Unusual and Difficult Situations
These are not just “war stories“. Following are a few short examples of unusual or difficult situations that we have handled. Hopefully, they will provide insight into the special skills we have; the quality of work that we do; and the value we bring to our clients including lenders, business owners, investors and other professionals.
Distressed Company Merger, Acquisitions and Divestitures
 A major out-of-state lender asked Fidia to identify and assess the strategic options of a poorly performing portfolio company. As a result of our analysis and ability to think outside of the box we were able to successfully develop and implement a divestiture plan for this multi-million dollar manufacturing company that resulted in the lender recouping several hundreds of thousands of dollars more than they had expected. All of this was accomplished in only 39 calendar days.
Fidia was again asked to consult a portfolio company of a large lender to help the company determine its strategic alternatives, including options for growth or the possibility of selling the business. After studying the industry and working with management to perform a strategic assessment of the business, Fidia concluded that this company had an opportunity to consolidate its industry segment and become the undisputed leader in its category. As a result of Fidia’s analysis, opportunity identification skills and strategy development, the client regained the support of its lender and embarked on an aggressive growth plan that included internal sales growth as well as growth by acquisition.
Other Special Situations
Retained by a highly specialized local service business to find a buyer, Fidia identified a strategic buyer for the company and created an unusual opportunity for a non-industry buyer to make a competing offer by acquiring two companies simultaneously to provide operating leverage. The resulting offers from both buyers were considerably higher than indicated by a purely economic valuation of the selling company.
A small owner-managed service company asked Fidia if it could find an appropriate buyer that would be able to acquire the company and retain the services of the two owner-managers. Fidia was able to negotiate a transaction with a major competitor of the sellers and helped consolidate this specialized niche and create the leading company of its kind in its mid-Atlantic trading area.
Fidia was asked to provide merger and acquisition support services to an aggressive acquisition oriented company. Interestingly, the company already had a quality investment banker, yet the CEO saw the value of adding Fidia to its team. We worked closely with the CEO to assess the strategic appropriateness of acquisition candidates and to coordinate and produce all key external proposals and communications to acquisition targets, lenders and the employees of acquired companies.
|