Surviving due diligence

by Catherine Woods - Monday, 21st January 2008 -

Complete Care managing director Barbara Scandrett sympathises with other entrepreneurs knee-deep in due diligence as they try to sell their business.

Scandrett, who recently sold the healthcare services provider, admits the process can be “quite devastating”.

She says: “When due diligence starts, no matter how good your business is, you feel like you’ve got the worst and most ineffective and inefficient business that anybody could ever have. All it does is make you delve deeper and deeper into the detail.”

Scandrett founded Complete Care in 1995 when, as a social worker in a spinal injuries unit, she realised there was a market for a new type of care for the profoundly disabled.

Sovereign Capital invested in Complete Care in 2002. Last year, the private equity firm and Scandrett sold the business to Claimar Care Group for £33m, with the existing management team staying with the business.

The sale took between five and six months to complete. Scandrett says: “My advice to anybody doing it is keep your head down and accept that you’ll get through it eventually.”

Picture source

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