Investments & portfolio
The deals themselves, and what happens after you wire. Structuring and diligence, deal execution, cross-border routing, portfolio company support through follow-ons and restructurings, and exits — including taking a portfolio company public.
Most deals do not die on price. They die on deliverability.
A condition the committee considers routine turns out to require a restructuring the company cannot complete in the timeframe. A warranty package is negotiated for three months before someone notices the holdco jurisdiction makes it unenforceable. A structure is agreed that works beautifully until the exit.
Because we advise companies as well as funds, we can tell you early which conditions will convert, which will stall, and which will kill the deal — before the quarter is spent.
On a deal.
- 01
Deal structuring
Instrument selection, entry route and which fund entity invests, with the exit consequences modelled at entry rather than discovered at realisation. For cross-border deals, the routing that survives four regulators.
- 02
Diligence
Legal, tax, regulatory and structural diligence run as one exercise, with findings that actually reach the documents. We flag the issues that become deal-breakers at exit, not just the ones visible today.
- 03
Documentation
Term sheet through to subscription and shareholders' agreements — rights, protections, information covenants, board and reserved matters, and exit mechanics drafted to be exercisable rather than merely present.
- 04
Cross-border routing
FDI route and pricing for inbound investment, ODI where the fund or its portfolio invests outward, downstream investment rules, and the reporting chain each layer creates.
- 05
Portfolio company support
After the wire: helping portfolio companies with follow-on rounds, acquisitions, cross-border expansion, ESOP design and restructurings. Protecting the fund's position while the company actually gets built.
- 06
Restructurings & rescues
Down rounds, bridge structures, cap table resets, governance changes and distressed situations — where commercial judgement matters more than precedent and the documents were not drafted for this.
- 07
Exits
Secondaries, strategic sales, sponsor-to-sponsor transactions, and IPOs — including the pre-listing restructuring a portfolio company needs and the offer-for-sale mechanics and lock-in that govern your realisation.
We act for founders and for funds — never both sides of the same table.
Conflicts are checked before we take a mandate. If we are already acting for a counterparty, we say so immediately and decline. That discipline is what makes both practices worth having — an adviser who would sit on either side of your deal is not much use on yours.
Have a deal in diligence?
Tell us the shape — the company, the jurisdictions, the timeline. We will tell you where we think it will stall and what we would do about it.