Corporate finance advisory
Corporate finance advice for UK businesses
Maplewood Partners Limited advises UK companies on funding, capital strategy, and transactions — one decision at a time, with the reasoning written down where a board, its shareholders, and its lenders can all read it.
The scope of corporate finance advice
What the advice actually covers
Corporate finance advice covers M&A, funding, debt and equity structures, and capital strategy. It is a broad category, and the firms that deliver it range from big-four practices to single-partner boutiques, banks, and specialist consultancies.
What separates them is not the list of services on a website. It is who does the work, how the fee is built, and whether the adviser has handled this specific kind of transaction before. On a first call we ask which of those three the board is unsure about, because that is usually where the engagement should start.
Who does the work
Ask which named people will run the file day to day, not which practice group is credited on the engagement letter. The difference shows up in week three.
How the fee is built
Fixed fee, retainer, or a success element on a transaction mandate. Each shifts risk to a different party, and the shape of the fee tells you which party is carrying it.
Track record on the type
A refinancing, a bolt-on acquisition, and a shareholder exit are three different jobs. Experience on one does not transfer automatically to the next.
What gets written down
Options, costs, covenants, and the scenarios where a recommendation stops looking sensible. If the downside is missing from the paper, it is a sales document.
Funding work begins with the purpose of the capital, not the amount.
A facility raised to fund an acquisition carries a different structure and covenant profile from one raised to smooth working capital through a seasonal cycle. Getting the purpose right first is what keeps the terms defensible later.
Funding advisory
We prepare the capital plan, test it against downside scenarios, and set out the debt options with their costs, covenants, and reporting obligations. Where a board already has terms on the table, we review them independently — including the parts the lender's own summary does not emphasise.
The output of a funding mandate is a short paper the board can work from: the amount and purpose, two or three realistic structures, the covenants attached to each, and the reporting the company takes on afterwards. Anything longer tends not to get read before the decision.
What a funding paper includes
- Purpose of the capital and the period it needs to cover
- Structures under consideration, with indicative cost ranges
- Covenant and security expectations by lender type
- Downside scenarios and the headroom each structure leaves
- Ongoing reporting obligations after drawdown
Where funding advice starts to matter
Boards usually arrive with one of three questions: whether to fund growth from the balance sheet or from a facility, how much headroom to keep in reserve, and what a lender will want to see before agreeing terms. Those three questions drive the rest of the paper.
Capital strategy over multiple years
Single transactions are easier to advise on than multi-year capital strategy, because a strategy has to survive changes in trading conditions and in the cost of capital. We work with clients on a rolling plan: what will need funding, when, and from what source. That plan gets revisited annually — assumptions that looked reasonable two years ago may not hold, and the point of a strategy document is that it can be updated rather than replaced.
Year one
Map what is already committed — existing facilities, repayment dates, covenant test dates — and identify the gaps before they become urgent.
Years two to three
Model the funding needs that follow from the operating plan: capital expenditure, acquisitions, working capital swings, and any dividend policy the shareholders have agreed.
Annual review
Re-test the assumptions against what actually happened. Where the plan no longer holds, we rewrite the relevant section rather than restarting the document.
Source mix
A plan that depends on a single source of capital is fragile. We usually set out at least two routes to the same requirement, with the conditions under which each becomes the better choice.
M&A and transaction support
On the buy side and the sell side, the work follows a similar arc: preparation, financial analysis, documentation, coordination with legal counsel, and support through negotiation. We also handle the preparation phase before a process starts, which is where a lot of value is created or lost.
Transaction support increasingly blends with compliance and operating questions. A deal that looks clean financially can still fail on a regulatory point or a systems integration issue, and the timetable has to account for both.
Preparation before a process starts
Historical financials cleaned and explained, a defensible view of maintainable earnings, and answers ready for the questions a buyer's adviser will ask in the first week. Buyers rarely pay for a story they have to reconstruct themselves.
We also flag the items most likely to slow a timetable: change-of-control clauses, property consents, pension arrangements, and any customer concentration the numbers make obvious.
Debt and equity advisory
The choice between debt and equity usually turns on control and headroom rather than headline cost. Equity dilutes existing holders. Debt imposes covenants and a repayment schedule. Both create reporting obligations that outlast the transaction. We set out the trade-offs in writing, including the scenarios in which each option becomes uncomfortable — a recommendation that describes only the upside is a sales document, not advice.
What changes
Debt
Equity
Ownership and control
Existing holders keep their share of the company; lenders gain contractual rights rather than votes.
New investors take a stake, and with it a say in decisions the board previously made alone.
Headroom and obligation
A repayment schedule and covenant tests create fixed obligations that continue through quieter trading periods.
No scheduled repayment, but an expectation of a return — usually a sale, a refinancing, or a dividend.
Cost and reporting
Interest is a running cost; reporting to the lender is regular and defined by the facility agreement.
No interest cost, but ongoing reporting to shareholders and, depending on the structure, to a wider group of investors.
When it becomes uncomfortable
When forecasts soften and covenant tests arrive before trading recovers.
When the board needs speed and discretion that a shareholder group cannot provide.
How larger firms frame the same work
It is useful to know how the market positions this service. Deloitte UK offers independent financial, M&A and debt/equity advice, is registered in England and Wales as a limited liability partnership, and operates from a registered office at 1 New Street Square, London EC4A 3HQ, positioning itself around transaction advice and strategic finance support.
EY-Parthenon, part of EY's strategy and transactions offering, frames corporate finance consulting around risk and return trade-offs and capital efficiency, aimed at CFO-level decision-making and stakeholder value. That is decision support sold to a committee. Smaller firms sell the same thing to a named individual, with less process around it and more direct access.
Where a committee is the right buyer, that structure is genuinely useful. Where a founder or finance director needs a decision made this quarter, the smaller structure usually moves faster — and the trade-off is fewer people reviewing the numbers.
Regional advisory capacity
Advisory coverage in the UK is not confined to London. Regional office growth remained active in 2026, and firms have been building teams outside the capital. Leonard Curtis launched a dedicated funding team in Birmingham in 2026 as part of a national growth strategy, aimed at supporting businesses across the Midlands.
That trend matters to companies that want their adviser in the room. Our base in Reading puts us within reach of the Thames Valley and the M4 corridor, and we travel for the meetings that need to be face to face.
- Registered office
- 4 Bridge Avenue, Earley, Reading, England
- Office hours
- Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
- Contact
- [email protected] · +44 20 7960 2493
Visits are by arrangement — write or call first so the right adviser is in the building when you arrive.
Fees, scope, and what we decline
Fees are agreed in writing before work starts. Defined pieces such as a capital plan or an information memorandum are usually fixed-fee. Transaction mandates may include a success element. Ongoing support is retainer-based.
Fixed fee
Capital plans, information memoranda, and independent reviews of terms already on the table. The scope and the deliverable are defined before the fee is agreed.
Transaction mandate
May include a success element, which means part of the fee depends on the transaction completing. We set out what counts as completion before we start.
Retainer
Ongoing capital strategy work, annual plan reviews, and standing support where the board wants an adviser available between transactions.
Work we decline
We decline work where the timeline is not realistic, where the outcome the client expects cannot be supported by the numbers, or where the activity requires permissions we do not hold. Saying no early is cheaper for everyone than saying it late — including for the board that has to explain a failed process to its shareholders.
Questions boards ask before engaging
Straight answers to the points that come up on a first call. If your question is not here, ask it directly — the answer is usually a short conversation rather than a document.
How long does a funding mandate usually take?
It depends on the purpose of the capital and how complete the financial information already is. A refinancing with clean accounts and a cooperative incumbent lender moves faster than a first-time facility where the historical numbers need rebuilding. We give a realistic timetable in the engagement letter and flag the items most likely to move it.
Do you work on both buy-side and sell-side transactions?
Yes, and the preparation phase is the same on either side. On a sale the emphasis falls on presenting maintainable earnings and answering buyer questions quickly. On an acquisition the emphasis falls on what the target actually delivers and how the integration timetable is funded.
Can you review terms a lender has already offered?
That is a defined piece of work and is usually fixed-fee. We read the facility agreement alongside the commercial summary, check the covenant package against the forecast, and point out where the two diverge. You keep the lender relationship; we give you an independent view of what you are signing.
How is a capital strategy document kept current?
We review it annually with the board and update the sections where the assumptions have moved. The document is structured so individual sections can be rewritten without rebuilding the whole plan — that is what makes it usable after the first year.
What do you need from us to start?
Recent management accounts, the current operating plan or budget, any existing facility agreements, and a short note on what the board is trying to achieve. That is enough for a first working session; further documents follow once the scope is agreed in writing.
Bring us the decision, not the paperwork
Most engagements start with one conversation about what the business is trying to achieve and what the realistic options are. From there we agree in writing what the work is, what it costs, and when it will be delivered — before anything else starts.