Equity Value Management
Skip to Navigation

What We Do

We align ourselves with owners to create sustainable, long-term value.

We are advisors and investors who are focused on order of magnitude changes in shareholder value. We are not focused on day-to-day performance improvements, but drive owners to consider more ambitious goals and take braver decisions in order to achieve step changes in value.

We pride ourselves in providing leadership and demonstrating absolute clarity of purpose to deliver the strategy.

[rollover for more: click for detail]

implementation value finance

How we engage with you

  • We are a small team with one point of contact, so you will get high quality service. You deal only with senior advisors; we invert the usual relationship pyramid – who you meet is who you get (wymiwyg).
  • We provide excellent management and finance experience, sometimes at short notice.
  • We are prepared to get paid mainly on success, in equity.  We back our own abilities.
  • We will be aligned with the owners (and creditors) because we become part-owners ourselves.
  • Low (but not zero) entry cost for owners - owners are able to access very highly experienced managers for limited up-front commitment.
  • We are geared toward the middle market (client company sales US$10m – 200m)

What does this actually look like?

Vignette #1

The owner - founder of ABC Co., Ltd. has built the company to a point where he is justly proud of his efforts, but would like to realise some of the value he (or she) has created.  Potential buyers have voiced some concerns over the continuity of the business should: i) the Founder depart after the sale; and, ii) current constraints continue to restrict growth.  The discount being offered is unacceptable to the Founder and he wants to do something about it.

CSL works with the Founder to build a professional layer of management in order to provide any buyer with greater confidence of the company’s longevity.  Utilising its experience, CSL identifies the changes in people, processes, structures and technologies that will be required to remove the discount, and deliver a change in financing that will produce a major change in cashflow and dramatically increase the valuation of the company.  CSL takes a senior executive position for two years in order to deliver these changes to the Founder and in addition facilitates the structuring of the sale process.

CSL takes payment in equity to ensure absolute alignment with the Founder’s objective.

Vignette #2

123 Company is family owned and there is a desire to list on an international stock exchange.  However, there are aspects of the company’s current operations and finances which are preventing shareholders realising maximum value in a listing.

CSL works with the family to identify which areas of current operations are in need of review and begins to rebuild the professional management team and the underlying processes.  More significantly, CSL restructures the financing.  In order to closely control the cashflows and financing of the company, CSL takes the CFO position and focuses the company’s efforts in the areas most in need of adjustment by introducing performance-based equity packages at the senior management level.

CSL takes payment in the form of a salary and also takes part in the performance-based equity package.

Vignette #3

The owners of the XYZ Company have been struggling to improve profitability in an increasingly competitive marketplace.  Having missed a previous opportunity to float, they believe that to significantly increase the value of their shareholdings they need a strategy review and, potentially, a re-positioning of the company in its market.

CSL facilitates the review, introducing some new ideas, helping develop options and assisting in the analysis of the market.  During the review process the ‘missing piece’ of the jigsaw is identified - the Owners realise that it is not just the ideas, options or strategy that will make the difference, but also their ability to turn these into actions.  This is what has let them down before.

Through the review process, CSL’s ability to deliver is recognised by the Owners and they request the CSL team to fill the COO role for two years in order to make the new strategy ‘operational’.

CSL takes payment in equity to ensure absolute alignment with the Owners’ objective.  In addition, they feel confident enough in their ability to deliver that they ‘buy in’ to the company, purchasing more equity alongside the earned equity.

[top of page]