A ground breaking SME funding model for Ireland... Finance for Companies (Ireland) Ltd Corporate presentation January 2014

Transcription

1 A ground breaking SME funding model for Ireland... Finance for Companies (Ireland) Ltd Corporate presentation January 2014

2 Risk warning and disclaimer This document has been prepared by and is the sole responsibility of Finance for Companies (Ireland) Ltd (the Company or Arranger ), for information purposes only and has been distributed by the Company to the Recipient. This document is not a prospectus and does not constitute, or form part of, any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for, any shares, nor shall this document or any part of it, or the fact of its distribution, form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract there for. The information contained in this document is subject to verification and update. Some of the statements contained in this Proposal are forward looking statements. Forward looking statements include but are not limited to statements concerning estimates as to values, fees, margins, commissions and other expense related issues which are not historical facts. When used in this document any financial projections, including cash flow projections or internal rates of return, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes that expectations reflected in the forward looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risk and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward looking statements. Various factors could cause actual results to differ from these forward looking statements since by their very nature, forward looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. This document should not be distributed, directly or indirectly, into or to any resident of the United States of America (or any of its territories or possessions), Canada, Japan, Australia or to any corporation, partnership or other entity created or organised under the laws thereof, or in any other country outside the United Kingdom. No representation or warranty, expressed or implied, is made or given by or on behalf of the Company or any of their respective directors, officers, partners, employees or advisers or any other person as to the accuracy or the completeness of the information or opinions contained herein and no responsibility or liability is accepted by any of them for any such information or opinions. Notwithstanding the aforesaid, nothing in this paragraph shall exclude liability for any representation or warranty made fraudulently. This document is being provided to the Recipient solely for their information and by accepting this document the Recipient agrees to keep permanently confidential any information contained herein or otherwise made available, whether oral or in writing, in connection with the Proposal. This document is confidential and must not be copied, published, reproduced, distributed or passed in whole or in part to others at any time, for any purpose, without the prior written consent of the Company.

3 What we do Finance for Companies Ltd ( F4C ) assists high performance SMEs to raise funding (equity, debt finance and/or mezzanine finance) Through our sister company, Premier Non Executives Ltd ( PNE ) we can also fill the inevitable skills gap with most SMEs by providing top quality Non Executive Directors ( NED s) The directors of F4C and PNE have significant experience (over 100 years) in both starting up companies as well as in corporate finance advisory and fund management. We have taken the best of crowd financing, angel investing, private equity and conventional corporate finance models; added some of our own innovations to make this the most effective solution for SME financing to date. We engage with Venture Capital Trust s (VCT s) and other funds on a co-investment basis together with some of the major retail banks to produce a structured financial solution for high performance SMEs We currently have coverage throughout the entire island of Ireland and the UK Separately, we are in the process of raising our own funds (mezzanine / debt) to invest in high performance SMEs

4 The business case Estimated to be over 200,000 SME s on the island of Ireland 94% of SME finance comes from Bank funding ** 80% of SME Owner / managers looking for an alternative source of funding * Equity finance is now a significant source for some SME s ** Lack of balance sheet right sizing ** High level of credit appeals overturned by the CRO 55% * Source: *Department of Finance. Credit Survey May 2013 ** Access to Finance for growth for SME s on the island of Ireland.Intertrade Ireland report Dec 2013

5 Why is there a need for a specialist in SME finance? SMEs have always had difficulty in attracting growth/risk capital below 2m because: cost of due diligence is too high; and the lack of return versus the size of the investment Both of which make an uneconomical investment proposition. To date, it has been impossible to scale up the current investment process in order to achieve the required economies of scale combined with a satisfactory spread to mitigate risk F4C sources risk capital through retail banks and debt / equity funds together with director level skills via their online network of experienced directors/investors The Government recognises that given the current state of the Irish economy, driving growth is very much a high priority and that the SME sector is where the growth will start F4C addresses this problem as a Risk Capital Broker by sourcing risk capital as well as debt solutions for SMEs.

6 Competition The Business Angel networks Business Angels are frequently passive investors who have invested as a result of an investment proposal or investment memorandum ( IM ) This IM will be produced by a corporate financier who will have: Taken time to filter and select a business to promote Then undertaken the appropriate due diligence Prepared a public document for which he will have taken responsibility Circulated the document to his network who may or may not like the proposal All of this is costly in terms of overhead, has a long lead time and has no guarantee of success Furthermore the average Angel Network will probably not undertake any more than 12 transactions a year It is not a scalable model and therefore has little impact on the Irish & UK SME equity problem.

7 Competition Crowd Funding An excellent model but with some core issues: Crowd funding is a regulated activity - some crowd funders are unregulated The concept is the sale of sophisticated investments to retail customers who may lack the necessary experience to assess the risk of the investment There have been few complete cycles of investment and so little is yet known of exit routes Most importantly, it lacks the human assessment and involvement with the company - something that we at F4C believe is crucial Frequently, if you fail to reach the minimum investment, the funding process fails entirely

8 The F4C business concept 1 Our network of Regional Directors The core execution of the business revolves around our team of self-employed Regional Directors ( RD ) RDs are self employed and share fees and are therefore motivated to find a suitable funding solution All of the F4C RDs are either ex bank executives, corporate financiers or senior businesspeople all of whom have significant corporate experience and are able to assess and advise on the suitability of a business for funding F4C (Ireland) has a team of RDs under CEO, Peter Greene which provides cover to the entire island of Ireland

9 The F4C business concept 2 - Investing NEDs There are a considerable number of skilled executives who are currently out of work most of whom would welcome the opportunity to be a non executive director ( NED ) The economic climate means that it is extremely difficult for these executives to find full or even part time employment By no means would these executives describe themselves as Business Angels but could access 50k - 100k for a suitably exciting business case that also provides a career opportunity. Inevitably, they are attracted to businesses where they already have expertise and this in turn provides the investee company with 3 upsides: Critical appraisal of the business by a sector specialist Enhancement of board expertise by the addition of a skilled non-executive director Further equity funding Within SMEs, NEDs frequently align their interests with those of the shareholders by subscribing for shares This produces the concept of investing non executive directors, where the SME gains both cash as well as strengthening of the board This is a huge untapped market both in terms of people as well as a cash resource.

10 The F4C business concept 3 - Funding solutions We have an established relationship with all the major Retail Banks; debt funds and risk capital funds and so F4C can assist a company to raise funds for such purposes as ; Working capital Debt restructure Asset finance or re-finance Debtor finance Trade finance

11 Joined up thinking an inclusive business model Mezzanine Debt / Equity funds / E I Retail Banks Passive Investors and Business Angels Companies looking for funding Finance for Companies Ltd Non executive directors looking for business opportunities F4C Regional Directors Premier Non Executives Ltd Executives looking for a career

12 The Process flow where Debt and/or Equity Required. Company wishes to raise capital Company registers on website broadly suitable - instructs local RD to contact Company. F4C decides whether company is RD contacts the Company to make appointment for site visit RD does site visit to Company in order to do basic DD RD develops and submits proposals for debt/equity funding to the appropriate institution RD manages negotiations between the company and the institution up to and including Heads of Terms Drawdown of funds Completion

13 The Process flow where Funding and Non Executive Director Required. Company wishes to raise capital and acquire a Non Executive Director Company registers on website F4C decides whether company is broadly suitable - instructs local RD to contact Company. RD contacts the Company to make appointment for site visit RD does site visit to Company in order to do basic DD HQ circulates to selected candidates on PNE database with agreed Co info. HQ sends details of interested Candidates to RD to establish contact and arrange meetings RD conducts interviews and filters out as neccessary to produce list of Candiates for Company RD arranges meeting between Company and filtered Candidates and attends all meetings RD also develops and submits proposal for debt / equity funding to appropriate institution RD manages negotiations between Company and Candidate/s including: Heads of Terms. Deals with professional advisers Completion

14 Why F4C is different Finance for Companies is unique because: We have taken the best of all the current funding methodologies, combined them and added some of our own unique twists. We use IT to gather data and people on the ground (our network of Regional Directors) to both assess and broker a suitable financial package with the individual SME We use our sister company Premier Non Executives Ltd to source suitably skilled people to directly assist the SME Unlike some other funding processes, the F4C model is infinitely scalable and at relatively low cost. We have an inclusive business model - we partner with investment funds, retail banks and others to produce a total financial package

15 Conclusion Research shows that there are some 200,000 potential SMEs looking for funding that retail banks cannot fully satisfy We have taken the best of the current technology funding methods, added a key human element and combined them into a completely new concept of business funding The directors have considerable experience in corporate finance, banking and as entrepreneurs we understand the problem We are harnessing the huge unused capital of the ordinary businessman, as well as business angels. Using our solution the company gets: A dedicated Regional Director (Business mentor) to assist throughout the process Collegiate approach to bringing additionality through various funding partners A tailored funding package An experienced NED on the board where required

16 The Team Peter L R Hewitt, JP, FCSI, FRSA (Chairman). Peter has enjoyed a varied and successful career over the last 35 years in property, company direction and corporate finance. He has been Chairman or Director of some 9 public companies, where he was part of the start up, chairing 6 of these including 7 years as Chairman and CEO of a construction and fit out company which he founded and floated on AIM, exiting in Subsequently, he established and sold two FSA authorised private client stock broking businesses. Peter is currently: Chairman of Proven Planned Exit VCT PLC; a Non-Executive Director of Puma VII VCT PLC, both of which are listed on the Official List of the LSE; a Director of London Asia Capital PLC; a director of Provident & Regional Estates Ltd; a member of the Project Merlin Business Finance Roundtable; Alderman for the Ward of Aldgate in the City of London and Chairman of the City s new 20m Social Investment Fund. Peter Greene M.Sc. (CEO). Peter was a career banker with AIB Bank for 38 years in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, firstly with First Trust Bank where he rose to manage one of the top performing branches. From 2005 he was a Regional Director for AIB in the North west of Ireland. There he was responsible for the management of 33 outlets which serviced 160,000 customers, many of them in the SME sector. He also holds a Masters Degree in Business Improvement from the University of Ulster. Fidelma M Hewitt (Director). Former AIM company director. ILEX and CIPD qualified. Fidelma has spent her career in the recruitment and management of staff. She was Group HR Director for the Wigmore Group PLC which she helped turnaround from a company with no employees to a company, quoted on AIM and with some 150 employees plus a further 300 sub-contractors. Fidelma is currently a part time management consultant to Europe s leading IT security company; on the advisory board of Connect Jet; a mentor with Mentorset; a mentor with the Bright Ideas Trust. Declan Kelleher (Regional Director) Declan has over 35 years experience in Retail & Business Banking with AIB Bank.He ran a number of large retail branches before going on to manage a region comprising 20 Branches in the North East of the country and subsequently a region comprising 30 Branches in Dublin.He also held the roles of Head of SME & Agri Business and Head of Mortgage Business Development & Propositions within the Bank. Declan brings a strong lending capability to assist SME businesses who want to grow their business. Seamus Corrigan M.Sc. (Regional Director) Seamus has over 40 years experience with First Trust Bank/AIB (UK) Ltd in Northern Ireland. Having worked for some years in the Banks Business Banking department he moved on to manage the banks largest Retail Branch in Northern Ireland before going on to become a Regional and Area Director with personal responsibility for all borrowings over 1m. Total funds under management 2b spread over 30 provincial branches. He brings a wealth of lending and business experience in the SME Sector.

17 Contacts Peter Greene (Ireland) Peter Hewitt (UK) - peter.hewitt@finance4companies.com Ireland Unit 2010,The Innovation Centre,IT Sligo,Sligo UK - 1 Pump House Mews, Hooper Street, London E1 8AG

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