Corporate Finance Network Help
 Why join the network?
The objectives of Corporate Finance Connections
Types of membership, benefits and qualifications
What do I sign up for?
Services available to Members
Attracting users to the site
Proposed developments
Subscription details
How to join
Terms and conditions
Why join the network?..
Whether you are a corporate lawyer, corporate finance adviser, banker, venture capitalist or other
provider of finance, a consultant or specialist of any kind involved in corporate finance transactions,
joining the corporate finance network will benefit you. We have membership categories that cater for
specialists in corporate recovery and taxation advice.
Membership is by subscription although all Members can sign up for a 3 month
free trial period in which time you can enjoy all the benefits of membership and
evaluate whether you wish to continue as a Member.
You can join online which takes approximately 15 minutes. Alternatively we are currently offering an ASSISTED SIGN-UP SERVICE. To benefit from this
email members@cfconnect.co.uk and
we will contact you with the details. Once
you are signed up, you will have access to a range of services which will save both time and money.
You will be part of a diverse and growing network of corporate finance professionals and have a
comprehensive marketing presence on the CF Connect site.
Corporate Finance Connections Limited was created to
promote the services of corporate finance professionals and to provide services
that not only save time and costs but can enable Members to create new
opportunities and overcome deal barriers. Members benefit in 3 ways:-
Services
- Provision of a range of services including unique professional to
professional online M&A directory and support, training, recruitment,
MBI/Int Mgr/NED register, information, surveys and news.
Network
- Enhancing your existing network of practitioners, lawyers, specialists and providers of finance through the creation of a comprehensive and searchable online database supplemented by real networking events.
Marketing
- Creating a fully searchable and updatable marketing presence on the internet incorporating a detailed Directory entry
- Make your brochure downloadable from your directory entry
- Advertising opportunities on the site and on the newsletters.
- Post articles, events and list your publications to the "Advice Centre"
linked to your entry and website
- Send us press releases for the news feed, information centre
and news letters.
- Promotion of the site through aggressive web and conventional marketing
- Market to potential clients and other professionals.
The directory of MBI candidates / Interim managers and Non-Exec directors will bring an active group of
Senior managers and Directors into the network.
The services for the promotion of its Members and consequently we welcome
suggestions as to how the service could be improved or new services that could
be introduced. It is intended that much of CF Connections revenue will be re
invested into promoting its Members to potential users of the service and
expanding the size of the network. Corporate Finance Connections is an
independent company and does not compete with its Members as an adviser. Any leads received will be passed to its Members.
There are 3 types of membership
:
Adviser & Lawyers
Corporate advisers and corporate lawyers registered with the FSA or through a designated professional body to carry out corporate finance transactions.
This does not limit firms who are members of a designated professional body but do not opt for an additional licence i.e. a firm which is a member of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England & Wales would not necessarily need to possess a DPB licence. Members can also be corporate finance taxation specialists and specialists in
turnaround and
recovery.
Finance Member
Finance Members are financial institutions or groups including banks and providers of debt and leveraged finance, institutional providers of equity capital, providers of asset
finance and Business Angel Networks.
Membership of CF Connections is not currently available to High Net Worth Individuals.
Finance members have the same access to services as Members except that the M&A
directory can only be viewed by Finance members and not added to.
Specialist Members
Specialist members are any provider of services to corporate finance
professionals whether directly to a transaction (such as specialist consultants
or providers of insurance) or more general support such as providers of
corporate finance training, valuation or research services. Specialist Members
have a more concise directory entry and do not have access to the M&A directory
or the MBI/Interim manager/NED
directory. It is anticipated that subscription rates for specialist members
who choose for their directory entry to be viewable by members only will be at a reduced rate.
Signup is for Company or Firm's offices in a minimum of one primary region
i.e. North West or South East.
This gives access to all employees in all offices of a firm signed up within
their primary region. The sign up has been designed to be highly flexible where
more than region is relevant and can deal with the following situations:
- One team supporting one CF region
- Two or more teams supporting a CF connect region
- One team supporting more than one CF connect region
- A CF connect region supported by more than one team outside that region
- A combination of the above.
See the New Members sign up guides (PDF) for comprehensive range of examples
by clicking on the appropriate category: Advisers & lawyers, Finance, Specialist
The regions are classified as follows:
London
South East (Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent)
East (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire)
South West (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire)
East Midlands (Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire)
West Midlands (Birmingham, Hereford, Worcester, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire)
North West (Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside)
North East (Durham, Northumberland, Cleveland, Tyne & Wear)
Yorkshire & Humberside
Wales
Scotland
Ireland & Eire
The following summarises the services, the access available for each
membership group.
Directory entries
- comprehensive directories of services and experience. Key features of this service are:
- Comprehensive range of information including photos of key contacts
- Tombstone included (not specialist services members)
- Directory entry searchable by a number of criteria including powerful keyword search
- Directory links to website, contact emails and where available link to brochure
- Links to news and press releases
- Update your own entry through simple forms and secure admin password access
Directory entries differ slightly between the member categories. Special
service members can choose to have directory entries that can be viewed by all
visitors to the site or by members and finance members only. The view all option
is not available to Special Services members who compete with our advisers (i.e.
M&A specialists not meeting the Membership qualifications).
Articles
- members can post articles to the site to further strengthen their marketing offering. Articles are categorised and can be searched by a range of criteria and are linked back to the author's directory entry and website. Articles may be categorised as viewable by all or as Members only.
Click here for members' help guide
to see more details.
Events
- Members can post events such as seminars or networking opportunities. These can searched via a range of criteria with click through contact for interested parties.
Events may be categorised as viewable by all or as Members only.
Click here for members' help guide
to see more details.
Publications -
The publications section works like an index to your printed or downloadable
publications, pamphlets or articles. These can searched via a range of criteria with links to download or request the publication.
Click here for members' help guide
to see more details.
MBI / Interim manager / NEDs list - potential MBI candidates, interim managers or Non Executive Directors are able to sign up on the site with basic CV details, specialist areas and whether they have investment. Mergers & Acquisitions database - Members can post details of clients for sale, looking to acquire, looking for a merger or joint venture, searching for finance or finance available. Post, update and remove your own entries, search the database using a range of criteria. Know exactly who is seeing the entry as it is only viewable by Members and
optionally Finance members.
Click here for members' help guide
to see more details.
Flyer distribution service - M&A flyers can be distributed by email on behalf of Members. It will be distributed to members and to parties who sign up on the site to receive flyers. We are restricting the sign up to receive email flyers to firms who would qualify to be Members or Finance members can sign up to the email list. A chargeable post distribution service will be considered as a development if there was a demand from Members.
This service will become available latter in the year.
CF jobs - CF Connect jobs provides a service for Members who wish to recruit staff directly. The service acts as a meeting point. Members can advertise job vacancies in a searchable database. Candidates will contact Members directly.
Coming soon candidates can post anonymous abbreviated CVs to a searchable database.
CF connect acts as an intermediary only so as to keep the identity of the candidate confidential. Members who wish to contact a candidate make a request to CF Connect. This is passed on to the candidate for them to contact the member. This will be a service which is part of the subscription and will not be subject to additional charge.
Training - we have arranged with one of the UK's leading providers of
corporate finance training to provide a 10% discount for courses attended by CF
Connect members and have arranged courses outside London. The first regional
courses will be held in April/May in Manchester and October/November in Leeds.
Other regional courses will be arranged as membership increases. See the training home page. Most training organisations
will run courses locally if sufficient numbers can be guaranteed. Normally this
facility is only available to larger firms. Should members
wish we will facilitate groups if needed. Click here to visit the training home page. Information centre - the information centre will build to a comprehensive collection of links and documents useful to Members. It will include advertising schedules for publications, training course schedules, useful press releases, a host of web links and even some humour. There will also be a news feed on the site keeping you up to date with latest developments on the Members home page. Newsletter - we shall produce a regular newsletter to members to everyone up to date with progress and opportunities on the site and latest events and articles. There will be a newsletter for visitors to the site who wish to sign up which will include links to members articles, events with opportunities to promote your services further Networking events - in
the future we will facilitate a number of networking events.
The information available in the advice centre through articles, events,
publications, news and links will build to be a major resource for those
considering corporate finance transactions.
We will promote this site using conventional marketing as well as paid web
links and closely monitor site activity and develop the site accordingly. At the
end of 2004 there were approximately 1500 visits per month and this number is
increasing each month.
We are already working towards setting up the following service:-
- Completing the candidate CV input
- Improving the information centre search
- Developing a monthly members survey to highlight key trends and issues
- We shall be developing front pages for each region and for foreign language visitors
Other proposed developments will be posted here.
Corporate
Finance Connections will become a subscription service later in 2005. It is
currently FREE TO JOIN. All new
members have a trial period to evaluate the benefits of Membership so
you can sign up for free.
Further extended trial periods may be offered for particular regions or groups to
encourage new members in those areas.
Joining the network is easy. Simply select join the network, select member type and go through the online forms. The information required is very similar to that used in some of the leading printed directories.
Although completing the forms may not take long, it is highly recommended that you prepare the basic information first. You can see what an entry looks like and the signup forms with guidance notes by viewing the members
PDF signup guide for your membership category by clicking on the appropriate category: Advisers & lawyers, Finance, Specialist.
Visit the sign up page by clicking here.
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