A number early, in writing
You get an indicative range before diligence starts rather than after it. If our view of the business changes, we tell you what changed and why.
Not every owner wants the same thing.
Acquire. Scale. Exit.
Three ways to work with us.
Proglomerate
A private equity firm for owners deciding what comes next.
We buy businesses outright. We work alongside owners who want to grow. And we prepare a business for sale when the time is right.
Acquire · Scale · Exit
Sell it. Grow it. Or get it ready for sale.
Proglomerate is a UK private equity firm. We buy businesses outright from their owners, and we work alongside the owners who are not selling yet.
The firm
Three ways in, one firm.
Owners come to us at one of three moments. Some have decided to sell and want a straightforward buyer who will not waste six months of their life. Some are years away from that and want the business bigger first. Some know a sale is coming and want it in proper shape before anyone looks at the numbers.
Most firms do one of those three. We are set up for all of them, which means the first conversation is about where you actually are rather than about the one thing we happen to sell.
01 · Acquire
We buy the business outright, and we keep it simple.
You have decided to sell. The part that goes wrong is usually the last four weeks. Here is how we try not to be that buyer.
We do not chip the price
Cutting an agreed price late in the process is the most common complaint owners have about buyers. If something material comes up, we say so openly, and we either renegotiate in daylight or we walk away.
The shape of the deal, agreed up front
Every business is different and so is every purchase. Some are straightforward. Others take more thought about how the deal is put together and how long you stay involved through a handover. Whatever shape it takes, you see all of it before you sign and it does not quietly change afterwards.
02 · Scale
Not selling yet? Then we work alongside you instead.
Plenty of owners are nowhere near an exit. They want the business twice the size before they think about one. That is a different job, and we do it as advisers rather than as buyers.
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We work with the team you have
We are not there to reorganise your business or to install our own people. We work with whoever is already running it, on the things they mostly know need doing.
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Three or four things, done properly
Most owner managed businesses have a short list of changes that would genuinely move the numbers. Pricing, the sales process, the wrong customers, a bottleneck that is really one person. We help you pick the ones worth doing and then we help you do them.
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In the business, not sending reports
We are alongside you rather than delivering a document and leaving. If we do not think we can help, we say so at the start and we do not take the work.
03 · Exit
And when a sale is coming, we get the business ready for it.
Buyers pay for what they can see. Most businesses go to market with the good parts still inside the owner's head, and the price reflects that.
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We find what would cost you money
The things that knock value off a price are usually the same few: one customer who is too much of the revenue, an owner who is quietly doing three jobs, numbers a buyer would not trust. We look for them while there is still time to fix them.
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We make the business explainable
Clean accounts, work that is written down rather than remembered, and a team who can answer a buyer's questions without you in the room. That is most of what anyone is paying for.
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We are not your broker
Preparing a business and selling it are two different jobs. We do the first and we will tell you honestly who is good at the second. If we are interested in buying it ourselves, we say so before the work starts.
The mark
Three ways in.
Whichever one you need, you are dealing with the same people.
Mandate
What we look for
This is what we buy. The advisory work has no size limit, so if your business sits outside these numbers and you want help growing it or getting it ready, write to us anyway.
- Geography
- United Kingdom and Ireland
- Turnover
- £1m to £30m
- Profit
- £250k to £5m of EBITDA
- Stake
- Outright, in full. On rare occasions we will look at a partial equity stake where it makes sense for both sides
- Sectors
- Building and construction, business services, specialist manufacturing, healthcare services, industrial services, and anything with contracted or repeat revenue
- Situations
- Retirement and succession, owners ready to step away, corporate carve outs, shareholder disagreements
Process
How a conversation goes
01
A call
About an hour. No documents, no adviser needed, nothing signed. You tell us where the business is and we tell you honestly which of the three fits, if any. Plenty of these end in a polite no.
02
A proposal
Quickly, and in writing. If you are selling, that is an indicative range and the workings behind it. If you are not, it is a short plan and what we would start with.
03
The work
A purchase moves as fast as the answers come back, with a short request list and nobody camped in your office. Advisory work starts sooner and runs for as long as it is useful.
04
Afterwards
Then the part that actually matters, which is what the business looks like in three years.
Questions
The things owners actually ask
Will you load the business with debt?
We use debt carefully and only at a level the business can service out of ordinary trading. A structure that only works if next year is a good year is not a structure, it is a bet.
What happens to my staff after you buy?
The business carries on. We are buying something that already works, so the people running it day to day carry on running it. What changes is that it stops being your responsibility.
Am I tied in for years afterwards?
That depends on the deal, and we agree it before the offer rather than after it. Some purchases need very little from you once they complete. Others work better with you around for a handover. What we will not do is leave it vague and decide later.
Will you reduce the price at the last minute?
We do not chip. If diligence turns up something that genuinely changes the value, we tell you what it is and we discuss it openly. You will not get a quiet new number the week before completion.
Do I have to sell all of it?
When we buy, we usually buy the whole thing. If you are not ready to let go of all of it, that is often a sign the right conversation is one of the other two: growing the business, or getting it into shape for a sale later. That said, on rare occasions we will look at a partial equity stake where it makes sense both for you the owner and for us as the acquirer.
What if I am not ready to sell yet?
Then talk to us about the other two. Making the business bigger, or getting it ready so that when you do sell you are paid properly for it. Plenty of the owners we end up buying from first spoke to us a year or two earlier.
If you help me prepare for a sale, will you try to buy it cheaply?
A fair question, and the honest answer is that we tell you before the work starts whether we are interested in buying it. You are then free to take it to the open market, and most owners should. Preparing a business properly raises what everybody pays for it, including us.
Is any of this confidential?
Yes. Nothing you tell us goes to advisers, lenders or anyone else without your permission in writing.
Get in touch
Start a confidential conversation
One call, no documents, nothing shared with anyone. If we are the wrong firm for what you need, we will say so on the phone and point you at who might be right.
Thank you. Your message is with us.
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