Sellside M&A
Selling your business will be one of the most important and stressful events of your life. We understand the time and effort that goes into building a business. It becomes an important part of your identity and it’s natural to feel stress and uncertainty when considering a sale. Whether you’ve been contacted by a potential buyer, or you’re thinking ahead to a future sale, there are a lot of factors that business owners consider, such as:
What is my business worth?
What can I do to minimize the impact of taxes on the sale of my business?
Will my employees and key management be taken care of after the sale?
My brand is important to me and I want the legacy of the business to continue – how do I find the right buyer to make sure that happens?
I’m not a legal or financial professional – how do I know that I’m not being taken advantage of and that the offer is fair?
Our Approach
Whether you want to sell your business, explore your options or just need help assessing offers, ClearPath has the experience to help you. Improving and selling companies is our business model. Our top priority during an M&A transaction is to protect our client. We emphasize this at every step of the process:
Phase 1 - Preparation
Phase 2 - Go to Market
Phase 3 - Buyer Qualification
Phase 4 - Final Diligence and Closing
Phase 1 - Preparation
1. We start by obtaining financial and operational information on your business. We use this information to look for risks that could stop a transaction or reduce the value of the business. At the end of this first step we provide you with an estimated valuation and discuss whether the time is right to sell or if you should continue to build value.
2. The second step in the Preparation phase is to create materials for interested buyers that display your company’s full potential: in industry we call them the Confidential Information Memorandum, or “CIM” and blind “Teaser” documents.
3. Simultaneously, we utilize a network built over 20 years of dealmaking, and professional subscription databases to identify the “best fit” buyers of your business.
Phase 2 - Go to Market
4. Once preparation is finished, we contact buyers, presenting your business in an attractive light to create a competitive bidding process. Prospects first receive a “blind” teaser, which discloses basic financial information but hides identifying information from them. Interested parties sign a Non-Disclosure agreement before they receive the full Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) with identifying details about your business.
Phase 3 - Buyer Qualification
5. After reviewing the CIM and discussing the transaction with ClearPath, interested buyers are given instructions on how to present an offer called the Indication of Interest (IOI). This offer is a non-binding preliminary step. We review these offers with you to determine whether we are going to be able to meet the valuation target and confirm whether we should proceed with the transaction.
6. The top bids are invited to continue in the process. Typically, meetings are scheduled onsite and key managers at your company may be informed about the deal. Prospective buyers get to meet you and learn more about your business before we provide instructions for submitting a Letter of Intent (LOI). Once accepted, an LOI enters you into exclusive negotiations with your top bidder for final due diligence and closing the deal. We work with you to select the best LOI before signing.
Phase 4 - Final Diligence and Closing
7. After the LOI is signed, the buyers team will do more intensive due diligence. Details we have previously withheld to protect your business will be shared with them so that they can validate the profitability and operational integrity of the business. During this phase, ClearPath acts as a quarterback and protector – ensuring that the buyers requests for information stay reasonable and do not adversely impact your business.
8. As final due-diligence wraps up, ClearPath also acts as quarterback during the creation of definitive sale agreements that you will eventually sign to close the transaction.
9. Once the sale agreements are finalized, all parties sign and the deal is close. But ClearPath is still available to provide after-sale support, always protecting your interests.
Our Track Record
Building and selling healthy businesses is our mission. With a client-first approach ClearPath Business Advisors has closed 185 M&A Transactions in the last 20-years. We’ve also helped hundreds of other deals close with our work on valuations, due-diligence, and other transaction-support.