from the sale.

Reasons for selling are far and wide; from being tired and frustrated to wishing to move to a hot climate, to selling because you don’t have a robust succession plan in place. Every situation is unique and requires careful consideration. Either way, Rutland can help.

Rutland’s core principle is to protect the legacy of the exiting business owner. They achieve this by working hand-in-hand with the owner and their trusted senior management team, to ensure the exit can be done in a dignified and honourable way.

This usually means ensuring the company’s trusted employees are retained. The business culture is retained, and ultimately The Legacy of the business owner is retained. Rutland understand this is like passing on your baby so they promise to take care of it.

Rutland look for businesses where we can add value – by perhaps, improving the business processes or renegotiating payment terms with suppliers and customers, to finding new revenue streams and improving marketing and sales. There’s always potential to improve and Rutland look to achieve that in a meaningful, significant way by working with the existing team you’ve nurtured and put in place.