The lifecycle of Hanover’s private equity offering

I’ve had a number of conversations with my clients in recent years in which funds told me they didn’t appreciate the scope of Hanover’s offering in terms of private equity until they started working with us. Yes, we can fill senior roles with the best talent in the market - but that’s only part of our offering.

I’ve heard this comment a number of times now, and wanted to put into words what it actually means when we say the “full lifecycle of our private equity offering,” and the value and support it brings to our clients.

What is full private equity lifecycle support?

Full lifecycle support is the triangulation of engagement between advisors, who manage transactions in the market, large cap and mid-market private equity funds with their disparate and diverse investment theses, and owner founder assets seeking private capital. 

We sit at the heart of that triangulation, and share IP - within confidentiality constraints - between the different parties. We’re not just there when a firm is looking to fill a role, but throughout.

For example, advisors know the funds and vice versa, but we provide support by reminding them of some of the assets and transactions both coming into and already in the market that they may be aware of but have not yet actioned. We can provide further insight (again, within confidentiality constraints), access and process development. 

There’s a uniqueness to this dialogue with both advisors and funds, where we additionally support owner founders or assets seeking private capital to drive growth and expansion, potentially cash out, internationalise, target new addressable markets or make acquisitions. Hanover has both the expertise and contacts to formulate and formalise these introductions between vested parties.

Your three key areas of support

The three key areas of support that Hanover provides across the private equity lifecycle are:

1. Transaction support for advisors and funds with regards making the transaction happen on both the buy and sell side
2. Due diligence with regards to domain expertise and broader transaction support
3. Origination support, identifying assets and owner founders looking for private capital and supporting the agenda by way of introduction

We are also able to support owner founders with access to trusted advisors and facilitate introductions to funds where the investment thesis is aligned.

One of the areas we have deep expertise in is supporting the agenda for growth. Once a transaction has happened, we’ll support you to deliver the value creation, whether that’s internationalisation, buy and build, bolt-ons, land-and-expand or better integration into existing portfolio assets.

More than an executive search firm

Should you be mid-flight, 24 or 18 months prior to exit, Hanover can provide leadership support. Whether you have concerns that require change or to be ready for sale, we can support that agenda, too. 

Not only that, but we can also make early fund introductions to assets that are looking to come to market, naturally with the agreement and acquiescence of the existing investor group.

If there are owner-founders or CEOs navigating a transaction, we can help give you access to leaders in existing fund portfolios to better understand their respective approach to investment.

When the exit then happens, we provide leadership support. Leaders may have cashed out and want to go plural or perhaps take on another operating role. They’ll need access to and may be keen to have discussions with other funds to evaluate their options. This we support especially amongst those funds that may have been part of the process but were not successful in landing the deal.

The analogy I often give to people is this: Hanover is great at organising dinner parties. We know who to invite and who to sit next to each other. Yes, we offer all the ‘usual’ services an executive search firm does, but our strength really lies in our emotional intelligence. It’s our breadth in being able to marry leadership with assets in a way that allows growth to happen - because it's our understanding of interoperability across C-level capability and the individuals within those businesses that matters most.

If you’d like to chat about Hanover’s private equity offering, contact me here and let’s set up time for a chat. Our work covers firms on both sides of the Atlantic, across EMEA and APAC, so we’re global in scope but also have localised market provision to cater for your specific needs.