Identifying a Company for a Buyer (Buyer Search)

Buyer Objectives

• Strategic Fit with Buyer's Objectives
• Attractive Business Opportunity for Purchase
• Realistic Terms
• Owner and Employee Cooperation

SUMMA Financial Group’s Role in Finding a Company

• Determining the characteristics of target companies that would interest the client firm
  • Line of business
  • Revenue and profitability
  • Product or service characteristics
  • Management to stay or to be replaced
  • Undesirable characteristics e.g. geography, environmental
• Search available information resources
  • SUMMA Financial Group Company for Sale Data Base
  • Seller Data Bases from Affiliate firms
  • Direct Mail to Candidate Firms
  • Advertising as appropriate
  • Internet Search
  • Print Media
• Screening candidate firms
  • Fit with criteria
  • Motivation to sell
  • Summarization of company characteristics
• Preparation of the letter of intent with buyer's attorney and accountant
• Negotiation of terms and conditions - organization and delivery
• Support of due diligence
• Mediation of legal and accounting issues of buyer and seller
• Maintaining confidentiality to buyer and sellers

Finding a company without an intermediary?

• Searching for a company to buy is a full time job requiring a special combination of skills
  • Knowledge of sources of firms for sale
  • Assessing the owner’s readiness to sell
  • Structuring a transaction
• Confidentiality is lost because there is no intermediary to preserve the privacy of the buyer

Is SUMMA Financial Group, LLC the right firm for your search?

• Access to Sellers - SUMMA belongs to the M&A Source, the association of middle market intermediaries with hundreds of firms for sale. If a firm that fits the criteria are on the market the M&A Source is the place to find it.
• Hundreds of transactions completed
• Ethical - A large number of outstanding references
• Experience of SUMMA Financial Group professionals includes:
  • Over twenty years business experience each
  • Owning their own business, or being a senior executive
  • Extensive formal education at the graduate level. SUMMA professionals’ degrees include accounting, engineering, finance, and law
• We are leaders in our profession and community
• History -- Founded in 1985

The Acquisition Process

1. Client and SUMMA Financial Group, LLC enter into agreement to search for a company to meet the client's criteria.
2. A Search of firms meeting the client's criteria is executed. Considerations include location, size, industry, and financial potential.
3. Candidates who meet the criteria are contacted and those with an interest in selling are interviewed for more details.
4. A Summary Description of each candidate firm is presented to the client for review. At this point neither the buyer nor seller know the others identity.
5. The Client determines which firms are of interest.
6. Telephone meetings and on site visits by buyers provide information to both buyer and seller on the desirability of making and accepting an offer.
7. The buyer submits a letter of intent which is the focus of negotiation for establishing price and terms. Each interested buyer is asked for a letter of intent.
8. After acceptance of a letter of intent, the buyer further examines the business and contingencies are removed. SUMMA professionals keep the process moving toward a conclusion.
9. The final agreements are developed, contingencies closed, and ownership transfers.

Summa's extensive Buyer database