It’s common for buyers and sellers to have different ideas about the value of a business. The first step towards resolving this issue is to have one of your advisors conduct a financial analysis, which results in a benchmark Opinion for the Range of Most Probable Selling Price. At Horizon M&A Advisors, we use several established methods to estimate the value of your business, enabling us to effectively plan its sale and maximize its value.

At Horizon M&A Advisors, we understand that running your business is your top priority. That’s why we work closely with you to develop a comprehensive understanding of your business and provide suggestions to improve its marketability. We manage the sale process to ensure its momentum and success, leaving you to focus on your core operations until the final round of negotiations. Our goal is to achieve maximum value for your business while providing a seamless experience that results in a profitable outcome for you.

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a team to manage the M&A process successfully. We are the project managers who plan, coordinate, and schedule all activities with your team of advisors. Your transaction team will include your CFO or a key person in house to deliver essential documents for packaging and due diligence, a specialized mergers and acquisition transaction attorney, a specialized CPA who is a M&A tax advisor, a financial planner, a wealth management advisor, an insurance broker, and possibly other advisors. Horizon will provide analysts, administrators, selling advisors, and management to deliver all the required services for a successful sale. Horizon also provides a virtual data room to securely organize all documents needed for packaging and due diligence.

Horizon M&A Advisors prepares a Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) to market your business, emphasizing value drivers, detailing the growth vision, and providing financial analysis. Our detailed memorandum enables prospective buyers to understand key factors validating the current valuation, facilitating prompt decision making. We prepare a financial model using five years of historical data and five years of projections. The financial model includes Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, Working Capital, EBITDA, and more. Our professional design presents your business impressively, enabling quick and effective closure of transactions. Our expertise in crafting exhaustive offering memorandums keeps us at the forefront of the industry.

As a leading privately owned business brokerage and M&A advisory firm serving national and international markets, we offer a tailored approach to suit diverse needs, optimizing interest in your business. After analyzing your company, we compile a targeted buyer list and match sellers with known buyers from our databases. Our advanced internal systems, experience, and marketing expertise enable us to efficiently promote your business to private equity, public companies, family offices, financial and strategic buyers, and existing companies within your industry.

We prioritize confidentiality and buyer screening in selling your business. Since buyers are primarily private equity and public companies, their financial status is usually disclosed to the public. We research buyers that match the profile of your business using several proprietary databases as well as searches, referrals, and our own industry contacts. The initial document used in reaching out to targeted buyers, the “teaser,” is carefully worded to not disclose the company’s identity. Once the buyer signs a confidentiality agreement, they receive the CIM and financial model. We conduct all buyer calls and meetings, isolating you from the high volume of discussions so you can focus on keeping your business running at its best during the process. Sensitive information is disclosed only in the due diligence phase.

In the initial phase, buyers meet only with our advisors to keep your time free to run the business. At the end of the initial marketing phase, interested buyers submit indication of interest letters (IOI), which simply state their level of interest and a range of value. We review the IOIs with you and select the final buyer group for the second marketing phase. You meet with us and the buyers, conduct management presentations, and tour buyers in your facility, if applicable. This phase concludes with a deadline for buyers to submit letters of intent (LOI). We work with you to select the best buyer, then negotiate to make a final LOI agreement. Once the LOI is signed by all, due diligence begins.

During the marketing phases, our administrator will work with your staff to compile documents in preparation for the due diligence process. The document requirements are extensive. By compiling these documents over the 2–3 month marketing phases, we speed up the time to closing while keeping the documents secure and organized in our virtual data room. We coordinate meetings with the buyer’s audit team and facilitate production and organization of any additional document or information requests. To protect your interests, highly sensitive information is withheld until the bulk of the auditing process has been approved.

Once due diligence is mostly completed, the buyer’s attorney usually provides a first draft of the purchase agreement. Unlike in a real estate transaction, the purchase agreement is not signed until closing. We work closely with you and your attorney to negotiate the final purchase agreement, which may include 50+ schedules. Schedules are lists of everything included in the sale and are often very detailed. We lead negotiations on business points, and your attorney leads on legal points. There may be several iterations of the purchase agreement before everyone agrees on all the details. When all conditions are satisfied and all documents are complete, the buyer’s attorney closes the transaction and flows funds to all. Ownership transfers to the buyer and typically, the seller begins employment for transition of management to the buyer’s team.