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Maximizing Value in a Corporate Sale: Business Infrastructure

Is your company’s infrastructure adequate to support its current operations? Is it adequate to support your projected growth?

Your company’s infrastructure includes many things. Office, manufacturing and/or warehouse space; IT systems; purchasing and supply chain logistics; administrative functions; and more.

Potential buyers will view your company’s infrastructure as either mitigating or creating risk to your quality of earnings and growth potential.

If your company’s infrastructure is where it needs to be, the business will be more robust and able to take on challenges and growth opportunities. If it is fragile, and barely able to keep up with current operations, then the possibility that something will go wrong (whether or not you sell) skyrockets.

Inadequate infrastructure signals to prospective buyers that there is high risk to quality of earnings and potential for growth. Any prospective buyer will understand that they will have to develop and implement an investment plan to improve the basic assets of your company. This represents additional time and cost, and slows down a buyer’s post-acquisition plans.

Alternatively, having your company’s infrastructure primed, and ready to take on growth opportunities and industry challenges provides assurance to prospective buyers and mitigates their perception of risk.

Company infrastructure is an aspect of your business that you may take for granted; potential buyers won’t. Due diligence will unveil the adequacy of your company’s infrastructure and will be a factor in whether or not you are able to maximize value in a sale.

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Maximizing Value in a Corporate Sale: Obsolescence

If obsolescence issues are present in your business, potential buyers will naturally understand there is increased risk for your quality of earnings and growth potential. One question any good buyer will ask is “are your products/services going to be obsolete in the next 3-5 years?” Smart buyers will not stop there.

With evolution in business accelerating, potential buyers will ask if your products/services will simply be less competitive in the near to mid-term. If they are, risk to quality of earnings and growth potential increases.

Most company’s products/services will not be obsolete in the next five years. Smart CEOs and owners make sure their company is always improving what they deliver to clients and customers.

The area many companies ignore in regard to obsolescence issues involve their business processes:

Are your revenue generation processes becoming obsolete? Sales, marketing, advertising?

Are your financial control and reporting functions keeping up with your company’s growth?

Are you employing financial and operational analytics and business intelligence tools that are becoming standard operational tools for strong businesses?

Is the management team that got your company to where it is the right one to get it to the next level?

Are the production methodologies used for your products/services at a current state of excellence?

The list goes on.

As you examine all aspects of your business, do so with an eye towards competitive analysis. That is what good potential buyers will do in due diligence. The more competitive your products, services and business processes, the greater the likelihood that your company will have high quality of earning and growth potential. Potential buyers will factor that into their valuation.

You can sell your company if there are weaknesses in regard to obsolescence. You will simply not maximize value.

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Maximizing Value In A Corporate Sale: Business Concentration Issues

Having too great a percentage of your company’s revenue from one or two customers creates business concentration risk, a risk to quality of earnings that will be recognized by any potential buyer. Those important clients/customers may simply take their business elsewhere, rapidly eroding the economics of your business. Even the most airtight supply agreement leaves you with some risk.

Similarly, if your business is reliant on one or two key suppliers, the risk of being cut off will be a red flag to any potential acquirer.

Mitigating these risks seems simple, and sometimes is not. If you can obtain additional customers and or suppliers, do so whether or not you are selling your company. If it is simply not possible, maximizing the value of your business may be best realized by consistently distributing out as much cash as possible, rather than seeking a sale. If you do decide to sell, a transaction containing contingent payments – an “earn-out” – may be needed as a risk-sharing mechanism between current shareholders and a buyer.

Customer and supplier concentration are not the only areas where business concentration risk may exist

If one or two salespeople control most of your revenue, risk flags will fly, as they could opt to leave at any time including after a transaction. If one person controls the flow of financial information or your IT infrastructure, risks arise. If decision-making, even on relatively minor matters, is controlled by one person (perhaps you), risks to both quality of earnings and growth potential exist.

Addressing these types of operational concentration issues are within your control as CEO. If you decide against addressing such issues proactively, you may mitigate risk in a number of ways. Providing bonus payments to key people contingent on staying with the company through the transaction process, and alerting the potential buyer that employment agreements should be arranged with key people are two actions that may mitigate these risks.

Your company can be sold if you don’t address concentration issues relating to customers, suppliers and operational functions. The value will simply reflect the risks to quality of earnings and growth. Those risks will be evident to any competent buyer during the due diligence process.

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