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How a Founder and His Fractional CFO Took a Security Firm into Employee Ownership
When a long-established security firm's founder decided to move to employee ownership, he and his fractional CFO led the way. We arranged the £1.1m facility from a high-street bank at a low rate and helped hold it all together to completion.
Some of the best deals we work on are the ones where the client and their adviser already know exactly what they want to build. This was one of them. A founder wanted to reward the team who had grown the business with him, and step back cleanly, by moving the company into employee ownership. His fractional CFO had shaped the plan. Our job was to find the funding to make it happen and help everyone get it over the line.
Client snapshot
Industry: Security services
Size: £1.1m funding facility, established SME
Years operating: More than 20 years
Geography: United Kingdom
Description: A long-established security services business moving to an employee ownership trust, so the founder could step back and the team who built it could take it on.
The people who made it happen
- The founder, who chose employee ownership to reward his team and secure the firm's future
- The company's fractional CFO, a principal at The CFO Centre, who prepared the business and shaped the funding structure
- Risecap, who sourced the funding, negotiated the terms, and helped coordinate the deal to completion
The challenge
An employee ownership transition is not a standard loan. It needed funding shaped around the buyout and the founder's exit, priced so the business could carry it comfortably, with the legal, tax and funding workstreams all completing together.
Our approach
- Worked alongside the founder and his CFO to turn a well-prepared plan into a funded deal
- Secured a £1.1m facility from a high-street bank at a low rate
- Kept the legal, tax and funding workstreams moving in step so nothing waited twice
- Stayed close through completion, keeping every party aligned to a firm date
The impact
- £1.1m facility completed and drawn
- Priced at three percent over the base rate, a high-street cost well below the double-digit rates buyout funding usually carries
- The move to employee ownership completed allowing the founder to step back
- The team took ownership of the business they had helped build
Takeaway
The best outcomes happen when a founder, a sharp CFO and the right funding partner pull in the same direction. The client and his CFO set the vision. We made the funding fit.