Sell Side Advisory

Experts at Maximizing Liquidity

You don’t have to sacrifice liquidity to find the most optimal partner for your middle market company.

If you’re thinking about an exit or partial liquidity transaction, our Sell Side Advisory Team will combine deep sector knowledge with superior transaction execution skills and a vast network of strategic and financial acquirers to help you achieve your goals.

At Capstone Partners, we know the magnitude of this event on your business and personal life. Perhaps you are finally ready to retire, or your responding to market conditions, or maybe you just want to pull out a little cash flow – regardless of your reason, selling a business can be anxiety producing.

This is especially true for middle market companies. The process for these larger organizations can be fraught with risk, pitfalls, and adversity. For companies in the middle market, trying to navigate a transaction alone, or with the wrong advisor, often leads to heartache, with sellers frequently settling on price, terms, or simply a broken process without a consummated deal.

Assemble the Best Sell Side Advisory Team for Your Deal.

For middle market companies, assembling the right team to get the perfect deal completed is no easy task. When making a decision, consider whether the team has a successful record of closed transactions with companies similar to yours, in terms of both size and industry.  At Capstone Partners, our sell-side investment banking professionals are not generalists. Each investment banker on Capstone’s M&A Team specializes in their own industry sub-sectors. This allows you access to M&A bankers with a deeper level of industry knowledge and expertise, and a broader network of strategic and financial relationships in your sector, which in turn, allows us to maximize the value of your business, and increase both the speed and probability of a successful closing.

 

Sell Side Advisory Services Offered:

  • Corporate Sales
  • Recapitalizations
  • Divestitures
  • Strategic Mergers
  • Joint Ventures and Alliances

 

Our definition of success is finding a perfectly aligned partner who recognizes the true value of your opportunity.

John FerraraFounder & President, Capstone Partners

 

Common Questions from Sell Side Advisory Clients

How Can I Prepare My Business For a Sale?

Before launching a merger and acquisition (M&A) transaction process, it is important for owners to take mindful inventory of their personal and professional goals, which may include valuation expectations, timing of a transaction, the cultural profile of the optimal acquirer, personal role post-closing, management rewards and incentives, impact on long-term growth opportunities, leadership succession, and customer and employee fit. 

How Does an Investment Bank Get Paid?

If you are a business owner interested in selling your company or raising capital, or you are a strategic buyer seeking to make an acquisition, you most likely will be considering engaging the services of an investment banking advisor. An important step in securing the right partner is to understand their approach to compensation. Typically, the client and the investment bank negotiate the fee structure at the beginning of the deal process to ensure that the terms are optimal for both parties and that there is transparency moving forward. Business owners should weigh several factors to ensure that they are receiving the best value from their investment bank including services offered, composition of the deal team, firm success record, industry expertise, and access to the most relevant investor and buyer relationships. The fee structure for M&A transactions is typically comprised of the Retainer Fee, Success Fee and Incentive Fee. 

What Does a Typical M&A Sell Side Process Look Like?

Whether you’re looking to retire or start a new venture, you might be inching closer to selling your company. In theory, it’s simple: find a buyer and complete the deal. Unfortunately, it’s never that straightforward to launch a Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) process, with numerous factors to consider when deciding to sell your business. Having a thoroughly planned M&A Process can help increase your chances of success and elevate shareholder value. At Capstone Partners, we work with leading middle market companies to guide them through our proprietary Six-Step M&A Process to facilitate their transactions quickly and maximize client outcomes.

Do I Need a Quality of Earnings Review in an M&A Process?

Many financial due diligence assignments, both buy-side and sell-side, include a step called the Quality of Earnings Review, or QofE. While not the same as an annual financial audit, the goal of the QofE is to examine a company’s historical financial results and analyze and validate the pro forma EBITDA at normalized levels to support the purchase price/valuation of the transaction target. On the sell-side of a transaction, a QofE review may be recommended by the investment banking team, advising the seller to help accelerate the pre-letter of intent (LOI) deal process to alleviate financial due diligence concerns and shorten the timeline of post-LOI confirmatory due diligence.  On the buy-side of a transaction, the review’s audience is typically a potential buyer, investor, or lender who uses the findings in the review to ultimately validate the assumptions used to determine the valuation/purchase price of a prospective transaction.  Learn more:  Getting the Most from a Quality of Earnings Review

How is a CIM Used in the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Process?

If you’re considering a sale of your business, one essential document in this process is the Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) or increasingly a Confidential Information Presentation (CIP). Simply put, a CIM is a comprehensive presentation that serves as a marketing document during an M&A process. It is crafted by your advisor, in close conjunction with you and your management team, and outlines nearly everything a potential buyer would need to know before submitting an initial offer. Every CIM is uniquely tailored to the unique differentiators that make the company a valuable and attractive asset. That said, there are a few common elements of a CIM that will help provide an all-encompassing presentation to effectively market your company.

 

Contact Us

If you’re looking to sell a company – or wondering if it is the right time to sell –  contact us today for a complimentary consultation.  Receive guidance from an investment banking professional specializing in your sector, including an overview of the sale process, potential strategic and financial buyers, and a complimentary valuation on your company.