The client is a bricks and mortar plus e-commerce business that has a very large footprint of customers and a strong social media following. A$15m of equity was required to expand the company from NSW into Queensland and Victoria, expand their logistics footprint and increase sales and marketing expenditure. Through our existing relationships we discreetly approached a family office who had an existing retail/e-commerce business that targeted a similar demographic of customers, however in a completely separate product category. This investor had a large and under-utilised warehouse space currently that serviced Queensland and Victoria. The investor was able to put forward a proposal involving use of warehouse and cross promotion between the two databases of customers. This proposal was at a far higher valuation than other financial investors because of the synergies across the businesses. It also laid the foundations for a potential future merger and listing of the merged entities on the ASX, creating a far more profitable future exit event for both the family office and the Company’s shareholders.
