The CIM behind the buyout of a $75M-revenue utility and power group

A US utility and power group with about $75M in revenue, six operating units and a data room of hundreds of documents needed one document that lenders and sponsors could underwrite.Client details are anonymised at the company’s request.

At a glance

Management buyout financed

$75M revenue

Financing secured for the management buyout of a US utility and power group.

Data roomHundreds of documents
Equity storyOne group
MemorandumSix units, one document
BuyoutFinanced

Six business units

One investable story

A regulated utility, power generation and services for defence and remote industry

The memorandum

Every figure traceable to the data room

One document replaced six sets of materials

Client

US utility and power group with about $75M in revenue across six business units

Regulated utility
Independent power
Defence services

Scope

Equity story
Confidential Information Memorandum
Data room synthesis
Design

The challenge: six businesses, hundreds of documents, one buyout

Management needed to finance a buyout of a business nobody could summarise.

The business. Six units with different customers, regulators and margins: a regulated utility next to defence services and renewable assets.

The buyout. Lenders had to underwrite a forecast they couldn’t summarise, and every unit they can’t place costs debt.

The story: six companies, one investable group

The memorandum had to turn six businesses into one story, with every claim traceable to the data room.

Before

A holding structure with six operating companies, presented as six operating companies.

After

One group built around a regulated core that generates cash, with a contracted services arm growing on top of it.

Data centre load is forcing tens of gigawatts of new US capacity to be built. That explains why now.

What we learned: what stalls a buyout, and what gets financed

Management buyouts struggle to get financed for the same reasons, every time.

Why buyouts struggle

What gets financed

The funding gap.Senior lenders fund only part of the price. The rest has to be argued for.

One equity story.Every unit placed: what it does, how it earns, what it adds to cash flow.

Lenders underwrite the forecast.Past performance gets a meeting; the plan and the model get financed.

Coverage on the page.Cash-flow coverage and covenant headroom a lender can see.

Complexity gets priced.A group a lender can’t summarise gets less debt, or no term sheet.

Growth backed by evidence.Contracted revenue, pipeline by stage and outside validation.

Seller-side memoranda.Unexplained charts and unsupported growth claims bring weeks of Q&A.

Risks disclosed up front.So diligence confirms the story instead of rewriting it.

What we did: one memorandum lenders could underwrite

We read the data room and wrote the one document lenders and sponsors worked from.

Memorandum page: the advantages behind the execution path — **An equity story in three layers.** The regulated core, contracted growth, and advantages competitors can’t easily copy.

Memorandum page: the utility and independent power producer, with uptime and service territory — **Every unit on one template.** Six businesses laid out the same way, so a reader can compare them side by side.

Memorandum page: data centre demand drives the need for new generation capacity — **A why-now chapter.** US power demand, the capacity gap, and where the group’s assets fit in the build-out.

Memorandum page: revenue projections by completion year — **A pipeline tied to named work.** Current contracts, contracts in negotiation and submitted proposals, set out year by year.

Results

Financed the management buyout of a $75M-revenue group
1 memorandum replaced six sets of materials as the document lenders and sponsors worked from
6 business units in one story
Every company figure traceable to the data room