With Black-Scholes as your partner, 1 + 1 = 3
Introducing Our
Firm
Black-Scholes is a London-based acquisition firm that buys, builds, and grows established businesses across the UK and selectively in the DACH and US regions. We raise and deploy permanent capital on a deal-by-deal basis: no fund clock, no forced exits.
We are not a traditional private equity firm. We acquire businesses and hold them indefinitely, returning capital to our investors through recapitalisations as the business matures — not through a three- to five-year sale process. This means operations continue, teams stay intact, and customer relationships are preserved.
Our Focus
01.
Permanent Capital
We raise capital on a deal-by-deal basis through Limited Partner vehicles, Pension funds, Family Offices, and high-net-worth individuals to deploy equity tranches for acquisitions, maximising shareholder value. Also, we work with entrepreneurs looking for minority exits from their companies for various reasons: retirement, grieving loved ones, health conditions, streamlining succession planning, new business interests, and capital raising.
02
Working with Founders & Management Teams
We are operator-led buyers. Our strong preference is for the founder or existing management team to remain in the business, either in a continuing leadership role or through a structured transition. In those cases, we often invite management to co-invest alongside us – aligning incentives so the people closest to the business share in the upside they create.
Where a founder is retiring fully, we will only proceed if we can install a proven operator from our network — an individual with a minimum of 10 years of relevant sector experience who has run businesses of comparable scale.
03
For Advisors & Intermediaries
For Management Teams signalling founder exit or seeking to prevent hostile or unaligned takeovers, and for M&A advisers, corporate finance houses, or business brokers representing a client in one of our target sectors, we welcome introductions. We move quickly, provide proof of capital early in the process, and structure our offers to reflect the business' commercial realities.
"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
Warren Buffett
Our Acquisition Box
We are most active in Facilities Management, Engineering Services, and Wealth Management / IFAs, but will act on opportunistic deals in any sector that fits our wider criteria;
Sector characteristics:
1. Non-cyclical, essential services
2. Fragmented market with consolidation opportunity
3. Sector growth at or above GDP
4. Recurring or contractual revenue model
5. Regulatory or technical barriers to entry
6. Founder or management team willing to stay on, or a clear path to install a proven operator.
7. Very high customer switching cost.
Size parameters
Tier 1 platforms: £50M – £175M enterprise value
Tier 2 platforms: £10M – £50M enterprise value
Tier 3 bolt-ons: £2M – £10M enterprise value
Wealth / IFA platforms: £10M+ recurring revenue and under £10M recurring revenue as bolt-ons.
Geography
Primary: United Kingdom, all regions
Secondary: DACH & United States, where strong strategic fit exists.