A search fund is an undertaking through which investors financially support an entrepreneur’s efforts to locate, acquire, manage, and grow a privately held company.
Since the first search fund in 1984 in the USA, more than 500 search funds were raised around the world, in particular in the United States and Canada. Since 2011, more than 20 search funds were raised in Spain and Portugal.
CCSL and its Spanish best friend law firm Ayuela Jiménez jointly created a Search Fund Iberian Desk with the purpose of contributing to the research about search funds, sharing experiences between the two firms and contributing to the growth and development of the search fund community.
The Search Fund Iberian Desk helps searchers in every step of their search fund journey, including advise in the following matters:
- raising the search capital and negotiating the first shareholders’ agreement with investors
- incorporating the search fund undertaking
- drafting and negotiating non-disclosure agreements and letters of intent
- performing legal and tax due diligence
- tax advisory to the deal, taking into consideration the incentives package of the searcher
- drafting shares purchase and sale agreements
- assisting with the drafting and negotiation of financing agreements when applicable.
The Search Fund Iberian Desk also organizes the Breakfast Searchers, a periodic forum for discussion between searcher of topics of interest to the community.