Business and management consultancy and related services

Tender description

Scottish Enterprise (‘SE’) is seeking to establish a support services framework of suitably qualified and experienced specialists to carry out specific projects across a range of activities in which the Scottish Investment Bank (‘SIB’) is engaged. SIB has a periodic requirement for expert and specialist expertise on specific projects to supplement and complement the SIB team in the delivery of time-critical activities across all areas of the business. Successful delivery of SIB's objectives relies upon considerable market knowledge and expertise, and the support services framework will ensure that the SIB team has immediate access to specialist expertise as and when required. If subcontracting please provide a separate ESPD response (Sections A and B of this Part and Part III) for each subcontractor. This lot will cover a range of different investment management interventions across all areas of SIB. These will include, but not be limited to: — Undertaking a high-level ‘health-check’ on investee company's performance, including assessment of the financial performance of the business, the markets in which it operates, the business model, the competitive position of the business and product, service and supply chain and assessment of the customer proposition and the sales pipeline; — Review of investee company board performance including an assessment of the structure and profile of the board, the relationship between individual board members and the board and the management team, the strengths and weaknesses in the board / management team and the ability to meet the company's strategy taking into account wider factors including the culture, communication and decision making ethos within the company; — Review of an investee company's corporate governance structure, including board / management and investor reporting, assessment of internal information and management systems and assessment of adherence to the company's constitutional documents, including the articles of association and investment agreement; — Strategic input to SE on investee companies that are significantly behind plan and the options available to the investors; — Strategic input to SE on investee companies that are in distress (including a review of going concern issues) and the options open to SE, as public sector investors, to support the company; — High-level assessment of an investee company's exit strategy and exit readiness, identifying any strengths and weaknesses that need to be address to better position the company for exit including an assessment of different exit scenarios. This lot will cover a range of different accounting and corporate finance interventions across all areas of SIB. These will include, but not be limited to: — For new and existing investee companies, an assessment of financial forecasts (P&L, balance sheet, cashflow) and the assumptions underlying them and an assessment of whether these are considered realistic and achievable; — For new and existing investee companies, a review of the short, medium and longer-term financial and fundraising strategy, identifying potential and appropriate sources of future third-party funding (equity, debt, grant funding) and the capacity of current/existing investors to support the company; — For new and existing investee companies, a review of business plan / model and an assessment of the key risks underpinning any case for new or further investment from SE; — For new investment propositions, broad level commercial and financial diligence, including, but not limited to, review of historical financial performance, product market fit, the business model (including the pricing model), the competitive positioning of the business and its product/ service, an assessment of the company's service and supply chains and sales and customer pipeline. — Assessment of the investment terms for new and follow-on funding, including consideration of the deal structure (taking into account in preferential terms) and the advantages and disadvantages from a commercial perspective of SE investing and not investing and an assessment of the different returns under different exit scenarios / valuations; — Undertaking a high level assessment of company valuations and the assumptions underpinning those valuations with commentary on whether the valuation and assumptions are reasonable;