About Swan Partners

Swan Partners is a commercial finance consultancy which exists to empower businesses undergoing change, partnering with CFOs to create and realise value. With a pragmatic approach, we bring clarity, quality and speed – clearing bottlenecks, reducing pressures and delivering impactful outcomes with a hands-on approach.

We have deep experience of working with businesses under stress. They can be on different stages of their journey - from private-equity backed to listed on the capital markets. We understand the need to move at pace and can start work within hours of an initial conversation.

By their nature, restructurings require significant amounts of robust financial information to be produced to short order. Acting as an extension of the finance team we bring our unique blend of commercial and technical insight, along with a clear understanding of how information and outputs are best presented.

Our work is typically used by CROs, Banks, Restructuring advisors, Lender advisors, Lenders, and CF advisors. We understand the requirements of these end users and prioritise and plan activity so they have the information they need, when they need it.

Typically, we assist clients with the following: 

• Rapid preparation of 13 weeks rolling short-term cash flow forecast 
• Financial modelling of medium-term forecast including downside case and sensitivities 
• Scenario modelling of restructuring options, reviewing and challenging key assumptions 
• Historic information preparation to accelerate any M&A activity

Our experience and rapid delivery enable management to retain control and address the expectations of lenders and their advisors. 

More information below:

Short Term Cash flow Forecasting – We work to short order to build robust Short Term Cash Flow forecasts (STCF) that can be used for real time scenario planning but can also be sustainably operated by the management team week after week. We typically:

• Rapidly assess the information currently available including source data, identify the required outputs, flexibilities, and key assumptions
• Build or adapt management’s existing STCF so cash headroom shortfalls and the resulting funding requirements can be identified  
• Develop or improve the weekly update for actuals process so the STCF can be updated to short order each week
• Include variance analysis so comparison can be made between current, actual and prior forecasts and the variance and its cause can be quickly identified and the accuracy of the forecast improved each week

Medium Term Cash flow Forecasting - Design and build of medium-term monthly driver based integrated P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash flow projections to demonstrate the cash management of the business under a range of scenarios, including:

• Actual and forecast data on a consistent basis giving “one version of the truth”. This allows information to be sliced and diced, enabling review of key trends across the historic and forecast periods and outputs before release to third parties
• A straightforward update for actuals process so the model can be updated to short order, maintained and owned by management
• A driven cash flow giving a direct (receipts and payments) cash flow as well as the usual indirect (working capital movements) presentation, this allows us to reconcile the medium-term and short-term cash flow forecasts
• Ability to apply sensitivities in real time with an automatic bridge to base case for P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash flow for each line on a month by month basis

Scenario Modelling – We understand that in turnaround and restructuring situations it is critical to be able to understand the impact of different sensitivities, scenarios and funding options. Our financial and operational models are designed to enable review of the impact of sensitivities and scenarios in real time with the following features to enable management to better understand the projections:

• Rapid development of management case and downside cases with key assumptions clearly shown
• Consideration of timing of major events such as disposals, restructuring, cost savings etc., adjusting timing to understand the impact on the cash flow and funding requirement
• Automatic bridge between cases by line and by month for each of the P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash flow for each sensitivity so management can rapidly identify the most viable scenarios

Datapack – We can support the finance team by building to short order a pack of historic, like for like financial and operating data to support lender review or an accelerated sales process.  

Our work typically includes:

• Preparation of a historic financial and operating KPI data pack to support third party review
• Collation of multiple data sources into a single pack that gives the reviewer comfort in the MI of the business and its operations as well as articulates its value
• Review and challenge of all information before data is ready for release to third parties

Stakeholder Management – Leveraging the commercial and experienced nature of our team, we will often work seamlessly with management and advisors to ensure timely completion of deliverables, distribution of information and execution of actions. 

• First line of response to Due Diligence IRLs and support to manage the data room
• Internal project and stakeholder management as required
• Identifying bottlenecks at an early stage and providing additional resource where required to clear

Being the first point of contact for third parties, answering their queries and providing additional analysis where required, freeing up scarce management time.