President’s Column

Inspire supports Seismic’s multimillion-pound acquisition

Poole-based business and tax advisors, Inspire, has completed a complex corporate finance project, supporting London-based Seismic Venture Partners in its acquisition of three automation and manufacturing companies – now trading under the i3 Group brand.

The four-month project involved the Inspire team carrying out the financial and tax due diligence for all three companies that were to be acquired, working closely with Seismic’s Principal, Ewan Lloyd-Baker.

Once the due diligence project was completed, Inspire began work advising on the share purchase agreement for the transaction. Working in partnership with legal advisors, Keystone Law and Seismic, Inspire provided comprehensive advice, coordinating activity between the three parties, ensuring that the transaction was completed on schedule and achieving the desired outcome for Ewan.

The specialist design, manufacturing, test, and automation companies, comprising Adept Automation, Sapcote Engineering and Testworks have now been brought together under the i3 Group brand. Focused on ‘intelligent, industrial, integration’, the i3 Group provides support for manufacturing companies to improve performance and drive efficiency and reliability.

With all work overseen by Inspire’s Director, Andrew Singleton and delivered by a team headed by Advisory Manager, Jon Huggins, the fast-paced project included an in-depth review of working capital, ratio analysis to assess the company’s financial performance and financial modelling, alongside overall advice, and guidance.

Andrew Singleton commented: “After taking the initial brief from Ewan and the requirements for the transaction, the Inspire team were all hands on-deck to get the financial and tax due diligence projects completed as efficiently as possible, to keep to the tight schedule. This required a dynamic approach, involving an ongoing dialogue with Ewan to agree upon areas of focus and discussions about our findings.

“Having an experienced advisory team in-house allows us to deliver high value corporate finance transactions - such as this for Seismic - within tight timeframes and to a high standard, to meet the requirements of our brief.

“Working with Ewan and the team at Keystone, we were also able to advise on the share purchase agreements and provide an experienced financial sounding board for pricing and deal structure considerations.”

Ewan Lloyd-Baker, Principal of Seismic Venture Partners, added: “The team at Inspire were incredibly proactive, from our initial discussions, all the way through to the completion of the transaction. They communicated very well with us and managed the whole process with a great deal of professionalism.

“The project schedule remained on-track, despite having to complete much of the activity through the lockdown period earlier this year.

“We are delighted with the outcome and are now looking forward to growing the i3 Group in the future.” www.inspireaccountants.co.uk

Presidents Column

by Caron Khan 2022 – Do you have a plan?

With the first month of the year nearly under your belt, now is the time to ensure your business makes the absolute most out of 2022. But this doesn’t mean slamming on the accelerator in a bid to increase productivity, it means stopping, examining and ensuring you have a robust strategy that is securely aligned to your business objectives. The first question you need to think about is: ‘where are you now?’ Understanding your starting point is crucial to success. Examining where you are and your strengths and weaknesses gives you the foresight to remedy them in the future, and this will be an important part of your overall strategy. Remember – knowledge is power, and the more you examine your starting point the more leverage you’ll have to move forwards positively. Secondly, what are your goals and how are you going to achieve them? This encompasses both your short-term and long-term business objectives.

Your strategy must be securely aligned to any business objectives, and will identify the stepping-stones that lead to the desired outcome. Determining how you achieve your goals and ensuring you stick to the right path is key to a successful strategy, and any deviation or reverting to the ‘old ways’ will simply dilute the desired result. Thirdly, who is going to help you achieve it? There’s no doubt that when it comes to creating a strategy, it’s important to ensure the entire team are on board with it. Not only does this help to achieve the business’ goals, it also brings the team together and motivates them to work towards a common objective. Keeping your team involved will help them stay on task, give them a shared sense of purpose and ultimately prevent individuals from losing sight of the business’ aims. And last but by no means least – measure, measure, measure! Whilst helping your business achieve its goals is the fundamental purpose of a strategy, it’s also important to measure results accurately and regularly. Your strategy should incorporate this, giving you the tools and knowhow to understand whether you’re proceeding as planned, or deviating from the path. Good luck and have a great year!