Business and tax advisors Inspire have been highly praised after completing a complex corporate finance project.

The Poole-based firm supported London-based Seismic Venture Partners in its acquisition of three automation and manufacturing companies, now trading under the i³ Group brand.

The four-month project involved the Inspire team carrying out the financial and tax due diligence for all three companies that were to be acquired, working closely with Seismic’s Principal, Ewan Lloyd-Baker.

Once the due diligence project was completed, Inspire began work advising on the share purchase agreement for the transaction.

Working in partnership with legal advisors, Keystone Law, and Seismic, Inspire provided comprehensive advice, coordinating activity between the three parties, ensuring that the transaction was completed on schedule and achieving the desired outcome for Ewan.

The specialist design, manufacturing, test, and automation companies, comprising Adept Automation, Sapcote Engineering and Testworks have now been brought together under the i³ Group brand.

Focused on ‘intelligent, industrial, integration’, the i³ Group provides support for manufacturing companies to improve performance and drive efficiency and reliability.

With all work overseen by Inspire’s Director, Andrew Singleton and delivered by a team headed by Advisory Manager, Jon Huggins, pictured, the fast-paced project included an in-depth review of working capital, ratio analysis to assess the company’s financial performance and financial modelling, alongside overall advice and guidance.

Andrew said: “After taking the initial brief from Ewan and the requirements for the transaction, the Inspire team were all hands on deck to get the financial and tax due diligence projects completed as efficiently as possible, to keep to the tight schedule.

“This required a dynamic approach, involving an ongoing dialogue with Ewan to agree upon areas of focus and discussions about our findings.

“Having an experienced advisory team in-house allows us to deliver high value corporate finance transactions – such as this for Seismic – within tight timeframes and to a high standard, to meet the requirements of our brief.

“Working with Ewan and the team at Keystone, we were also able to advise on the share purchase agreements and provide an experienced financial sounding board for pricing and deal structure considerations.”

Ewan, pictured, said: “The team at Inspire were incredibly proactive, from our initial discussions, all the way through to the completion of the transaction.

“They communicated very well with us and managed the whole process with a great deal of professionalism.

“The project schedule remained on-track, despite having to complete much of the activity through the lockdown period earlier this year.

“We are delighted with the outcome and are now looking forward to growing the i³ Group in the future.”

Seismic Venture Partners is a family-led fund manager, regulated by the FCA with permissions to manage up to £100m in venture and growth capital.