About this Event
This is your chance to put real questions to someone who’s seen a private equity sale from the other side of the table. You send your question in when you register. The first half hour is Alexis answering those, with a few of mine to open things up. The second half hour is open floor.
Picture the scene... the founder walks into your office with a letter of intent and a grin. The private equity firm loves the story, and the number on the page makes everyone sit up a bit straighter. Then the data room opens. For the next twelve weeks, you’re the one sitting across from their advisers.
Alexis has been on the other side of that table. He founded New Access, a private banking software business in Geneva, in 2000. It lost most of its revenue in the 2008 crisis. Seven years later he sold a majority stake to a Paris private equity firm, priced on a forecast he now describes as optimistic, with most of the money in cash and the rest in an earn-out. The business went on to beat the plan, the earn-out ended up worth more than anyone expected, and he used the backing to buy a bigger competitor before handing the CEO seat to someone better suited to it. He later sold out completely for what he describes as a nine-figure sum. In 2024 he wrote it all down in Cashing Out: A business owner’s guide to selling to private equity.
Most of what’s written about selling to PE is written for the founder. This session is for the CFO who has to make the numbers stand up in the data room.
The ground we expect to cover
These are the areas the questions tend to land on, but yours will shape the conversation.
- “Fish and chip.” Alexis’s phrase for how some firms buy: hook you with a high number in the letter of intent, then chip away at it through diligence. Why the LOI and the final price are rarely the same figure.
- Due diligence in both directions. His advice to anyone about to sell: ring the founders of the businesses that firm has already bought, and ask what the gap was between the offer and the cheque.
- Nominal EBITDA. The number the buyer actually values you on, the adjustments behind it, and why the CFO’s version of that number matters more than the audit.
- Being bought on a forecast. What it’s like when the price rests on a plan rather than the actuals, and who carries that promise for the next three years.
- Earn-out behaviour. Why a £1,000 flight expensed today can cost £10,000 by the time the earn-out is calculated, and how that changes every spending conversation in the business.
- Life after the deal. Good leaver, bad leaver, what happens to your shares if you go, and what the PE playbook means for the finance team that’s already there.
- Advisers. Who’s paid by whom, and why it matters more than it looks.
The good, the bad and the ugly, with hindsight.
Your questions run the session
When you register, there’s a box for the question you’d most like to put to Alexis. I’ll read every one and build the opening half hour from them, so we start with what’s on your mind rather than a slide deck. Then the floor’s yours. If you’d rather not ask it out loud, send it in and I’ll ask it for you.
The book
Register before Saturday 12 September and we’ll post you a copy of Cashing Out, so you’ve read it before you meet the author. Register after that and there’s a copy waiting for you on the day.
Before you come
If you’d like a flavour of Alexis before the night, this episode covers a lot of the ground we’ll COVER : . He’ll be joining me on the Conscious Finance Podcast soon. Watch this space.
Who it’s for
CFOs and Finance Directors in UK mid-market businesses. Owner-managed and looking at a first deal, or already PE-backed and thinking about the next one. Both get plenty out of this. It won’t suit you if you’re after a lecture on valuation theory, or hoping to sell something to the room.
Running order
- 4:00pm to 4:30pm. Networking with your peers, refreshments provided.
- 4:30pm to 5:30pm. The fireside Q&A. Alexis answers the questions sent in at registration for the first half hour, then the floor is open.
- 5:30pm onwards. Drinks, more networking, and a chance to speak to Alexis.
Up to 100 seats. No vendors, no pitching. What’s said in the discussion stays in the room.
About Alexis Sikorsky
Founder and former CEO of New Access, the Geneva private banking software business he built from a basement start-up to a private equity exit. Author of Cashing Out (Rethink Press, 2024), written during his Executive MBA at Oxford Saïd. He now advises founders of £5m to £20m businesses on getting ready for investment and exit. asikorsky.com
About your host
Leo Hewett founded Core3, a B Corp CFO search and finance talent firm, and has spent over 15 years placing CFOs and Finance Directors into investor-backed and founder-led businesses. He hosts the Conscious Finance Podcast and runs the UK PE CFO Roundtable. He’s the one asking the opening questions, so the more of yours he has in advance, the better.
Practical
Monday 12 October 2026, 4pm to 6pm.
Lloyds Banking Group, 33 Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1HZ.
Nearest stations: Liverpool Street and Bank.
Doors at 4pm, the chat starts at 4:30pm, drinks from 5:30pm.
Free to attend, registration required.
Event venue & nearby stays
Lloyds Banking Group, 33 Old Broad Street, London, United Kingdom
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