Finance: In Brief

A RASH of recent venture-capital successes may have given the impression that buying up businesses spun off by large corporates is an easy way to make money, but the Institute of Directors is anxious to stress that it is more complex than it looks.

Launching a booklet on the "keys to a successful management buy-in", the IoD director general, Tim Melville-Ross, said that acquiring a company in this way is "a complicated process, involving lengthy negotiations and close scrutiny of legal and financial documents. It can be enormously stressful for the managers involved - and their families." The booklet, produced in association with a venture capital firm, ECI Ventures, and the search consultancy, The Chief Executives' Office, looks at buy-ins and identifies the critical success factors.