Services

The Acquiring Business 4 Good programme works across the Third Sector delivering mergers and acquisition support. One of our key areas of support is to assist social enterprises and charities to acquire profitable private businesses. We also support organisations looking to work together, develop partnerships or merge, either within the Third Sector or cross sector.

The Big Lottery in Scotland funds free AB4G programme support to Scottish social enterprises, development trusts, community businesses and charities, as long as the organisation is a member of Social Firms Scotland (costing £90 to £130 per annum). We do also have a range of chargeable services supporting Merger and Acquisition activity in the Third Sector, which we deliver in other parts of the UK.

The AB4G programme includes access to resources some of which are included in our Resources section, some are only available to programme participants:

  • private online deal forum
  • sample business acquisition templates for raising finance
  • starting point documents for the commercial processes
  • standard mutual confidentiality agreement
  • valuation and due diligence checklists
The support package also includes Social Firms Scotland’s initial impact review, preparation for and facilitated access to interested finance providers, tailored deal management, as well as introductions to professionals with relevant commercial experience.  We have also found that vendors (sellers) also need some support and in order to progress transactions smoothly it is useful to give some support to them as well as the purchasers.
AB4G has a varied calendar of Events and Training, including “Getting Ready to Buy” and “Getting Ready to Sell” full day seminars. There will be a conference early in 2012 to provide a forum for debate on various forms of funding Third Sector business acquisition as well as sharing case studies and promoting the ” Buying Businesses for Good Guide”.