2 minute read
The Person behind the Business
Ashley is on
a mission to unlock business value
Value creation specialist Ashley Bancroft has achieved many things in his career, completing an MBA at a prestigious US business school and leading a company of over 4,000 employees to multi-award-winning success among them.
These achievements inspired Ashley to co-found H&Hendricks in 2019, a boutique business advisory that specialises in increasing business value and preparing companies for sale.
He is keen to stress that the firm isn’t a business broker or M&A advisor, so does not help to identify buyers for companies. Instead, H&Hendricks ensures that business owners are in the best possible position to realise the maximum value for what they’ve built, whenever that time may come.
Ashley says: “Our overarching mission is to maximise value. We do this by working alongside our clients to transform their companies in the ways that matter most to their value. This may involve improving how a business is governed, implementing succession plans for ownermanagers or identifying future due diligence risks. Everything we do is focused on ensuring our clients are able to command a premium price for their shares; whether raising new equity capital, undertaking a partial exit or executing a full sale. Our holistic approach leverages our extensive expertise within finance, operations and governance. H&Hendricks primarily works with owner-managed businesses that operate in people-focused industries with a turnover of up to £50m per year. Their client portfolio includes a broad range of companies from tech start-ups that need help in scaling and raising capital, to more traditional ventures where a founder may need assistance devising an exit strategy.
Ashley says: “H&Hendricks are experts at identifying powerful value creation opportunities and delivering high-impact results; not just PowerPoints.”
But what about the COVID crisis? Hasn’t the current pandemic reduced the value of businesses across the board?
“Not necessarily. Transaction multiples have remained surprisingly unaffected by COVID. In some instances where a business has been able to demonstrate an effective management response to the crisis, and present credible recovery plans, their value has actually increased above pre-pandemic levels. The appetite for M&A hasn’t waned over the last 12 months and good companies with great management teams are still in high demand.”
A Wandsworth resident, Ashley is committed to helping his local business community and building the H&Hendricks brand. He’s on a continual mission to find value in most things – including his own business.
