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Some advice is highly sophisticated and complex, affecting the very life of the company and its owners and management. For example, based on its substantive expertise, Blum & Co. helps clients answer the following critical questions and then act on the answers to achieve results:
- Should the entire company, a subsidiary or a major portion or assets be sold, and if so, what might it bring? How can it be sold to get the best price with the utmost confidentiality and the least disruption?
- Management wishes to buy the company or a division it runs. Can a management buyout be done? And if so, how quickly, at what price, and on what terms? Can a structure be developed that will be acceptable to the Board or the parent and also be financeable. How best can financing be arranged? What are the risks involved, and how can they be handled or mitigated?
- A company's current owners and its management are interested in forming an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and having the ESOP purchase a significant portion of the current owners' stock. Is such a transaction feasible? If so how should it be structured to achieve both the best returns for the current owners and to provide the best results for the employees commensurate with the level of risk the management and employees are willing to assume? How can the important technical details best be structured and negotiated to work effectively at a reasonable cost?
- A public company is concerned about its vulnerability to takeover. Is it vulnerable? If so, can effective defenses be put in place ahead of time, and which defenses are most appropriate to the company and most likely to be sustained? If a hostile takeover looms imminently, what defenses can be mounted under fire - at the very least to raise the stock price substantially - how can they best be put in place, and what might they achieve.
- A public company is concerned that the advantages it sought in going public are now mostly inaccessible and are now outweighed by the costs and complexities of being public - including D&O insurance, top management and directors' personal liabilities, '34 Act filings, compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, Regulation FD and other new Federal and state requirements, etc. How feasible would it be to "go private"? What financing would be required, can it be obtained, and what would it cost and entail? What are the risks of unintended sale or takeover, and how can these risks be minimized?
- A company or project is experiencing financial stormy weather: Can it be restructured financially to sail more smoothly? If so, how can the restructuring best be accomplished? How can the conflicting interests of senior creditors, subordinated lenders, shareholders, management, customers, suppliers, etc., be reconciled and a new financial structure formally, legally and efficiently be put in place.
- A company wishes to recapitalize the parent and/or one or more subsidiaries to accommodate the interests of different stakeholder segments - including founders, management and directors, previous investors, new investors, strategic partners and lenders. How can the equity best be structured with different classes of preferred stock, classes of common stock (perhaps with different voting power per share), warrants, convertible debt, other subordinated debt with equity features, stock options, etc. to accommodate each of the various interests to the best extent possible?
- A company requires international partners and non-recourse financing. Can the parts be put together to make it succeed? How can the roles of the various partners be defined to make the project development and operation proceed smoothly. Who would be the best partners. Can financing be obtained, and what contracts, approvals, assurances, guarantees, etc., must be obtained and put in place in order to secure financing. What financing terms and conditions can be achieved in U.S. or international markets today.
In these areas, Blum & Co.'s advice stems from extensive experience not only providing such advice but also in successfully translating such advice into results. We work with the client to develop a suitable transaction; then we follow through to complete the transaction. Blum & Co. advises and executes. We get the deal done.
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