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Business Services
Livingstone has been active across the whole spectrum of Business Services activities, having completed over 160 transactions in this space, and has specific experience of closing deals in the following areas:
- Environmental Services (including environmental and sustainable consulting and waste management)
- Facilities Services (including ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ services)
- Financial Services (including wealth/asset management)
- Human Capital (including recruitment, education and training)
- Logistics (including freight, wholesale distribution and supply chain management)
- Professional Services (including engineering-based and technical consulting)
While Business Services encompasses a broad range of activities, successful companies in this arena are defined by a clear set of common characteristics:
- They are ‘people’ businesses, defined by their ability to attract, retain and motivate the most talented staff
- They may have the benefit of medium-term contracts, providing visibility of future revenues and enhancing quality of earnings
- While they may be contract-based businesses, their true value depends on the quality of the underlying client relationships
- They have unique cultures and their compatibility with new owners is often over-looked as a deal consideration
- Transactions may require more elaborate structures, to ensure that key staff and locked into the business for a period after a change of ownership.
