ASG Partners Client Highlight - SECO Construction Equipment

Selecting a Buyer and Closing the Deal

A total of eight companies reached the final stage of the marketing process for SECO. Of these, Mike determined that the best fit was with a Fortune 500 company that not only made an all-cash offer at the high end of the valuation range, but also appeared to be a good strategic match. It was important to Mike that his company continued to succeed after he moved on - that his employees would have good jobs, and his customers would be taken care of. The buyer Mike selected saw SECO as an important opportunity, and Mike was confident they would treat his employees well and learn from them.

Because Mike and Barb sold their company to a large corporate buyer, the due diligence process was extremely thorough and detailed. In fact, much of the work of completing the transaction came after the buyer was selected. With Ed there to manage the details of the transaction, Mike and Barb were free to continue running their company successfully. They even grew the business during the selling process.

ASG fielded requests for asset details, environmental evaluations, audited financial statements and other operational details, bridging the gap between buyer and seller and ensuring that all the relevant information was provided while operations continued to run smoothly. "ASG truly did 90 percent of the work," Mike says. "I talked to the buyer a couple of times, and their comment to me was that working with Ed made their job so much easier in buying a company."

Mike wonders today whether he could ever have finished a deal with a Fortune 500 company on his own. For his Principal Ed Kirk, all of these hurdles were simply part of his job as an advisor. "The cultures of big and small companies are so different, and decision-making processes are so different, that you need an intermediary to help get things done. It’s our job to keep things moving," he explains.

Reflecting on the challenges of the due diligence process, Mike describes Ed as a man on a mission - a patient, unflappable perfectionist spending hours on the phone with lawyers, business development executives and independent auditors on behalf of SECO, determined to get the deal done.

When all of the buyer’s requirements were satisfied, ASG closed the deal. And in their mid-50s, Mike and Barb began their transition into retirement.

Reflections

Recounting his experience working with ASG Partners, Mike Bond occasionally laughs at himself for sounding like a salesman for the firm. He extols the team’s qualifications and knowledge, the office manager’s positive attitude, the speed with which Ed picked up on his business, the trust they developed and the thoroughness and professionalism of the marketing package developed for his company. Most of all, he wishes he would have known at the beginning of the process what he knows now - that hiring ASG would be well worth the money. Then, he says, he wouldn’t have worried so much over the decision.

"I truly do believe that ASG got me more money out of my company, and the commission dollars that I spent were absolutely well worth it. Would I have liked to have sold my company without ASG? In the beginning, yes. But after seeing what it took to sell it to a big Fortune 500 company, I know it couldn’t have been done without ASG. And the relationship that we developed with Ed didn’t end with the sale of our company. We will forever be friends with him."


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