The first and most important step in the process is to hire the most qualified advisor available. CenterPoint will lead you through the entire process to help you achieve the highest price and best terms available. If handled properly, the sale of your company should be the most successful business transaction of your career.

There are three stages to selling a business, and our professionals will give you their complete attention as we guide you through each stage.

Preparation and planning are an integral part of achieving a successful transaction. As such, CenterPoint focuses on properly preparing the business for sale as well as advising the owner on what to expect as the process continues. During the preparation and planning stage we:

• Determine the most appropriate transaction structure for your situation (i.e. full sale, partial sale, recapitalization, management buyout, ESOP, etc.)
• Address any confidentiality concerns
• Recast the financial statements to adjust for non-recurring expenses or owner perks
• Value your company to determine its worth in the current market
• Recommend specific actions to increase the value of the company
• Identify strategic and financial buyers with the resources and desire to acquire your company
• Prepare a comprehensive offering memorandum for use with prospective buyers

Our clients demand the highest price and best terms for their transactions, and creating a competitive atmosphere for the company among interested buyers is instrumental to achieving this goal. We keep all buyers on the same time frame and coordinate the dissemination of confidential information in order to conduct a competitive controlled bidding process. To meet this objective we:

• Contact buyers on a confidential basis and determine their desire to pursue the acquisition
• Negotiate non-disclosure agreements
• Prepare and coordinate management presentations
• Pare down the list of interested buyers to those who have indicated the highest value
• Request best and final offers from the remaining buyers
• Select the best offer and aggressively negotiate a Letter Of Intent on our clients’ behalf

Once the final buyer is selected and a Letter of Intent has been signed, we work diligently to close the deal as quickly as possible on the terms agreed to by the buyer. Because time is the enemy of all deals, we keep the transaction on track and work to avoid any significant delays which can potentially disrupt the sale. During this process we:

• Assist the owner in collecting and disseminating the due diligence requested by the buyer
• Work with the owner’s attorney to negotiate the final purchase agreement
• Keep all parties “honest” to the terms and conditions that were agreed upon
• Successfully close the transaction… the deal is not done until we have verified that the wire transfer has hit your bank account.

 When representing a business for sale, we focus our actions to accomplish a single objective – to allow our clients to extract the maximum value from the transaction.