From Valuation to Closing: How M&A Advisors Manage Confidential Sales

One of the key things that M&A advisors do is get your company in front of the right buyers on a confidential basis. For our M&A clients, the process involves:

▶ A market study to analyze recent transactions, speak to active acquirors in the space, and develop a valuation

▶ Developing a buyer list based on that information and the seller's preferences

▶ Reaching out to buyers via phone and email to discuss the opportunity on a confidential basis, including through the use of a no-name "teaser"

▶ Getting interested parties under NDA, and then circulating a Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) with extensive, unmasked information on the seller

▶ Soliciting indications of interest (IOIs) from the buyers that viewed the CIM, with a deadline for submission to create competition

▶ Selecting phase-2 bidders from among the IOIs and giving them access to a dataroom

▶ Soliciting letters of intent (LOIs) from the phase-2 bidders, again with a deadline for submission to create competition

▶ Assessing the received LOIs with the seller based on price, terms, certainty of closing, and other factors (some as simple as the buyer the seller has the best feeling about)

Running the process, particularly on a confidential basis and with a feel for metering diligence, is a lot of work, but work M&A advisors enjoy and do to get our sellers the best results given their goals.