Investment Banking

When you’re ready to buy, sell, or merge your company, we have your back. Our world-class investment banking service gives you the materials, strategies, and insights you need to buy or sell at the right price.

Buy-side M&A

Growing your business through intelligent acquisitions shouldn’t halt your daily workflows or create tangible tension for C-level. Our buy-side M&A services identify best-fit acquisitions and guide you through the entire buying process. This includes:

  • Business screening and targeting to find attractive businesses and opportunities
  • Deal structuring and price negotiations
  • Uncovering realistic valuations using high-quality data
  • Forging relationships with CPAs and lawyers to navigate the legal side of the deal
  • Constant and clear channels of communication
  • Ongoing post-buy support

Sell-side M&A

ClearPath specializes in sell-side M&A. Our experienced team spends time learning about your business, industry, and unique qualities to best position you for buyers. The selling process can be stressful, time-consuming, and revenue-impacting for CEOs and business owners. We interface directly with buyers and handle the paperwork and communication necessary to facilitate deals. This includes:

  • Screening potential buyers for fit
  • Preparing lists of attractive buyers via our industry-leading networks
  • Formulating strategies to improve market value and maximize sale opportunities
  • Deal structuring and price negotiation
  • LOI/IOI documentation
  • Forging relationships with CPAs and lawyers to navigate the legal side of the deal
  • CIM writing and teaser creation
  • Ongoing post-sale support

Salability Assessments

Have you ever wondered how salable your business is in the current market? Our Salability Assessments leverage unique metrics to determine a realistic and reasonable valuation for your business, including how salable you are — and how to improve your business’s salability to secure buyers.
Every Salability Assessment comes with specific and actionable recommendations to improve weaknesses and take advantage of opportunities to enhance both salability and value. Our assessment emphasizes five specific segments:

  1. Financial Health
  2. Staff & Culture
  3. Strategy & Leadership
  4. Sales & Marketing
  5. Operations

With our experience in over 184 transactions, we know what it takes to create a healthy sellable business. Our report identifies where you stand and what you need to do to improve your value score. We like to keep things simple, measurable, and insightful. The maximum score for the entire Company is 50 (10 for each section). Once you know your score, our team works hand-in-hand with your business to deliver meaningful data and strategies capable of propelling your business to the next stage.

Stand Alone Valuation

Whether you’re interested in selling your business, finding new growth verticals, estate planning, or properly filing taxes and meeting regulatory requirements, stand-alone valuations help you understand your current market value.

At ClearPath, we utilize industry-leading talent and analytics to provide in-depth valuations based on economic conditions, financial health, and fair market values. Based on your capital structure and industry vertical, we apply the best-fit formulas and analytics methodologies to best determine your company’s valuation.
Our stand-alone valuations can help you with the following tasks:

  • Estate tax
  • Restructurings
  • Financial reporting
  • Equity-based compensation
  • Transfers and gift sharing
  • Buyouts
  • Capital raises
  • Joint venture taxes
  • Stock options for startups
  • Debt investments
  • Market growth

In addition, all of our stand-alone valuations take semi-intangibles like lack of control, lack of marketability, and the necessity of specific individuals or services for financial security.

Salability Assessments

As a business owner, exiting your business is both exciting and terrifying. You want to ensure you leave at the perfect time (and at a maximum valuation) to secure your future. We can help. Our robust exit strategy service gives you the information, tools, and resources you need to make the perfect exit.

We start by identifying and profiling prospective buyers. By leaning into our network connections and rich experience, we find businesses that want and need your business. You don’t just want to find any buyer; you want someone who truly understands the strategic value of your business. From outright buys to roll-up strategies, ClearPath identifies a multitude of candidates for your future exit.
Once we understand the buyers’ landscape, our investment banking team discusses every option with you thoroughly. Businesses commonly use our exit services to:

  • Sell their company
  • Drive growth through better market understandings
  • Discover acquisition opportunities
  • Position their business to enjoy cash flow streams with a less active daily role
  • Optimize products and services to improve future exit valuations

If you decide to sell, ClearPath (optionally) works hand-in-hand with your company to facilitate the closing. This includes working with key advisors to secure better deals, negotiations, legal document drafting and organizing, and closing facilitation. Our clients see significantly better cash offers and more favorable terms, while enjoying lower legal costs, minimized risk, and reduced stress during the closing process.

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FAQ

What are my options for exiting or selling my business?
Answer: I’m glad you asked. It depends on your overall personal objectives and length of time you want to stay with the company. Shorter horizon-The key items to consider is doing a complete sale of the business, become a strategic partner (which usually gets you the high value of the company, consider economies of scale), to sell to outside investors (typically PEF that has a larger ademen in mind). For these scenarios you get up from money and still have another payday 5-7 years down the road. Longer horizon-Other strategies if the owner wants to preserve their legacy, you can decide to do an ESOP option, and internal sale of the business through a pop-eyes plan or a SARs program. This allows you to slowly step back and is a longer plan to keep that legacy intact. Finally, to be able to structure the business so that you step back while maintaining ownership of the business. Bringing in leadership that will step in while you take a step back without selling the business.
As you can see there are many options, ClearPath has a program called the salability assessment to determine the best avenue to take.
Action item: A great place to start, would be taking a Valuation of your company to see how you score against others in your industry. As you can see there are many options, ClearPath has a program called the salability assessment to determine the best avenue to take.
Case study: (TTS case study,)TSS, man packing (strategic buyer) , pool covers ESOP. MB (PE buyer)
Do I have the option to buy or invest in another business to help my company grow?
Answer: Absolutely, ClearPath Business not only does sell side transactions, but we also assist with buy-side transactions. The best opportunity for yours to grow is to find business in related markets that allow you to expand revenue in existing areas or rapidly grow in new areas or markets.
Action item: Cp has a process that allows you to identify business in your markets in your area that you want to expand that would dbe a good fit while allowing you to still run day to day operations.
Case study: Access, you find another partner that you can add into your infrastructure. Mini case study on access and how they rolled out 30 business throughout the US.
Roll up strategy—where you add strategic business that give you an economy of scale.
How can I hold on to my business but slowly step away?
Answer: to be able to structure the business so that you step back while maintaining ownership of the business. Bringing in leadership that will step in while you take a step back without selling the business. To start this process we would do the painted picture to see what your short and long term goals would be. Study programs SARS esop or pop-eye that work with your timeline. That you can slowly step away while still being an influence in the business.
Action item: painted picture plus salability assessment.
Case study: bill and how he exited pool covers.