Corporate Finance Associated is dedicated to meeting the needs of our clients. Often entrepreneurs are unaware of the variety of transactions that are available. CFA will find a customized solution for you to achieve your goals.
If you desire to exit your business, CFA can guide you through the process of determining which transaction will best meet your needs, help you prepare your company for the transaction, and handle the transaction start to finish. To support the individual needs of our clients, a senior principal manages each engagement locally from our Houston and Lafayette offices and remains integrally involved in all phases of the assignment. Throughout each project, CFA remains a dedicated advocate for our client’s interests.
There are many options to consider when you are contemplating an exit from your business. Options include:
- Complete Sale
- Partial Sale
- Management-led Buy-out
- ESOP
- Strategic Buyer
- Financial Buyer
- Asset Sale
- Stock Sale
The choice is not always clear. CFA will guide you through the process of determining which exit option is right for you. By gaining a clear understanding of your goals, we can tailor a transaction that can accomplish your goals, while maintaining the maximum value for your hard earned asset.
CFA has a four step process that results in efficient management of your transaction.
- Analysis
This step of the process is pre-engagement. We spend a significant amount of time determining what the seller’s goals are and how to best accomplish those goals. We so significant financial analysis to determine market value and financability of a potential deal.
Our deliverables to the potential seller are a financial analysis and an engagement letter if it is determined we are a good fit for each other. .
- Documentation
This is the first post-engagement process step. We spend time getting to know your business inside and out. We will document the business from an operations and financial perspective. We will research the industry and potential buyers to determine a list of potential likely interested parties for this transaction.
Our deliverables are a 1-2 page blind profile, a 40-60 page confidential descriptive report, and a target list of qualified buyers.
- Limited Private Auction
In this step we “go to market” with the deal. We distribute the profile (along with a confidentiality agreement) to the target list of qualified buyers. A signed CA gets the potential buyer the confidential descriptive report. This is the first time the potential buyer knows the name of your company.
This is quite often the longest step in the process. Each of these potential buyers will have questions and will potentially want to talk to the entrepreneur.
The end result of this process is a signed, non-binding letter of intent containing the plain-English versin of the deal. At this point, the selling company “goes off the market.”
- Due Diligence / Closing
Once the LOI is signed, the buyer then goes through and verifies every claim we made about the company. We set up an electronic deal room to handle the documentation the buyer will require to see. The attorneys for the buyer take the LOI and turn it into the purchase agreement. This process typically take 60 days and results in the closing of the deal.
For a no-obligation marketability analysis and preliminary indication of value, send us a note and tell us about your company.
