My Guest
My guest today is Ryan Farkas, a Partner, Managing Director and the Practice Leader in M&A and Capital Markets in BDO’s Central Canada region.
Ryan has successfully closed countless sell-side advisory transactions in various industries spanning manufacturing, consumer discretionary, construction, engineering, automotive and information technology. Ryan has also worked on several large performance enhancement, integration and growth strategy projects, with a specific focus on lower middle market companies.
Ryan is a member of BDO’s Food & Beverage and Manufacturing teams, as well as the firm’s Private Equity initiative. He has also presented at several events focusing on business succession and mergers & acquisitions.
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Why You May Be Ignoring Brokered Deals at Your Peril – In The Trenches
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Questions Asked
Introduction
- Tell us a bit more about yourself, your career, and what you are doing today
Dealing with Buyers
- How do buyers stand out from other buyers?
- How specific does their acquisition criteria have to be?
- What’s the best way for a new buyer to establish a relationship with a broker?
- What do you wish more search funds understood about participating in brokered processes, or dealing with brokers more broadly?
- How do you think about when to facilitate one-on-one discussions between your seller and a prospective buyer?
Coaching Your Clients
- Do you prefer detailed LOIs, or high-level ones? Why?
- How do sellers diligence a buyer’s ability to close?
- How do you coach your clients on valuation expectations?
- How do you coach your clients on structure expectations?
- How do you coach your clients on the merits and risks of seller notes vs. equity rolls vs. earn-outs?
- What are the 3 most common reasons why you’ve seen deals fall apart in the late stages?
- What would your clients say were the 3 most unexpected things about selling their companies?
Concluding Questions
- In what areas of your professional life do you still feel less sure of yourself?
- What is the most important part of what you do that is least well understood by those on the outside looking in?
- What is the most meaningful lesson that you have learned over the past 12 months?
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Thanks to our Sponsors
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This episode is brought to you by Oberle Risk Strategies, the leading insurance brokerage and insurance diligence provider for the search fund community. The company is led by August Felker (himself a 2-time successful searcher), and has been trusted by search investors, lenders, searchers and CEOs for over a decade now. Their due diligence offering (which is 100% free of charge) will assess the pros and cons of your target company’s insurance program, including any potential coverage gaps, the pro-forma insurance pricing, and the program structure changes needed for closing. At or shortly after closing, they then execute on all of those findings on your behalf. Oberle has serviced over 900 customers across a decade of operation, including countless searchers and CEOs within the ETA community.
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