SGL for private equity

Finance function build and capital readiness for portfolio companies.

I go in straight after closing, deliver the finance side of the 100-day plan, and hand over a working function to your in-house CFO or Controller.

The situation

A home-grown company now has to report like an investor-owned one.

After an acquisition, a family-owned or home-grown company has to start reporting like an investor-owned one: to a new board, to lenders, against a value-creation plan.

A seasoned CFO in every portfolio company is hard to justify when every dollar of overhead comes off EBITDA at the exit multiple. A younger CFO is the usual answer, but most have run a finance function, not built one.

What I do

Build, hand over, mentor, get ready for capital

  1. Build

    Monthly close, a board pack tied to the investment case, budget and forecast, lender and covenant reporting, controls and delegated authorities; then a one-page dashboard once the numbers are trusted.

    Done when the board pack is issued on the agreed day, produced by the process.

  2. Hand over

    To the in-house CFO or Controller, who runs the close while I review.

    Done when the board pack goes out without me.

  3. Mentor

    The new CFO and the finance team through the move to investor governance, and across the table from banks and lenders.

    Done at the agreed end date.

  4. Get ready for capital

    For a refinancing, an add-on or an exit: numbers that hold up, a model with an honest failure point, a case written for the credit committee, lenders approached in the right order.

For the fund, it is a one-off cost of building the function, not a senior salary carried through the hold period. With a deal pipeline, the same method repeats from one acquisition to the next.

Track record

The builder’s seat, the acquirer’s seat, and the seller’s

  • Built the function, grew the successorsGroup CFO of a top-5 banking group, about US$3B in assets: finance team taken from 4 people to over 100, monthly IFRS consolidation across up to 120 entities, US$1.5B raised on international markets. Former deputies went on to become a bank CEO and CFOs.
  • The acquirer’s seatLed the acquisition of a bank with US$550M of nominal assets for US$200M, then chaired its supervisory board through integration and disposal. More than 10 acquisitions carried through integration; carve-outs including a US$450M bad bank.
  • Made a business sellableAs CEO of a public leasing company with a Warsaw-listed parent: from a failed sale and zero new business to US$400M of new business a year and US$9M of annual profit, then sold above the price first sought.
  • In CanadaFinanced and delivered a greenfield flour mill in Alberta; VP Finance at a top-5 Alberta credit union; Strategic Finance Advisor to Stronghold, an Alberta real-asset manager.

25+ years in finance and strategy · Certified Management Consultant · 7 years in IFRS audit, including EY · Board Member, CMC-Alberta · Director of Treasury, AmCham Canada West

A new acquisition that needs a finance function it can rely on?

Discuss a portfolio company

oleg@strategicgrowthleadership.com