By JACOB GEIGER Richmond Times-Dispatch
As local concierge medicine business PartnerMD grew, venture capitalists and private-equity groups kept calling founder and CEO Linda Nash.
“By 2011, we had three locations and people were calling on me, but it never felt quite right,” Nash said. “You get involved deeply with clients and key personnel, and I worried a buyer would change the nature of what we would do.”
Nash, speaking Thursday before about 150 people at Venture Forum RVA, described how she finally found a way to sell her business without giving up control. She and other CEOs said selling all or part of a business carries risks and rewards.
One day that spring, Nash bumped into Thomas S. Gayner, president and chief investment officer at specialty insurer Markel Corp. in Henrico County, at a conference.
“We did the deal in an hour on a piece of binder paper,” she said. “We closed the sale in 42 days, which is a record for them.”
Nash and Dr. James Mumper, her co-founder, stayed on to run the business.
Markel’s investment subsidiary, Markel Ventures, believes in buying growing companies, infusing capital and leaving the existing executives in place.
“Three and a half years later, it’s the same company, but we’re bigger and have more stability,” Nash said.
Avrum Elmakis decided to take on an investor in TDBBS, his dog treats company that does business as Barkworthies and Best Bully Sticks, because he and his wife had their entire life savings invested in the fast-growing company.
In February 2013, he and his wife sold a minority stake of their company to a “family office,” a private company that manages investments and trusts for a single family.
“Prior to the deal, it was the Wild West,” Elmakis said. “They’ve added structure to the company and brought in a platform for future growth.”
Stefan Cametas merged his company, Pembrooke Occupational Health, with eScreen Inc. in 2010. Both companies provide pre-employment drug testing.
Cametas said the merger helped the two companies reduce operating costs and double their previous business. That paved the way for a 2012 acquisition of the combined business by Massachusetts-based Alere Inc. for $270 million.
But Cametas said being part of a private company and a publicly traded one is immense.
“Knowing your investors is really a big benefit,” Cametas said. “At a public company, you are managing the business for the quarter, which is just not as much fun.”
In January, Cametas will step down from his operating role at Alere and will work instead to help the company with future acquisitions.
The panel, which also included VACO managing partner Renee Fisher and Steve Loving, former CEO and owner of AERO Integrated Solutions, agreed that a business owner should make sure he has a good lawyer and good investment banker before exploring a sale or major investment.
Nash said she didn’t hire an investment bank when she sold PartnerMD to Markel but did talk regularly with friends in the investment banking industry to make sure she was getting a fair deal.
And while she credited her attorneys with playing an important role in the transaction, she said one-on-one conversations with Gayner were the key to closing the deal.
“Each time the process got stuck, Tom and I would go to Melito’s (restaurant) and have a beer and talk about the deal.”
For additional information regarding Florida business sales, acquisitions and valuations, please contact Eric J. Gall at info@buysellflbiz.com or 239.738.6227. Also, visit our Florida Business Exchange website at www.fbxbrokers.com and my personal website at www.buysellflbiz.com.
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