Why Reads
Why use Reads, when you could go straight to your bank
It is a fair question and it deserves a straight answer rather than a brochure. You could go straight to your bank. Plenty of people do, and for some deals it works out fine.
Here is what the introduction gives you that a cold approach does not, and the cases where your own bank is the better call.
Start here
The problem is not finding a lender. It is finding one that reads your business correctly
There is no shortage of people willing to lend money against a business acquisition. The difficulty is that most of them will assess yours using a template built for a business that is nothing like it.
The clearest example is the one we know best. An accountancy practice makes most of its money from work that renews every year because the deadline comes round again: accounts, corporation tax, personal tax, payroll, VAT. That is about as predictable as SME revenue gets.
Put that in front of a lender that has never funded a practice purchase and it gets read as ordinary turnover from a business with almost no assets, no stock and nothing much to take security over. The answer comes back cautious, or slow, or conditional on security the buyer does not have.
Put the same practice in front of someone who has funded fee blocks before and the conversation is completely different. They already know to ask what proportion is compliance work, what the client tenure looks like, how the clawback is drafted and who is going to do the work after the seller leaves. They are not learning your sector at your expense.
The same pattern repeats across every sector we cover. In fire and security, the monitoring contracts are the asset and a generalist will value the vans. In facilities management, the question is contract length and mobilisation cost, not the balance sheet. In pest control it is route density. A lender who has to be taught that is a lender who prices the risk of not understanding it.
What we have
Three things, and they are what the introduction is worth
We know this market. Simon Read has spent years inside accountancy practice sales through Accountants For Sale. That is not a credential on a wall. It means we have watched a large number of these deals from the inside, including the ones that fell over, and we know which parts buyers consistently get wrong.
We know specific people, by sector. Not a panel of everybody. Individual lenders and brokers who have funded accountancy practice acquisitions, HVAC acquisitions and trade services acquisitions before, and who would look at another one. When you tell us what you are buying, we are not searching. We already know who to ask.
We ask them before we come back to you. You tell us the deal. We go and have the conversation. Then we tell you who can fund it and what they will want to see, so you are not finding that out three weeks into an application.
Where the line sits
Reads makes the introduction. The specialist does the rest
The person you are introduced to assesses the deal, advises you on the options, arranges the facility and sets the terms, under their own permissions and in writing. Reads does none of that, and does not pretend to. It is the reason the introduction is worth having: you get someone who does this every day, in your sector, rather than a generalist learning it on your deal.
Nobody can tell you a rate before a lender has seen the numbers, and anyone who does is guessing. What you get from Reads first is who should be looking at it and what they will want to see.
Reads introduces buyers acquiring through a limited company or a NewCo. If you are buying personally, as a sole trader or as a partnership, we will point you to an authorised firm directly instead.
The honest comparison
When your own bank is the better call
We would rather say this now than have you find it out afterwards.
If you already bank with a lender that knows your sector, has funded an acquisition for you before, and has given you a relationship manager who returns calls, go and talk to them first. An existing relationship with a lender who already understands the business is worth more than any introduction.
If the deal is small, secured on property and you have done one before, your own bank may well be the quickest route, and it is worth asking them first.
Where the introduction earns its place is the middle ground: an acquisition in a sector where the value sits in contracts and recurring income rather than assets, a structure with deferred money or vendor finance in it, or a first-time buyer who does not yet know what a lender is going to ask. Read why lenders decline acquisition finance and see how many of the reasons apply to you. If several do, a conversation costs you nothing.
The sectors
Where we actually know something
We cover six sectors, and we cover them because we know them, not because they make a tidy list. If your business is outside these, say so anyway and we will tell you honestly whether we can add anything.
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Accountancy practices
The one we know best. Fee blocks, clawback, client attrition, and why the multiple and the borrowing are different numbers.
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HVAC
Service contracts, engineer retention and what a maintenance base is actually worth.
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Fire and security
Monitoring income, accreditation risk on a change of control, and the paperwork that has to novate.
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Pest control
Route density, contract value and buying a round.
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Electrical and M&E
Retentions, work in progress and the contract risk that comes with a project book.
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Facilities management
Contract novation, employment obligations on transfer, margin and mobilisation cost.
Tell us what you are buying
Send us the shape of the deal and the sector. We come back to you having spoken to the people who fund that kind of business.