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Private equity

Senior hands for your portfolio companies.

Bolt-ons, refinancings, management equity and the legal work in between. We run the corporate finance and the legal work as one team, at partner rates less than half those of a City firm, and we stay after completion. ON is led by Matt Parry-Hann and Jamie Ritchie, and the senior people who take your work on do it, with the specialists it needs around them.

Talk to us about your portfolio

What we do for a portfolio

Where it starts

Strategy and value creation

The plan behind the investment case: where the growth comes from, what has to change in the business, and where AI and technology can cut cost and time. We turn it into a programme the management team can run and the board can track.

  1. Acquire

    • Buy-and-build
    • Integration after completion

  2. Grow

    • Refinancing and debt
    • Management equity and leavers
    • General counsel across the portfolio

  3. Exit

    • Getting ready to exit

Buy-and-build

Target assessment, diligence, structuring and the documents for each bolt-on, run the same way each time so the platform can take each one in.

Integration after completion

We have led integration from inside the acquirer. Systems, people and contracts are planned before completion, while everyone still has a reason to agree them.

Refinancing and debt

Facility terms negotiated and documented, with the model the lender relies on built and held by the same team.

Management equity and leavers

Incentive arrangements, leaver terms and buy-backs, and the employment side of senior hires and departures.

General counsel across the portfolio

Fractional general counsel for companies not yet ready for an in-house team: contracts, governance and the day-to-day questions, on a retainer.

Getting ready to exit

Housekeeping, a diligence rehearsal and the cap table put in order, so the buyer's diligence finds nothing you had not already found.

Why portfolio teams use us

01

One team, not three

The model, the process and the documents sit with the same people. A portfolio company briefs once, and you are not paying several advisers to coordinate with each other.
02

Priced for a portfolio

Partner rates less than half those of a City firm, retainers for recurring work, and fees tied to the result.
03

Operators, not only advisers

We have been the general counsel, the chief executive through a sale and the investor. We know what a management team can take on while it is also running the business.

Work that shows it

Two people seen from behind in hard hats and high-visibility jackets, walking beside scaffolding on a construction site.
Exit strategy
Construction & facilities management · Exit strategy for a PE investor

Building scale before pursuing an exit

Following approaches from larger private equity buyers, a lower-market PE investor was considering an exit from its specialist construction and facilities maintenance business. We helped the investor assess its options, weighing a sale against the opportunity to build further scale through acquisitions. That process led to a decision to pursue a buy-and-build strategy before taking the business to market. We continue to support the client on that strategy, with the aim of strengthening the business and positioning it for a future exit.

Strategic options reviewSell-side advisoryExit planningBuy-and-build strategyAcquisition support and M&A execution
c. £30m EV
Current indicative enterprise value of the business
A Rendesco-branded unit in a plant room
Buy-and-build
Energy infrastructure · One continuing mandate

Rendesco

One continuing mandate across the bolt-on acquisitions, the debt financings and the equity events, for the UK's leading ground-source heat network developer.

One mandate
Asset bolt-on acquisitions, debt financings and equity events
A site-intelligence panel showing flood and terrain layers over a red site boundary, with levels, cut-and-fill and a flood screen below.
General counsel
Aegaea Group - water, civils and environmental · Retained, four strands all at once

Aegaea Group

The group model, corporate finance, general counsel and strategy, all running at once for the same client.

Four at once
Model, corporate finance, general counsel and strategy

Who does the work

Matt Parry-Hann and Jamie Ritchie, who lead ON, have lived every side of the table: the adviser, the founder, the general counsel, the chief executive, the investor and the board, in businesses of different sizes. Between them: private equity, venture capital and M&A law at Jones Day, Addleshaw Goddard, Ashurst and Wilsons; banking and investment at Bank of America and as a partner at IBIS Capital; general counsel of a high-growth hospitality group; and running a business through its sale.

Questions we get asked

Will you work alongside our existing lawyers and advisers?
Yes, and it's something we're used to doing, wearing whichever of our hats the deal needs. A lot of the value is with management: we turn the advice into what they actually need to do, quickly, and we're their sounding board and the first people they call for a view. Because we've been on both sides, we can tell the fund how a point will land with management before anyone puts it to them, and that's the view funds tell us they value. How we work with partner firms
You're a small firm. Can you cover a portfolio?
Yes. Each piece of work is run by a senior person who has worked with investee entities as well as advising the investors, and they bring in the specialists it needs: corporate financiers, lawyers, sector specialists and modellers. Our own technology does the routine work, so the senior people stay focused on adding value. Meet the team
Are you regulated?
ON Consulting Limited is not regulated by the SRA or the FCA. Our legal work is done by solicitors who are regulated individually. Our regulatory position

Start with one portfolio company.

Tell us where a portfolio company is trying to get to, and we will tell you how we would run it and what it would cost. The earlier the call, the more we can add. The first conversation costs nothing.