Financing Add-Ons Without New Equity

UK-based Sam Turner overcame a challenged first deal by pivoting the business model and eventually built a thriving facilities maintenance roll-up that targets market leadership in its space. He points to capital stack discipline as key when self-funding add-on acquisitions. Beyond work, Sam volunteers one full mentorship day per month to founders and prospective business buyers.

Sam Turner's Advantos Group aims to be the UK's favorite platform for independent mechanical, electrical, and facilities management companies. Sam owns ~70% of the equity following the initial acquisition in Dec 2021. He came from a multibillion corporate background and now applies that experience to acquire at 3-4x EBITDA.

Advantos's success relied on technology implementation and people development. Sam paused M&A for nearly a year to implement systems to avoid ten people doing ten different versions of the same process. He introduced structured sales pipelines and field management tools that replaced ad hoc spreadsheets. One strong senior hire transformed performance and created the foundation for yearly organic growth of 15%.

Sam advocates for conservative underwriting, where he prefers to keep net leverage at or below 2x EBITDA. He's capitalized his deals with 0.7x equity, 0.7x seller financing, and 2.2x of commercial debt. In December 2023 the group refinanced with a debt fund at ~11% on a 5-year term with about 8% cash pay and 3% PIK. Future acquisitions in the 4.0-4.5x EBITDA range can be done without new equity by using ~1.5x of surplus cash from the balance sheet, 2x of senior debt, and the remainder strategically coming from deferred consideration or earn-outs.

Sam's personal philosophy is to give away his time before he has excess money. He donates one full day each month to founders and searchers. He keeps his own salary low so capital stays inside the business where it can compound. For him the idea is simple: Act today. Help today. Build wealth and impact in parallel rather than in sequence.