Up this week in the M&A Weekly Digest is information about a Texas CLE (continuing legal education) event in Dallas; a very meaty article with tips for private business owners that are looking at selling their business and need guidance about preparing the selling memorandum; how private equity micro cap funds changed M&A activity; and a look at the number of deals closed through August of this year versus last year (it’s up 6%).
First up, the Texas CLE event in Dallas on Oct. 20-21.
Texas CLE: UT’s 2011 Mergers & Acquisitions Institute is Oct. 20-21
On October 20 and 21, the University of Texas School of Law will sponsor the seventh annual Mergers and Acquisition Institute. According to the official website, the 2011 continuing legal education (CLE) program examines the latest deal trends, structures, pitfalls, and opportunities from the perspectives of corporate dealmakers, private equity investors, public companies, and in-house M&A counsel. This year’s CLE program will include sessions on:
- Getting directors ready for the sale process
- Contractual limits on seller liabilities in M&A agreements
- State-of-the-art deal protections
- Distressed asset sales and purchases: cutting deals with senior lenders and co-opting the sales process
- Finding the fault line: the role of investment bankers in M&A deals
- New investment horizons: agriculture and water
Registration for the CLE event is going on now, with an early registration deadline of October 12. The 2011 Mergers and Acquisitions Institute is being held in Dallas at the Ritz Carlton. For more information, please visit the website at www.utcle.org or call them at 512-475-6700.
Preparation of the Selling Memorandum: The Key to Selling a Company
Private business owners should be prepared to spend at least 1,000 hours of your own time over the nine- to 18-month timeframe it takes to sell your company, and the documentation phase should take up a significant portion of this time.
Carl Doerksen outlines four key areas – history, operations, organizational structure, and projected growth – that business owners need to thoroughly document before they shop around for buyers. For a further look into specific questions you need to answer, click on the headline above to read the full story.
How Private Equity Micro Cap Funds Changed M&A Activity
This article focuses on Riverside Company‘s Micro Cap Fund that flourished even in the 2008 economic crash. Because of micro cap funds like this, private equity firms have come to realize that investing in middle-market companies is much safer than investing in large mega-corporations, which is good news for middle-market business owners.
M&A Activity Up–Time to Sell A Business Is Now
“[A]ccording to Cap IQ, through the end of August of this year, a total of 8,356 deals had closed in the U.S. This is 6% ahead of last year for the same time frame when 7,899 deals closed. And if you go back one more year, the number of deals closed so far this year is up an astounding 53% over 2009 when only 5,459 deals had been closed through August of that year…
Clearly, deal making is not dead. Nor is it even on life support. In fact, deal making has made a roaring comeback over the past two years.”
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