An independent international network of senior corporate finance professionals

Ownership.Capital.Continuity.

Senior, independent judgement for the decisions that shape a privately held company: ownership transitions and acquisitions, debt and liquidity, financial distress and recovery.

Discuss your situation See the situations we address

Three disciplines. One view of the company.

In a privately held company, the important questions rarely arrive one at a time. A succession decision changes the capital structure. A tight liquidity position changes the conversation with a buyer. A restructuring is often resolved through a transaction.

Stratego professionals work across M&A, debt advisory and crisis & restructuring, so that each decision is taken with the others in view.

Senior judgement, personally delivered
The professional who scopes a mandate is the one who leads it. Specialists join only where the work requires them.
Independent of any financing outcome
No balance sheet, no products to place and no lending relationships to protect. Advice answers to the client's decision alone.
Early, not late
The most valuable advice arrives before options narrow: ahead of a sale process, a refinancing deadline or a liquidity squeeze.
Discreet and international
Confidential by default. Professionals collaborate across jurisdictions when buyers, creditors or operations sit in different countries.

Ownership

M&A advisory

Ownership transitions, acquisitions and strategic transactions for privately held companies and their shareholders.

A transaction is a sequence of decisions about control, risk and value, and most of them are made before the first counterparty is contacted.

Independent Stratego professionals advise founders, families, shareholders and management teams on disposals, acquisitions, partnerships and carve-outs. The work starts with readiness: what the business is, what it is worth to different counterparties and which structure fits the owners' objectives.

It continues through process design, due diligence coordination and negotiation, working alongside the client's appointed legal and tax advisers through to signing and closing.

Decisions we support

  • Sell-side advisory and ownership transitions
  • Buy-side advisory and target screening
  • Succession options for founder- and family-owned businesses
  • Minority partnerships and shareholder realignments
  • Carve-outs, business units and asset transactions
  • Valuation analysis, structuring and negotiation support

Questions clients bring

  • Is this the right moment to sell, and to whom?
  • What will a sophisticated buyer find in due diligence?
  • How do we balance price, certainty and the future of the business?

Capital

Debt advisory

Independent analysis of debt, liquidity and capital structure, produced for the company's own decisions.

Understanding debt is not the same as arranging it. Sound capital decisions begin with a rigorous, unconflicted view of liquidity, obligations and resilience.

Network professionals help boards and management understand the debt the company already carries and the capital structure the business can sustain: mapping obligations and maturities, testing covenant headroom, forecasting cash and stress-testing plans.

The analysis is a governance discipline. It informs internal choices and the management of existing commitments, and it is independent of any lending process or financing outcome.

Decisions we support

  • Debt and liability mapping
  • Liquidity forecasts and cash-flow scenarios
  • Covenant headroom and maturity analysis
  • Working-capital and cash-conversion diagnostics
  • Debt capacity and capital structure options analysis
  • Financial early-warning and liquidity governance

Questions clients bring

  • How much debt can this business sustain through a downturn?
  • Where is cash generated, and where is it absorbed?
  • Which maturities and covenants deserve attention now?

Scope of activity. Stratego is not a lender, credit broker or financing intermediary. Network professionals do not source or introduce lenders, solicit or place credit products or financial instruments, submit financing applications or negotiate the granting of credit on a client's behalf. Activities reserved by law to authorised or registered operators are outside the services described on this website.

Continuity

Crisis & restructuring

Financial clarity, credible plans and realistic options for companies under pressure.

In financial distress, the cost of delay is often higher than the cost of a difficult decision.

Independent professionals support companies, shareholders and boards facing deteriorating liquidity or financial imbalance. The work combines financial diagnosis, short-term cash control, credible scenario planning and preparation for stakeholder negotiations led by the company and its counsel.

Where continuity depends on a transaction, distressed M&A expertise is part of the same team, so that operational, financial and transactional options are assessed together.

Decisions we support

  • Financial distress assessment and scenario analysis
  • Short-term cash forecasting and liquidity preservation
  • Turnaround and restructuring business plans
  • Creditor exposure and stakeholder mapping
  • Financial support to negotiations led by the company and its counsel
  • Distressed M&A and business continuity analysis

Questions clients bring

  • How much time does the company really have?
  • Which options remain open, and for how long?
  • What would a credible plan need to show stakeholders?

Scope of activity. Support is provided as financial advice to the company and its stakeholders. It does not include statutory, court-appointed or independent roles within insolvency and restructuring frameworks, such as independent experts, plan attestors, trustees or administrators, nor legal advice. Those roles are performed by separately appointed, duly qualified persons.

What are you facing?

Most engagements start from a situation, not a service. Choose the one closest to yours to see the questions that matter and how a Stratego professional can help.

Preparing a sale or succession

The owners are considering an exit, a generational transition or a partial sale, and want to keep control of timing and outcome.

The questions that matter

  • Which counterparties would value the business most, and why?
  • Is the company ready for a buyer's due diligence?
  • Which structure balances price, certainty and continuity?

How a professional can help

Readiness review, valuation ranges, definition of the transaction perimeter, process design and negotiation support alongside the owners' counsel.

Disciplines involved: M&A advisory and debt advisory.

Evaluating an acquisition

The board sees an opportunity to grow through acquisition and wants an independent view before committing.

The questions that matter

  • Does the target fit the strategy, and at what price does it stop making sense?
  • What could due diligence change?
  • How much debt could the combined business sustain?

How a professional can help

Target screening, strategic fit and valuation analysis, due diligence coordination, structuring, negotiation support and a combined debt-capacity view.

Disciplines involved: M&A advisory and debt advisory.

Bringing in a partner

The company needs capital, capabilities or a broader shareholder base, without giving up what makes it distinctive.

The questions that matter

  • Majority, minority or staged: which route fits the owners' goals?
  • Which governance rights and exit mechanisms are reasonable?
  • How will a partner value the business?

How a professional can help

Options analysis, counterparty screening, valuation, the financial terms of shareholder arrangements and negotiation support alongside counsel.

Discipline involved: M&A advisory.

Reviewing debt and liquidity

Maturities are approaching, covenants feel tighter or cash is harder to predict than the profit and loss suggests.

The questions that matter

  • Where is cash generated, and where is it absorbed?
  • Which maturities and covenants need attention, and when?
  • What capital structure can the business sustain?

How a professional can help

Debt and liability mapping, cash-flow forecasting, covenant and maturity analysis, working-capital diagnostics and an options analysis of the capital structure.

Discipline involved: debt advisory.

Seeing early signs of stress

Margins are falling, payables are stretching or forecasts keep slipping, but the company still has room to act.

The questions that matter

  • How much time does the company really have?
  • Which early actions protect liquidity without damaging the business?
  • What information will stakeholders expect?

How a professional can help

An early-warning review, a rolling thirteen-week cash forecast, scenario analysis and a structured view of the options before they narrow.

Disciplines involved: debt advisory and crisis & restructuring.

Navigating a restructuring

The current capital structure is no longer sustainable and stakeholders need a credible path forward.

The questions that matter

  • Which options are realistic, and which preserve the most value?
  • In what order should stakeholders be engaged?
  • Could a transaction secure the continuity of the business?

How a professional can help

A restructuring business plan, creditor and stakeholder mapping, financial support to negotiations led by the company and its counsel, and distressed M&A analysis.

Disciplines involved: crisis & restructuring and M&A advisory.

Who we work with

Privately held companies and the people responsible for their future: owners, boards and the advisers who stand beside them.

  • Founders and families

    Planning a succession, a sale or the entry of a partner while protecting what has been built.

  • Boards and CFOs

    Seeking an independent view on strategy, capital structure or performance under pressure.

  • Shareholders

    Assessing an acquisition, an exit or a portfolio company that needs a new plan.

  • Legal and tax advisers

    Looking for a senior corporate finance counterpart on a client's transaction or restructuring, with clearly separated roles.

How an engagement works

Complex assignments need experienced judgement, not layers of delegation. Every engagement is led by an identified senior professional from the first conversation.

  1. Understand the decision

    A confidential first conversation clarifies the situation, the objectives, the constraints and what is time-critical.

  2. Define the mandate

    The professional proposes a precise scope, team, timetable, confidentiality arrangements and terms, set out in writing.

  3. Lead the work

    Senior-led analysis and negotiation preparation, with network specialists and the client's appointed advisers involved where needed.

  4. Carry it through

    Support continues to signing, closing or plan implementation, with monitoring where it has been agreed.

Responsibilities, professional terms and the parties to any mandate are agreed directly with the professionals concerned, never with Stratego as a contracting entity.

One network. Independent professionals.

Stratego is an independent international network of senior corporate finance professionals, not an incorporated advisory firm. Members keep their individual professional autonomy and collaborate, where appropriate, on complex cross-border or multidisciplinary matters.

The model is deliberate. It keeps senior people close to the work, avoids the conflicts that come with lending or product distribution, and lets each engagement be staffed for its own needs.

What the network is

  • A shared professional identity and approach
  • Senior specialists in M&A, debt advisory and restructuring
  • Collaboration across disciplines and jurisdictions, organised case by case
  • Engagements contracted directly with the professional who performs them

What the network is not

  • A company, partnership or contracting entity
  • A lender, credit broker or financing intermediary
  • A provider of statutory or court-appointed roles in insolvency frameworks
  • A provider of legal, tax or investment advice

Important. Stratego has no separate legal personality, does not itself provide or contract for professional services and does not act as an agent authorised to bind its members. Scope, authorisations, responsibility and contracting details are determined for each independent engagement.

Trust is built through discretion.

Ownership transitions and financial distress involve sensitive information about people, businesses and relationships. Responsible advisory work calls for careful information sharing, an early assessment of potential conflicts and confidentiality arrangements agreed before any data changes hands.

Public client lists and transaction announcements are not a prerequisite for meaningful expertise. Prospective clients can discuss a professional's relevant experience directly, within the limits of the confidentiality owed to others.

Discretion is not what we say about a client. It is how we handle what matters to them.

Perspectives

Short notes on the principles behind good decisions in private-company transactions, balance-sheet management and restructuring.

Ownership transitions

Succession is a capital decision before it is a family one.

Owners often frame succession as a question of who: a child, a manager, a buyer. The prior question is what the business needs to stay competitive over the next decade, and which ownership structure can provide it. Investment capital, governance that attracts strong management and liquidity for family members who wish to step back all depend on that choice.

Treating succession as a capital decision widens the options: a staged sale, a partnership with an industrial group, a minority shareholder alongside the family or a management-led transition. It also changes the timetable. Readiness work, from clean financial reporting to an agreed position among shareholders, takes longer than most owners expect and is far easier before any counterparty is involved.

Transactions

The transaction perimeter often determines value more than the headline price.

Price is negotiated on enterprise value; value is realised on the bridge to equity. The definition of net debt, the treatment of debt-like items and the working-capital reference frequently move more value than another round of headline negotiation.

In carve-outs the perimeter matters even more. Transferred contracts, shared functions, employee allocation, standalone costs and transitional services shape the economics for both parties. Defining them early reduces uncertainty in due diligence and avoids surprises between signing and closing.

Debt and capital structure

Debt capacity is a question to answer before anyone else asks it.

How much debt a business can carry depends on the durability of its cash flows, not on a multiple of earnings alone. A credible answer tests the business plan against downside scenarios, maps the maturity profile and measures covenant headroom under stress.

A company that knows its own capacity approaches every discussion from understanding rather than urgency. This analysis is an internal governance discipline: it informs management's choices and does not depend on, or lead to, any particular financing.

Liquidity

Thirteen weeks: why short-term cash visibility changes every conversation.

A rolling thirteen-week cash forecast, built from expected receipts and payments rather than from the profit and loss, shows where liquidity is generated and where it is absorbed. Updated weekly, with variances explained, it gives the board early warning and time to act.

When liquidity is tight, the forecast becomes the reference point for every stakeholder conversation. Its value lies less in precision than in discipline: assumptions that can be tested, owners for every line and a consistent account of what has changed.

Restructuring

Creditor negotiations are won or lost in their sequencing.

Before stakeholders are approached, decision-makers need a reliable liquidity picture, exposures mapped by creditor class and a defensible account of the restructuring assumptions.

The order of engagement should reflect legal priorities, interdependencies between creditors and the company's ability to keep meeting essential obligations. A well-sequenced process gives each party the information it needs at the moment it needs it, and preserves options that a disorderly one would close.

Turnaround planning

A restructuring plan must survive contact with reality.

A plan is credible when its assumptions can be tested, its downside cases are explicit and its near-term cash measures connect to the longer-term operating model. Each initiative should have an owner, a timetable and a measurable effect on cash.

Realism matters most where stakeholders are asked to make difficult concessions on the strength of the plan. Optimism that cannot be evidenced costs credibility at the moment it is most needed.

Distressed M&A

In a distressed sale, certainty is part of the price.

When time is short, buyers price risk as much as the business itself. Sellers and their stakeholders often face a trade-off between the highest headline offer and the most certain path to completion.

Preparation narrows that gap: a clear perimeter between going concern and assets, a realistic view of employees, contracts and approvals, and information a buyer can rely on quickly. Where a sale takes place within a court-supervised process, its timetable and rules shape every one of these choices.

Frequently asked questions

How the network works, what it does and what it does not do.

What is Stratego?
Stratego is an independent international network of senior corporate finance professionals working in M&A advisory, debt advisory and crisis and restructuring. Members keep full professional autonomy and collaborate where a specific engagement benefits from it.
Is Stratego a firm, and who would I contract with?
No. Stratego has no separate legal personality and does not enter into engagements. Any mandate is proposed, accepted and performed by the identified professional or their own practice, under terms agreed directly with the client.
What kinds of companies do Stratego professionals work with?
Mainly privately held, founder- and family-owned and mid-sized companies, together with their shareholders, boards and management teams. The common factor is a decision with significant consequences for ownership, capital structure or continuity.
Does Stratego arrange or provide financing?
No. The network is not a lender, credit broker or financing intermediary and does not source lenders, place credit products or negotiate the granting of credit. Debt advisory work consists of independent analysis and planning for the company's own decisions.
Do Stratego professionals act in statutory or court-appointed roles?
The services described on this website do not include statutory, court-appointed or independent roles within insolvency and restructuring frameworks, such as independent experts, plan attestors, trustees or administrators. Network professionals work alongside such appointees and the company's counsel where they are involved.
How does an engagement begin?
With a confidential conversation about the situation and the decision to be made. If a professional can help, they propose a scope, timetable and terms in writing. Nothing is agreed until an engagement letter is signed directly with that professional.
Can the network support cross-border situations?
Yes. Members collaborate across jurisdictions when an engagement requires it, for example where buyers, creditors or operations sit in different countries. Collaboration is organised case by case, with responsibilities defined in advance.
What should an initial enquiry include?
A short description of the situation, the decision you face and any time constraints. Please do not include non-public financial records or other sensitive information until a direct relationship and confidentiality arrangements are in place.

Start a conversation.

Considering a transaction, reassessing a capital structure or facing a difficult financial situation? Describe it briefly. Your enquiry may be directed to an appropriate independent network professional, who can discuss whether and how they may assist.

Please do not include non-public financial records, personal identifiers or other highly sensitive information in an initial message. Engagements, where agreed, are contracted directly with the relevant independent professional or practice.

Tell us what matters

A brief introduction is enough. Fields marked * are required.

An enquiry does not create a client relationship or a professional engagement.