Pointer Brook · Business advisory
Clear direction
when it matters most.
Pointer Brook advises owners of established companies, family businesses, family offices and private investors, and their lenders, on selling, financing, restructuring and governance. The advice is senior and it is delivered directly, by one principal: by introduction, and in confidence.
Services
Advice at the point of decision.
Five areas of work. Each is led personally, from the first meeting to completion.
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Preparing a business for sale, advising on its value and running a controlled, confidential process to a short list of suitable buyers, then negotiating to completion. Buy-side support for owners and investors acquiring a business.
- Financing
- Raising equity and debt for established companies: introductions to lenders and investors, term-sheet review and negotiation through to drawdown. Property and development finance included.
- Family Offices & Private Investors
- Counsel to families and private investors on acquisitions, lending and property investment: sourcing and appraising opportunities, structuring the debt and equity, and reviewing terms offered by others. Often a standing seat on the family’s investment or advisory board, so that each decision is taken with an experienced, independent view alongside.
- Special Situations & Restructuring
- Lender representation on defaults and covenant breaches; advice to companies through examinership, refinancing and recovery plans. Where a situation needs it, an interim executive role.
- Board & Advisory
- Independent director and advisory-board roles, and counsel to owners and boards on succession and strategy. Often this means preparing a business years ahead of a sale.
How it works
Senior advice, directly delivered.
An engagement runs in five steps. The same person leads each of them.
- One principal, start to finish.The person you meet first is the person who completes the work.
- Nothing leaves the room.Clients' affairs stay private. Transactions run under a codename.
- Plain speaking.Clear advice, including the advice an owner would rather not hear.
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Conversation
A private first meeting, without obligation, to understand the situation and whether Pointer Brook can help.
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Scope
A written scope and fee letter, so that both sides know what has been agreed before work begins.
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Preparation
The information memorandum, data room and valuation, prepared with care before anyone outside the room is approached.
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Process
A controlled, confidential process with a short list of suitable counterparties, run under a codename.
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Completion
Negotiation, due diligence and legal completion, alongside your own lawyers and accountants.
Experience
Selected engagements.
Described without names. Clients' affairs stay private.
- Family Office · Board
Director of a family investment holding company
A board seat with a family’s investment vehicle, advising on its portfolio, its lending and its governance over several years.
- Family Office · Financing
Debt advisory and advisory board for a family-backed real-estate investor
Lender introductions and term-sheet review for a residential investment vehicle, and a seat on its advisory board through the development and sale of a scheme.
- Special Situations · Board
Creditor-led examinership of a regional pharmacy group
Independent director through the examinership. The group was restructured, emerged from the process and returned to profit.
- Restructuring · Board
Restructuring and refinancing of a healthcare group
Non-executive director through a restructuring in which the group’s lenders were refinanced at par.
- Mergers & Acquisitions
Sale processes for an Irish print business and an energy business
Sell-side adviser on two separate sales, each run as a controlled process to a short list of suitable buyers.
- Financing · Board
Two equity raises and a restructure for an online training business
Lead adviser to the board through a restructure and two rounds of equity.
- Special Situations
Lender representation for a non-bank lender
Representing the lender on defaults and covenant breaches among its borrowers.
- Financing
Loan-note funding for a motor-finance business
Structuring and placing a loan note with private investors to fund a consumer lending book.
About
Adviser. Investor. Operator. Director.
Pointer Brook is led by Conor Moran.
Conor has worked in corporate finance for more than twenty years: at KPMG, in infrastructure and public-private partnerships; at AIB Corporate Finance; and at Key Capital, as Head of Corporate Finance and then Managing Director. He led the Powerscourt consortium's bid for Eircom.
He has also sat on the other side of the table. In 1998 he co-founded a technology company and took it through three transactions. He has served as an independent director, an interim executive and an advisory-board member: in operating businesses in good health and in difficulty, and in family investment companies, where a trusted outside view is worth more than a second opinion.
He is a Fellow of the ACCA and a graduate of Dublin City University. He established Pointer Brook in 2018 to work with a small number of clients, directly. He works from Trim, Co. Meath, and from Dublin.
Most owners sell a business once. I have done it many times, and I remember what it feels like the first time.
Conor Moran · Managing Director
Contact
Begin with a conversation.
Much of Pointer Brook’s work begins with an introduction from a client’s accountant or solicitor. Advisers are welcome to make contact directly.
Every message goes to Conor Moran personally, and is read by no one else. There is no general inbox and no office line: the form is the one way in, and it opens an email from your own address.
A reply usually follows within a working day. If a meeting in person is preferred, Conor is glad to arrange one, wherever suits.