Management Buy-In (MBI)

A transaction in which a company's existing management team acquires the business, often with financial backing from private equity or debt providers. MBOs are a common succession and exit route, particularly for founder-led or family-owned businesses.

An acquisition in which a significant proportion of the purchase price is funded by debt, using the target company's assets and cash flows as collateral. LBOs are a common private equity strategy for acquiring mature, cash-generative businesses.

Acquisition finance is the funding an acquirer uses to buy a business. It usually combines several layers into a capital stack: the buyer's own cash or equity; senior bank debt, often secured on the target's assets and cash flows; asset-based lending against receivables, stock or plant; and increasingly IP-backed lending against intangible assets such as patents, software and brands.

A vendor loan note (also called vendor finance or a deferred loan note) is an arrangement in which the seller of a business lends part of the purchase price back to the buyer, to be repaid over time with interest. Instead of receiving the whole price in cash at completion, the seller takes a loan note for a portion of it, which the buyer pays down from the acquired business's cash flow.

A private equity transaction in which one PE fund sells a portfolio company to another PE fund, rather than to a strategic buyer or through an IPO. Secondary buyouts have become the most common PE exit route, accounting for over 50% of European PE exits in recent years.

An equity-based compensation structure in private equity-backed companies that aligns management's financial interests with those of the PE sponsor by giving managers the opportunity to share in the equity upside upon exit. MIPs typically allocate 10-20% of the equity to management through sweet equity, share options, or ratchet mechanisms linked to achieving specified return hurdles.

A financing feature that allows a borrower to make interest payments by issuing additional debt or equity instruments rather than paying cash, thereby conserving cash flow during periods of investment or growth. PIK interest accrues and compounds, increasing the principal balance over time.

Reverse due diligence is diligence a seller, or the management team of a target, carries out on the buyer. In any deal where the seller retains an ongoing interest — an earn-out, a rollover of equity into the enlarged group, or a management team joining a private-equity platform — the buyer's quality matters as much to the seller as the reverse.

How to Buy a Business: Grow by Acquisition

The buy-side hub: finding, diligencing, financing and integrating an acquisition.

Management buyout vs management buy-in — what's the difference?

In a management buyout (MBO) the existing team buys the business it already runs; in a management buy-in (MBI) an external team buys it and takes over running it.

Can I use a target's assets as security for acquisition finance?

Often yes. Lenders commonly secure acquisition finance on the target's assets and cash flows, including receivables, stock and plant, and increasingly on intangible assets such as patents, software and brands through IP-backed lending.

How do I finance a business acquisition?

Combine sources into a capital stack: your equity, senior bank debt, asset-based lending, IP-backed lending against intangible assets, and vendor finance such as loan notes or an earn-out.