Become a Scout

What a scout is

A scout helps NHMS find businesses that might be suitable for us to acquire.

You do not need to be a broker, a banker or a mergers and acquisitions professional, and you do not need any formal qualification. You need to know, or to be able to find, the owners of established, profitable businesses that supply products or services to NHS hospitals.

There are two ways to help, and both are paid. You can tell us about a business we should be talking to. Or you can tell us about it and introduce us to the owner. What you earn sets out what each is worth.

What a scout does

1. Identifies a business that matches our criteria.
2. Registers it with us before approaching anyone.
3. Where they are able to, introduces the owner to NHMS.
4. Steps back. We handle everything from that point.

What a scout does not do

1. You do not negotiate on our behalf.
2. You do not advise the business owner on whether to sell.
3. You do not carry out financial analysis or due diligence.
4. You do not invest any money.

The businesses we want to acquire

We are building a group of companies that supply products and services to NHS hospitals across the United Kingdom. We are looking for businesses that meet the following profile.

If you are unsure whether a business fits our criteria, get in touch. We are happy to discuss it with you confidentially, with no obligation.

Who makes a good scout

You do not need to be in the mergers and acquisitions industry. The best scouts are simply well-connected people who know business owners in the NHS supply chain. That might mean you are:

1. An accountant or auditor who advises NHS supplier businesses.
2. A solicitor who acts for small and medium sized business owners in the healthcare sector.
3. A retired or semi-retired business owner with contacts in the NHS supply community.
4. A management consultant or interim manager who works with healthcare companies.
5. A former or retired NHS procurement or supply chain professional.
6. A wealth manager or financial adviser whose clients include business owners.
7. Active in trade associations, chambers of commerce, or professional networks that include NHS suppliers.
8. Someone who attends healthcare industry events and has built relationships with business owners over the years.

The common thread is that you know people who own businesses that supply the NHS, and you are in a position to make an introduction.

How it works

1. Register. Complete the scout sign-up form at the foot of this page. We will send you a brief outlining exactly what we are looking for, and a simple scout agreement for you to review.
2. Sign the agreement. The agreement is short, plain-English, and non-exclusive. You are free to work with other parties. There is no cost to you and no retainer. You are paid only if an introduction leads to a completed acquisition.
3. Identify a business. Using your own contacts and networks, identify a business that appears to match our criteria.
4. Tell us about it. Complete the business registration form: the company name, what it does, approximate size, and your relationship to the owner. We check whether we are already in contact with that business. If we are not, we confirm the introduction is yours.
5. We come back to you. Within five working days we tell you whether the business is protected for you. How attribution works explains exactly how that decision is made.
6. Make the introduction. Introduce us to the business owner. This can be a phone call, an email, or a meeting — whatever is most natural. Once the introduction is made, you step back.
7. Get paid. If we go on to acquire the business, we pay you at completion.

Please register a business through the form rather than by email. The form records the date and time, and that record is what protects you if someone else registers the same business.

What you earn

If you introduce us to the owner

Your finder's fee is a percentage of the enterprise value of the business we acquire. One rate applies to the whole enterprise value.

1. You introduce us to a business we acquire for £3 million. Your fee: £30,000.
2. You introduce us to a business we acquire for £7 million. Your fee: £52,500.
3. You introduce us to a business we acquire for £12 million. Your fee: £90,000.

If you tell us about a business but cannot introduce us

You may know of a business that fits without knowing the owner. That is still worth something to us. We are working through a very large number of companies, and a scout who points us at the right one moves it to the front of the queue.

If you register a business and we go on to acquire it, we pay you £5,000, whatever the size of the acquisition.

The points that apply either way

1. Only one scout is paid on any one acquisition.
2. The fee is triggered by completion of an acquisition and by nothing else.
3. Your fee is paid within 30 days of completion. Where part of the price is deferred or depends on future performance, your fee on that part is paid within 30 days of our paying it.
4. Enterprise value means the value of the business as a whole, before adjustment for its borrowings and its cash. It excludes any sum paid to a seller as salary, bonus or consultancy fees. The same basis applies where we buy the business and assets rather than the shares.

How attribution works

When you register a business we check it against our records and come back to you within five working days.

1. If the business is not excluded, it is protected for you from the moment you registered it. We confirm this in writing.
2. If it is excluded, we tell you which category of contact we are relying on and the date of the last exchange. We will not tell you who we spoke to or what was said.
3. If our last contact with the business is older than twelve months and you bring it back to life, you are protected. You have given us something we did not have.
4. If two scouts register the same business, the earlier registration wins. Only one scout is paid on any one acquisition.
5. If you disagree with a decision, say so. Your appeal is decided by someone who was not involved in the original decision, and you get the answer in writing.
6. Your protection lasts for 18 months from the date you register the business. If we acquire it within that period, you are paid.

Scouts based outside the United Kingdom

The business you introduce must be based in the United Kingdom. You do not have to be.

When you sign the Scout Agreement you confirm three things. That you are legally entitled, in your own country, to introduce businesses for a fee. That nothing you do as a scout breaches the law of the United Kingdom or of your own country. And that you are not involved in money laundering, sanctions evasion, trafficking or any other financial crime.

Fees are paid in pounds sterling by bank transfer against an invoice.

What we offer you

Conduct, compliance and data

1. No payments to NHS staff. You must not offer any payment, gift, hospitality or benefit to an NHS employee in connection with anything you do as a scout.
2. No conflict of interest. You cannot act as a scout where doing so would put you in a conflict of interest, or would breach your employment contract, your professional obligations or any duty you owe to someone else. You are asked to confirm that it does not.
3. No double fees. If you already act for the business or its shareholders under a mandate or a fee arrangement, you cannot also register it as a scout. Tell us and we will deal with you on our ordinary broker terms instead.
4. Personal data. When you send us an owner's contact details you are giving us information about a person. Please only send details you are entitled to share. We tell that person how we hold and use their information when we first contact them, as data protection law requires. Our privacy notice explains the rest.