# If you are weighing a private equity offer

A private equity buyer is buying an asset for a fund. We are buying a business to run. Both are valid paths and have their upsides and downsides. But crucially they are not the same thing, and the difference shows up after the money has cleared.

## What you are actually choosing between

Robin has spent years inside private equity backed businesses. He has led diligence and integration on four acquisitions. This page is not written by someone who has only read about it. Private equity is good at what it is built for, and for plenty of businesses it is the right answer.

But it is built for something specific. A fund raises capital with a return to deliver and a timetable to deliver it on. That shapes everything downstream: the price it can pay, the growth it needs, the leverage it will use, and the fact that it must eventually sell. None of that is a criticism. It is the design.

The mismatch appears when a steady, profitable business with loyal clients is bought by a structure that needs it to be, do and act like something else. The plan arrives. The reporting arrives. The team meets a deal executive who has never run anything and will have moved on within two years. Prices often go up and service levels and quality down. The business is still fine. It just is not the business you built any more.

So the honest comparison is not who pays more. On price, a funded buyer will often beat us and you should expect that. The comparison is what happens on the Tuesday after completion, and every Tuesday after that.

## Where the two differ

- **Who you are actually talking to.** With us, one decision maker and no investment committee. You are talking to the person who decides, from the first conversation through to completion and afterwards. In a fund process you are talking to a deal team who must sell the idea internally to people you will never meet, and who often bring in a new leadership team to run the business after you have left.
- **Who is there afterwards.** A deal team moves on after completion, because the next deal is the job. Robin is in the business from completion and stays on to lead it. That continuity is a promise, because it depends on us and nobody else.
- **We are buying to hold.** A fund has a life and has to return capital within it, so the exit is being planned before the business has even been bought. We are not a fund. We buy to hold and to keep building, and we expect to still own these businesses in ten years. We raise funds deal by deal and our investors will want liquidity eventually, but that is a question of how and when, not a countdown that starts the day you sign.
- **What happens to the team.** "Synergy" programmes in PE backed deals are often designed by people who will not be in the room when they land. Where we need to change something, it gets decided by someone who has met the people it affects and has to work alongside them and their colleagues afterwards.
- **Leverage.** We use debt conservatively and where it is appropriate. Structures are designed so the business can invest and operate, not just service borrowing. A business that spends its cash on interest cannot spend it on the things that keep clients.
- **Certainty of completion.** This is the one where a buyer with a committed fund has the advantage and we will not pretend otherwise. Their capital is already raised. Ours is raised per acquisition, which buys flexibility on structure and timetable but asks more of us on certainty. What we offer in return is that you will know precisely where our funding stands before you are asked to enter into exclusive negotiations with us.

## When each is the better answer

We would rather you chose the right buyer than chose us.

### Private equity is probably right if

- Price is the thing that matters most to you, and you are comfortable running a competitive process
- The business has real growth ahead of it and needs capital to chase it
- You are leaving completely and are relaxed about what happens next
- You value certainty of funds above everything else

### We are probably right if

- The business is steady and profitable rather than fast growing, and you would like it to stay that way
- The team and the clients matter to you beyond completion
- You want to know who will actually be running it, and to have met them
- You would rather agree a handover that suits you than fit a templated structure or plan

> Their deal team moves on after completion. Robin stays on to run the business. That is the difference, and it is the one that still matters in three years.

## Common questions

**Why should I sell to you rather than a private equity buyer?** A private equity buyer is buying an asset for a fund. We are buying a business to run. Their deal team moves on after completion. Robin stays on to run the business. If price is the primary consideration, a funded buyer will often beat us and you should take their offer.

**Will you pay less than private equity?** Possibly, and we would rather say so. We compete on certainty of what happens afterwards, on speed, on being straightforward, and on flexibility geared to what you want rather than to what a fund mandate allows. We do not focus on outbidding a private equity fund in a competitive process.

**Do you use debt?** Conservatively, and where it is appropriate. Structures are designed so the business can invest and operate, not just service borrowing.

**How is your funding different from a fund?** We raise funds for each acquisition individually rather than investing from a committed fund. That means each deal is matched to investors suited to that business and to the plan for it, rather than squeezed into a mandate agreed years earlier, and there is no fund clock running in the background. You will know precisely where our funding stands before you are asked for exclusivity.

## Related

- https://www.coriniumcapital.co.uk/succession/
- https://www.coriniumcapital.co.uk/eot-and-mbo-alternative/
- https://www.coriniumcapital.co.uk/venture-backed-software/

Last updated: 2026-09-23