Get The Advice You Need To Get The Most Out Of Your Business Sale
For over 20 years, Growthink Capital has been providing sell-side advisory and investment banking services for dynamic businesses across a wide host of industries.
We work directly with each client to identify and maximize the most important factors that will drive a successful business sale. As your sell-side advisors, we help you through every step of the sale process, from preparing your business for sale to negotiating the best deal possible.
At Growthink Capital, our sell-side advisory services include:
- Preparing your business for sale
- Estimating your company’s most likely sale price, and in what timeframe
- Expertly marketing your business to potential buyers
- Working with you to negotiate the best possible price and terms for your business sale transaction
Methodology and Approach
Growthink Capital ensures that clients receive maximum value for their company via the following methodology and approach;
- Discovery
- Interview the management team to fully understand sale objectives/goals and the key obstacles needing to be overcome to attain them
- Identify and document the key products and services of the business, its target markets, and future growth opportunities
- Provide guidance on likely valuation scenarios, based on buyer profiles and market conditions
- Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) Development
- Develop a high-quality and comprehensive Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) professionally designed to solicit indications of interest from potential buyers
- Sell-Side Marketing
- Identify most likely prospective buyers from our 20+ years of experience and network of strategic and financial buyer relationships and databases
- Initially present the company to prospective buyers, gauge interest, manage initial due diligence, and as appropriate coordinate meetings with company management
- Efficiently manage the detailed diligence and deal auction process so as to maximize deal pricing and likelihood/efficiency of close
Growthink Capital Client Testimonials
Sell-Side M&A Advisory Process
When a company’s owners are contemplating selling their business, hiring a professional and experienced sell-side advisor can vastly increase the probability of a successful sale, along with minimizing the probability of business performance suffering during what is often a long and complex sales process. Growthink Capital has a proven time- and deal-tested process to ensure the efficient accomplishment of both these goals.
Discovery
The first step in Growthink Capital’s process is to interview company management and become fluent in the company’s history, business model, competitive environment, tangible and intangible assets, and large market conditions. We also pay particular attention in these interviews to the variable life, legacy, and liquidity goals of company ownership from a sale.
Documentation
Next, Growthink Capital will prepare a confidential information memorandum (CIM) on your behalf. The CIM or “book” is a long-form document that comprises an overview of all facets of the business and enables buyers to quickly understand the value ownership has built.
Creating a strong CIM relies on company ownership providing a variety of documents and data related to the business. Typical information requests include customer and supplier lists; 3-5 years of historical financial statements; SKU reports; employee lists by tenure date, role, and salary; organizational and corporate charts; and software and processes used to run the business. This information is critical in buyers’ evaluation process, and Growthink takes care to position this information in a way that clearly displays value drivers while preserving highly sensitive details.
Distribution
In parallel, Growthink’s distribution team works to create a list of prospective buyers. Depending on the business, buyers may fall into two categories. The first, strategic buyers, include operating companies that look to expand their business through the purchase of other companies. The second, private equity buyers, are in the business of buying and selling businesses. There are a variety of considerations for each buyer group and your advisory team at Growthink will discuss these considerations with you so we can determine in tandem the best list composition for your goals.
Once the buyer list and CIM are finalized, Growthink begins the deal distribution process. Distribution activities involve both emails and phone calls to generate awareness of and interest in a prospective deal. For initial distribution activities, Growthink Capital develops a teaser – or a short, blinded summary of the business – to provide buyers an overview of your business highlights and what you are looking for in a buyer.
At this stage of distribution, interested buyers will execute a Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA) that provides legal protections for the sharing of information between firms. Once NDAs are executed, Growthink Capital provides buyers with the prepared CIM for review.
The distribution process aims to generate interest among several prospective buyers to the point that these groups submit indications of interest (IOI). These preliminary nonbinding bids give owners an idea of how different groups approach the valuation of the company as well as other key terms they would look to in a prospective deal.
Execution
Throughout the time leading up to and after bid submission, Growthink’s advisory team will field and address buyer questions about the business; coordinate meetings between buyers and company owners; and discuss with you the relative merits of each prospective buyer.
Ideally, all of this activity leads to an auction-like process, wherein buyers are given valuation and terms guidance by the Growthink team that results in better terms for company ownership overall. From there, your team will determine a single group with which to advance in an exclusive due diligence process.
Due diligence involves a series of meetings – some virtual and some likely in person – with the buyer team and company ownership and key managers. It also involves a more granular analysis of the underlying data used to populate the CIM. It is at this point that highly sensitive information is shared with a single group that has advanced to this state. The timing of due diligence can be anywhere from 30-60 days and can involve third-party firms (i.e. accountancies, legal counsel, etc.) hired by the buyer to evaluate financials, agreements, and other key business information.
With the completion of due diligence, a purchase agreement will be signed, funds distributed, and the deal closed. Very many minefields and pitfalls both need to be avoided and professionally triaged through this entire sales process. Two deal truisms always remain – “time kills all deals” and “there are a few reasons to do a deal, and a hundred reasons not to” – and thus a sell-side advisor’s experience, energy, and perseverance are very often the “tipping” factor as to whether a deal gets done or not.
We look forward to connecting with you to learn more about you and your business, and to discuss with you up-to-date market feedback as to deal pricing and closing probability in today’s markets. Contact us today!