Valius Group Limited (company reg number 13892121) is an introducer of businesses for sale to anyone looking to acquire a business. This can include private individuals, corporate organisations, financial investors and private equity firms.

The data you complete on your Buyer Profile section of the Valius platform is only ever shared with a third party (being the relevant sell side adviser) at the point at which you express specific interest in a business for sale. The stored information is sent in summary form to the Deal Leader for that business in order that they can assess you as a potential buyer for their client, the seller. Without this information, the sell side adviser will not be able to seriously consider you as a credible buyer. We do not hold any financial information for buyers.

Valius exists to connect buyers with businesses for sale in an efficient, smart and speedy way via it’s proprietary business search portal which matches your target search criteria with over 700 businesses for sale at any time. These businesses are derived from business sale brokers, vendor advisers and other corporate financiers all of whom are acting for the sellers/owners of a business. The service operates across the UK. The platform also provides a library of expert knowledge across all appropriate topic areas and also provides regular blog posts through which a buyer can LEARN how to; SEARCH businesses for sale; ENGAGE with sellers and ultimately, ACQUIRE a private business.

Valius acts as your “personal broker” and in particular, champions private buyers, with the sell side advisers. By being a Valius member, you gain instant credibility with sellers’ advisers.

Valius offers buyers knowledge and technical know-how to enable a buyer to navigate the business buying process and offers a library of expert knowledge and useful tips and information on key topics around the process of buying a business and the typical considerations involved.

Valius can also connect buyers with one another to effect a buyout team.

You can also find relevant third party advisers and professionals who will help and support you in your transaction.

The key people behind Valius are all entrepreneurs/investors and have either set up their own business and, in some cases, bought into other businesses over the years. The team includes an accountant; a corporate financier; a business coach; a headhunter and a group of designers/developers responsible for the technical and functional aspects of the Valius platform

1. Private buyers.

These can include board/management level executives looking for a change from their corporate lifestyle; serial investors looking for their next acquisition; any individual who has owned a minority interest in a business and is now keen to explore the acquisition of a majority stake in an SME business in their own right; any individual looking to explore and understand more about the business purchase market for the first time; any private individual who is frustrated having tried to research businesses for sale and found resistance from the sellers advisers towards progressing your interest; any private individual who has tried and failed to find the right business for acquisition

2. Private equity/venture capital organisations
3. Trade / corporate acquirers

• The key resource for private business buyers in the UK
• A consolidator of businesses for sale in the UK
• An educational resource on how to buy a business
• The place to find your corporate acquisition
• A provider of data on companies for sale
• A connector for business buyers needing supporting professional advisers/connections
• A networking hub for like-minded buyers to connect and interact
• An inexpensive resource for corporates/PE firms looking to carry out deal origination activity
• A networking/events company with keynote speakers
• A disruptor in the deal origination space

Valius has access to a whole range of business brokers and vendor advisers across the UK and therefore businesses are for sale across all sectors. However, at this point in time, we do not show high street retail businesses such as pubs, post offices, nail bars, coffee shops, hairdressers, etc.

The service includes:

Access to a tech platform through which a buyer can search all relevant businesses for sale. These businesses are derived from business sale brokers, vendor advisers and corporate financiers; all of whom are acting for the sellers/owners of the business. The service operates across the UK at present.

There is also a comprehensive library of expert knowledge with over 50 articles and posts covering all aspects of the business buying process. All of these articles are fully visible for all members.
Finally, there is also a panel of Trusted Advisers which you can access on an unrestricted basis. All you need to do is to register a FREE account with the platform and this will unlock full access to all our Trusted Advisers. You only need to supply some basic information to set up your FREE account. The Advisers can support you with any aspect of a business acquisition or, if you’re already a business owner, the Advisers can support you with the day to day matters arising out of running an SME business. You can contact any Adviser directly from the platform.

There is a full range of companies listed on the platform. Most have turnover of less than £25m and corresponding EBITDA of less than £4m. Many of those listed will be small companies with under £500k ebitda. A large proportion have between £500k and £1.5m ebitda and there are a smaller number in the range of £1.5m-£4m ebitda.

There are currently no fees payable to access the information contained on the platform. Everything is available to all buyers. The only stipulation we have is that we request that you complete some basic registration information which will be used to communicate with sellers’ advisers in due course. You can access everything for FREE. This includes: all 700+ businesses for sale, the full library of expert knowledge; the panel of Trusted Advisers and all of our blog articles covering the all you need to know about the business purchase process.

We do not expect you to work exclusively with us. You may have already generated some connections from your own network. Valius can complement your business acquisition search and provide a highly targeted list of companies from the businesses for sale market which many buyers are not always able to access in their own right.

There are no deal fees payable to Valius.

Valius does not charge any fees for the completion of a transaction on a business found on the Valius platform. Guaranteed. This is a huge saving for a buyer and particularly, for any private buyer, as these fees would normally be added to the costs of a transaction and be paid at completion.

• Stage 1. The buyer decides to join the Valius membership service and registers a FREE account.
• Stage 2. The buyer can at any time access the Knowledge Hub of over 50 blog articles covering all aspects of the business acquisition process.
• Stage 3. The buyer completes their own personal profile page including your specific areas of interest along with the level of capital available for investment and any bespoke requirements.
• Stage 4. The buyer attaches a Curriculum Vitae or other summary document outlining their skills and sector experiences and also provides a Linkedin profile link.
• Stage 5. The buyer conducts their own personal search of businesses for sale and results are shown on screen. You can save any number of searches and their results will be stored in your dashboard. Equally, a weekly summary of new businesses added to the platform and matching your search criteria will be sent to you weekly on a Thursday. All searches can be re-visited any time in your in-portal BuyerHub dashboard.
• Stage 6. The buyer contacts the sell side adviser on each business of interest directly through the BuyerHub.
• Stage 7. The buyer can access the Trusted Adviser panel at any time whilst on the platform.

Yes there are numerous. These are not delivered directly through the Valius platform at this time but they can be discussed and quoted for separately by a Valius Trusted Adviser partner. Support could include:

• attending meetings in conjunction with the prospective buyer and liaising with the vendor/vendor advisers;
• search for and liaison with relevant funding partners to provide options on a funding solution;
• deal structuring including valuation and offer;
• deal management;
• business modelling and cashflow forecasting including “what if” scenario planning;
• full negotiations with the sellers and their agents
• progression of the deal through to final purchase completion

Valius is unusual in the market for buying and selling companies. It focuses on supporting business buyers and, through extensive relationships with sell side advisers, it has access to hundreds of businesses for sale at any one time, which it shows in an anonymous format on the platform which buyers can search through. The Valius platform cleverly matches buyers and sellers together. The platform is a deal generation provider for business buyers.

NDAs control the flow of confidential information between parties. They are an essential part of ensuring that market sensitive information is only shared with relevant parties to the transaction. Sell side advisers will not let you progress your interest in one of their businesses for sale until you’ve signed an NDA. Even after signing sometimes there is resistance to release the Information Memorandum. This resistance largely comes from the sellers themselves rather than the advisers – often sellers are wary of some buyers not offering the right price for a business and secondly, not having the wherewithal to see a transaction through to a successful completion. By being a Valius member you automatically have increased visibility and credibility with the sell side advisers and therefore, by definition, the owners/sellers of businesses.

There is a way Valius can support you beyond the deal origination stage of the business purchase process. This support can include:

• Exploring the commercial and practical aspects of buying a business, whether for a current or future transaction.

• Discussing how to make connections to form a buyout team.

• Discussing how to make connections with third parties who can support you with a transaction, such as corporate financiers, accountants, due diligence experts, corporate lawyers, tax advisers and funding partners.

• A link to a pensions specialist who can provide a brief overview of how to use a small self administered pension scheme (SSAS) to make maximum use of a corporate pension for the purposes of a business purchase.

• Structure of the deal
• Funding
• Information Memorandum
• Financials
• Marketing pack for funders
• Dealing with due diligence
• Initial introductory call with the sellers and their advisers
• First meeting with the sellers
• How to connect with other buyers to form an investment/buyout team
• How to connect to third parties who can support you with a transaction

Please email support@valiusgroup.co.uk or call our Founder, Paul Griffiths on 07802 716996 for an informal chat.

Valius gives buyers the opportunity to find a target business by searching over 700 businesses for sale at the touch of a button. The platform enables a buyer to progress interest in any of these businesses directly with the key contact (Deal Leader) at the seller’s advisers via the Valius BuyerHub, where all communication and correspondence between parties is held and stored.

Valius also gives buyers access to a Knowledge Bank of over 50 blog articles including expert knowledge, tips and know-how to help you gain an understanding of the terminology; the different stages of a transaction; the key people you’ll need along the way and all manner of related topics on the way to a successful business purchase. The platform saves buyers the hassle of having to try and connect with the multitude of sell side brokers each of whom are selling a small number of businesses at any one time. Valius shows you all the deals in one place. Valius also champion buyers – by being a member of our community, you get automatic credibility and traction by “piggy-backing” on our goodwill with the sellers’ advisers, which has been generated from over 8 years of effort in supporting buyers to transact on a business purchase. We’ve done the hard work for you so you don’t have to.

The BuyerHub is the area within the portal where your search results are stored and you can review these on an ongoing basis. Equally, the BuyerHub is the way buyers connect to the seller’s advisers to progress specific deals and your communications and the documents sent between parties are stored there for future review.

Start searching

You can start searching the Valius businesses for sale portal as soon as you are a registered FREE member. In return, not only will you get access to the whole of the Knowledge Hub, but you will also be able to search the database of over 700 businesses based on your own personal search parameters. This will give you a good indication of the sort of businesses which are for sale at that time.

Available information

The details you will see for each business will include sector; sub-sector; location (this will often be broad based due to the confidentiality on the seller’s part); adjusted ebitda; turnover; brief summary details. This snapshot will give you enough information to decide if the business is one which interests you and will help you to decide if you’d like to progress further.

Progressing further

If you wish to engage with the sell side advisers, you can do this from within the BuyerHub in one easy click.

Non Disclosure Agreement

To connect with the Deal Leader on any business for sale, it is likely that you will need to sign a non disclosure agreement (NDA) between you and the sellers’ advisers. This will cover you for all the confidential information and interaction between you and the sellers advisers, when sharing the details about the business.

Knowledge Hub

You have unlimited and unrestricted access to over 50 expert knowledge articles contained within the portal. These cover all aspects of the business buying process.

The CV or a company presentation or summary document is an essential part of how we communicate details about you as a buyer through to the sell side advisers. They will wish to know as much about you and your background as possible in order that they can report back to their client, the sellers, and give them the comfort that you are a serious and credible buyer whom they can recommend. Only by having as much information as possible about any buyer can they then do that.

There are many benefits to be gained by working with Valius as your deal origination partner, including:

• Ability to become a member for FREE
• No deal fees payable
• Over 700 businesses to search from at the touch of a button
• Easy searching of businesses via dropdowns on key criteria
• Access to a panel of Trusted Advisers for support across the transaction process
• Unrivalled Knowledge Bank with 50 articles to learn all about the buying process
• Your own personal dashboard within the BuyerHub to store target businesses
• Instant access to sellers’ advisers to liaise on specific deals of interest to you
• Credibility with sell side advisers by being part of the Valius buyer community
• Valius champion you to the sellers’ advisers giving a better chance of success
• Regular new blog articles on relevant topics from Trusted Adviser partners
• Advisers include accountants, tax advisers, solicitors, HR, insurance brokers, etc
• Weekly alerts to your own BuyerHub for new businesses matching your searches

We do not hold any financial information for buyers.
The data you complete on your Buyer Profile section of the Valius platform is only ever shared with a third party (being the relevant sell side adviser) at the point at which you express specific interest in a business for sale. The stored information is sent in summary form to the Deal Leader for that business in order that they can assess you as a potential buyer for their client, the seller. Without this information, the sell side adviser will not be able to seriously consider you as a credible buyer.

• Sellers will look for one or more of three things when they are assessing a potential buyer:
  • A copy of your CV or business presentation or similar summary document
  • Your Linkedin profile page
  • The summary information you include within your Buyer profile

  The Linkedin profile page is useful because it generally gives a really good snapshot of a person’s background experience, their employment history and summary skill sets. This will give the sellers’ advisers a good picture of how relevant you could be to their client.

  It’s very easy to find your Linkedin profile page URL address. The way to do it is as follows:

  On your profile page, look to the column on the right hand side of the page for “Edit public profile and URL”

  Under the section “Edit your custom URL”, locate your public profile URL – it will look something like www.linkedin.com/in/xxxxxxxxxxx

  Copy the link for pasting into the Buyer profile section.

  It’s as easy as that!!