Most of our mandates arrive through an introduction
A lawyer whose client is buying a company and has nobody for the numbers. An auditor whose client has outgrown its bookkeeper. A CFO leaving a role who wants the seat covered while a successor is found. A recruiter whose search will take a quarter. This page is for them: what we do, how the client is protected, and what we pay for the introduction.
- Fee
- 10% of fees invoiced in the
first six months of a mandate - Paid
- As the client pays us, against
your invoice, net of Thai
withholding tax - Disclosed
- The client is told a fee is
paid, and to whom - Alternative
- Credited to the client's first
invoice in your name - Contact
- [email protected]
Your client stays your client
The most common introduction we receive is from a lawyer or an accountant whose client needs a financial adviser for M&A due diligence, and who has never had anyone to name.
We report to you and to the client, we work with whatever counsel and tax adviser the client already has, and we do not cross-sell. A client you introduce for the financial work is never approached for legal, tax or accounting work that you do yourself.
That last point needs saying plainly because SmeCFO shares its founders with Plizz, an accounting firm, and Narai Partners, a law firm. If a client you introduce needs something those firms do and you do not, we ask you first. If it is something you do, we send the client back to you.
What a financial due diligence from us covers
Quality of earnings, meaning what the business actually makes once one-off items, owner costs and timing effects are stripped out. Working capital, its seasonality and the normal level a buyer should expect to fund. Net debt and the debt-like items that live outside the loan schedule: unprovided severance, unpaid tax, deferred revenue, related-party balances. The bridge between the statutory accounts and the management accounts, which in an owner-managed company in Thailand is where most of the surprises sit. And a plain statement of what has to be fixed before signing, and what cannot be.
The output is a written report the deal team can rely on, with schedules that tie to the books, delivered in English, with Thai-language source documents read in the original. Legal and tax diligence stay with you.
How it runs, and what it costs
A focused buy-side review of a single-entity SME typically takes two to three weeks from access to the books. Vendor preparation, where a seller wants the numbers cleaned up and a defensible information package before buyers are approached, takes six to twelve weeks because it involves fixing things. We scope in days and quote a fixed fee; for the diligence or vendor preparation phase that is typically between USD 10,000 and 25,000 depending on the size of the company and the state of the records. We ask for the latest audited financial statements and access to the ledger before quoting, and we say so if the deal is too large or too contested for us and needs a specialist firm.
After completion we are often asked to stay for the integration: aligning the acquired entity to the buyer's reporting and getting to a first credible consolidated close. That is regional group work, and it is where the value of the diligence is either kept or lost.
Who does it
Jérôme Le Louer, twenty-two years as a CFO in Southeast Asia, most recently CFO Asia for a logistics group across fourteen countries, where M&A, integration and greenfield entries were part of the seat. He reads and speaks Thai. David Berthou, Financial Controller, background in internal audit and risk across APAC, does the reconciliation work alongside him. Named clients are on the clients page.
Talk to us before you resign
Leaving a CFO role creates a hole, and the search to fill it takes a quarter or two. Covering that gap is what we do.
If you are planning to leave, introduce us to your CEO or owner before the announcement rather than after. You leave with a handover in place and a good reference, the company keeps a senior person in the seat while it recruits properly, and we hand over cleanly when your successor arrives. If a referral fee is paid to you it is disclosed to your employer, and if you would rather it were not paid at all, it is credited to their first invoice instead. Nothing about this arrangement should ever be a surprise to the people you are leaving.
The bridge does not compete with the placement
A CFO search at this level in Bangkok takes three to six months. During that time the seat is empty, the close slips, and your client gets anxious.
An interim CFO for two or three days a week keeps the numbers moving while you find the right permanent hire, and makes the eventual handover easier because there is something orderly to hand over. We do not take the permanent role, we do not compete for the placement, and the referral terms above apply.
We pay for introductions and we say so
Ten percent of the fees we invoice in the first six months of any mandate that results from your introduction, paid as the client pays us, against your invoice and net of Thai withholding tax.
The client is told that a referral fee is being paid and to whom. If you would rather not receive it, or cannot under your professional rules, we credit the same amount to the client's first invoice in your name. Either way the client knows, which is what makes the introduction safe for you to make.
Introductions to [email protected] or +66 83 817 7402. A first conversation with the client is free, as it is for everyone.