Restoration Partners Q&A
Restoration Partners is a boutique technology merchant bank, offering advisory services to technology companies. The partners possess operational and corporate finance experience, gained on both sides of the Atlantic, in public and private companies and over most of the lifetime of the IT industry. At Restoration, we apply that expertise in combination with our creative skills, powerful network and access to capital to work with like-minded leaders to take advantage of the wealth creating power of the next big wave.
Do we raise small amounts of money for early stage companies?
Yes – Restoration Partners is happy to assist in the raising of suitable amounts of capital for early stage companies, and provide advisory services around alternative fund-raising options.
What kind of computer technology companies are you interested in?
Restoration Partners will consider all technology companies.
Do you only work with companies from certain countries in particular?
Restoration Partners will consider companies based in any geographical location, and currently have clients based in the UK, Europe and North America.
If you became our advisor, what kind of network would we be exposed to?
The Partners all have access to powerful networks, and are willing to make suitable introductions wherever it is deemed helpful in assisting our clients.
How do you charge, and does it cost anything to meet you?
Please see our fees and expenses section for details of our charging structure. The Partners are always willing to meet with potential clients and do not charge for initial discussions. If the meetings require work to be completed by the Partners, then the relevant charging information will be made available.
How many years experience do you have?
The Partners have each been working in the industry for around forty years.
Why are you regulated and authorized by the FSA?
Restoration Partners provide some financial advisory services to companies, which fall within the realm of FSA regulation.
Who are your other clients? What type of clients are they?
Restoration Partners' current clients are:
MIIAtech
www.miiatech.com
MIIAtech is a next generation search and analysis software company. The company has developed an advanced multi-lingual Natural Language Processing platform, called Tautona™, which understands the meaning of what is being searched for and delivers the right information when it is needed, faster and more accurately than any other search system.
Molten Technologies
www.molten-group.com/Technologies
Molten Technologies delivers virtual Desktops as a Service (DaaS) to major enterprise clients, who benefit from significant cost savings, whilst increasing data security and improving end-user experience.
Open Text Corporation
www.opentext.com
Open Text™ is the world's largest independent provider of Enterprise Content Management software. The Company's solutions manage information for all types of business, compliance and industry requirements in the world's largest companies, government agencies and professional service firms.
Paythru
www.paythru.com
paythru is a specialist mobile payments provider that gives merchants everything they need to start making money from mobile payments. paythru is the only mobile payment system that works on all mobile handsets, on all networks and with every bank, anywhere in the world.
paythru provides the World's first Level 1 PCI DSS compliant mobile payment service. Our compliance means we can transact and store customers' card details securely, so they don't need to pre-register or have an e-wallet to transact.
Sorriso
www.sorrisotech.com
Sorriso is the leading provider of online software portals for bill presentation, bill payment, self-service, and bill centered marketing.
Thebes IT Solutions
www.thebesgroup.co.uk
Thebes is one of the UK premier consultancy and support providers. Their range of consultancy and professional services improve organisations through delivery of selected services, delivering design, support, implementation and operation of technology platforms.
How long have you been established?
Restoration Partners was established by Ken Olisa after his retirement from Interregnum plc (now The Parkmead Group plc) in March 2006.
Which stock exchanges will you assist us to float on?
We can support companies wishing to list on the London Stock Exchange or trade on AIM or PLUS.
How long would our relationship be?
Our services can vary from carrying out a specific consultancy task or assisting in a one off transaction, to entering into a long term relationship where Restoration Partners act as trusted advisors to the company. The majority of our clients have chosen to engage us as long term advisors.
Will you work with other consultancies?
Yes – Restoration Partners are always willing to consider working with other consultancies as required by the client.
Restoration Partners operate in a niche area which covers both capital finance and technology markets – as such we don’t feel that we can directly compare ourselves to any one company.
Will Ken carry out one off speaking engagements?
Yes – please contact Alexis Harris – alexis.vickery@restoration-partners.com to discuss suitability, availability and charges.
Do you invest your own money?
Currently this is not something which Restoration Partners do.
Will you help us relocate to the UK?
Yes – Restoration Partners are happy to assist in the relocation of a company to the UK.
Do you have connections with sources of capital?
Yes – the partners are willing to call on their network of powerful individuals and corporations to source appropriate funding for a client. Restoration Partners is also able to draw on experience and industry knowledge to suggest alternative sources of funding such as grants.
Why is the overlap between Capital Finance and the Technology Markets such a niche area?
For some strange reason, business expertise tends to be divided into two separate and independent spheres – corporate finance and management consulting.
Corporate Finance is all things to do with the maths of business. Management consultants advise on the art of positioning, structuring and operating a business.
This is the natural order of things – at least in Europe – but it’s not particularly helpful when a company’s leadership needs counsel on setting and implementing strategy. It’s not helpful because defining which markets to attack and how to finance that attack are necessarily intimately connected.
Or put another way, if an acquisition is the best strategic option figuring out whether it should be funded with debt, equity or a mixture of the two has as big an impact on the outcome as does the integration itself.
This is especially true in the IT market because events move so quickly that the answer to the debt vs. equity question may differ over a very short period of time.
In the USA integrated advisory firms are common, but in Europe, IT business leaders find themselves seeking advice from two separate sources – corporate finance and management consultancy – and then integrating the answers themselves.
Restoration Partners is a rare beast – a team of IT-savvy people with deep corporate finance skills who can support technology businesses in the quest for wealth.