The 65-year old owner of a multi-location retail operation doing $30 million in annual sales decided to retire. He interviewed a highly recommended intermediary and was impressed. However, he had a nephew who had just received his MBA and who…
In many cases, the sale of a small company is “event” driven. That is, the reason for sale is health, divorce, partnership issues, even decline in business. A challenging reason is one in which the owners want to retire and…
Business Appraisers, before beginning an assignment, like to know the purpose of the appraisal. Usually the assignment demands “bullet proof” documentation: comparables, EBITDA multiples, projections, discount rates, etc. Unfortunately, in situations where the purpose of the valuation is to establish…
A buyer was interested in a building products manufacturer that did $70 million a year in sales. Although the business was profitable, it seemed that their margins were lower than they should have been for this industry. The buyer asked…
There once was a family-owned bakery that had sales in the millions. The bakery sold bread to restaurants, supermarkets and some retail outlets. The founder gave each of his 5 children 20 percent ownership of the business. The kids really…
Much has been written about “fairness opinions” due to the financial manipulations among companies such as Enron, Tyco and others. The conflict in the use of fairness opinions was (and is) that an investment banking firm not only handled the…