Investment banking

Unlocking value is at the core of the investment banking business. An unbiased approach has built a formidable track record.

 

Mergers and acquisitions

The M&A service is the flagship offering from the investment banking division (IBD) at Sett & Lucas.

S&L is considered a leader in global mergers and acquisitions in the enterprise software and SaaS, digital marketing and information technology services markets.

The firm also has a global leadership position in cross border M&A in IT and ITES markets. S&L has a history of working with clients in the technology sector to strategically position them for success.

Being an independent financial institution, S&L brings unconflicted sell side advisory to entrepreneurs, family offices and private equity clients. Over 60% of the transactions we advise on are cross border in nature — and sometimes involve multiple jurisdictions.

Our global offices are staffed with locally established professionals, experts at navigating local cultural, political, regulatory, and tax issues. The team has closed transactions across six continents and 85 countries with enterprise valuations of billions of dollars.  

The biggest strength of S&L is its workforce, with strong domain expertise in technology and digital markets, a global footprint combined with cross border expertise and efficiency in deal execution leveraging with buy side connections.

 

Debt financing

Debt financing comes in the form of loans, bonds and venture debt.

Sett & Lucas works with alternate financing sources across the globe to provide them with a wide array of debt funding sources. Mid-sized technology companies without long credit histories can find finding debt financing challenging.

Traditional lending institutions look to a company’s credit history, current asset-based factoring and other collateralizable assets on the balance sheet to make credit decisions. Credit history in turn is based on the historical cash flow of the company, which might not exist with Intellectual property driven technology business models.

All these factors make debt financing a challenging task for technology companies. We also view raising debt financing as a key first step towards forging a long term relationship with clients.

 

Venture debt

Today’s fast growing companies, especially in markets such as SaaS, consumer internet and enterprise products need a unique combination of debt and equity.

Venture debt is a perfect solution when a company has neither steady cash flow nor liquid assets.

Most technology firms, especially SaaS and software businesses fall into this category. The cost of equity fluctuates significantly in a hyper growth innovation economy, but debt stays cheaper than equity.

The primary benefit of venture debt is that it leverages the equity raised by a startup, and reduces the average cost of the capital required to fund operations when a company is burning more cash than it generates.

Sett & Lucas is well positioned to help firms raise venture debt, especially in the consumer internet and SaaS industry verticals.

 

Equity financing

At Sett & Lucas, the IBD team is focused on helping emerging growth-oriented technology focused middle market companies to privately raise equity capital.

By leveraging global connections with private investors, high net worth individuals, family offices and hedge funds, the Sett & Lucas team provides equity financing solutions, especially in the IT Services and industrials verticals.

S&L has a long history in equity financing helping clients access the growth capital necessary to meet their financial goals and objectives.

We offer insights into both public and private markets, and believe our focus on small and middle-market global institutions, coupled with our rapidly growing private family offices, brings an attractive mix of institutional and retail clients.

We also have considerable experience in helping shareholders wishing to sell, including private equity investors, to realize the value of their investments through secondary offerings. Our team has outstanding institutional relationships and proven experience in efficiently managing globally relevant equity financing deals.

 

Private equity capital raise

The Sett & Lucas IBD team has strong expertise in private equity capital raise, especially in large buyout situations concerning IT services firms.

One of our sweet spots has been dealing in private equity buyout deals and secondary transactions, that provide an exit or a roadmap to exit for the founding entrepreneurs.

This has been enhanced by relationships with a large number of financial sponsors both domestic and international, along with our experienced team.

We pride ourselves on being one of the leaders in private equity capital raise in the SaaS and IT services market place, with a track record of deals over the last decade.

At Sett & Lucas, the IBD team seeks out the most effective capital structure from diverse funding sources that include commercial banks, asset-based lenders, mezzanine lenders, angel investors, venture capital groups, private equity groups, and other credit providers.

The elements of our customized approach to business financing include corporate valuation expertise, financing relationships, and debt restructuring experience. The firm has a very deep understanding of its chosen sectors, which it leverages to position its clients optimally.

 

Corporate restructuring:

The IBD team has a specialist group that focuses on restructuring. They advise company stakeholders, and financial investors, having built relationships over the years with those active in the distressed transactions community.

Our team is made up of restructuring and insolvency professionals from across the US, UK and APAC. For both creditor and debtor engagements our clients benefit from our restructuring, valuation, operational advisory, M&A advisory and capital raising services.

We help stakeholders of companies and investors improve returns in times of deteriorating growth and lacklustre performance. We support our clients in putting together turn-around processes and in allocating capital and investment while complying with insolvency and other requirements.