Business Transaction Advisory Services

Handling the complexities of the middle-market transaction process.

Forbes Transaction Advisory Services, lead by Managing Director and Partner, Brian Zales, includes the following services for your company.

Financial Due Diligence

  • Sell-side quality of earnings
  • Limited to full scope
  • Client evaluation process
  • High-level view of financial statements

Transaction Support

  • Preparation of purchase agreement schedules
  • Preparation of estimated closing balance sheet
  • Preparation of purchase price allocation
  • Working capital target and true-up (post-transaction)
  • Agreement review and comment on financial matters

Outsourced CFO Services

  • Financial statement clean up
  • Cash basis to accrual basis conversion
  • GAAP compliance
  • Segment carve out and overhead allocation

Technical Accounting Advisory

  • GAAP Implementation: revenue recognition standard and lease accounting standards

Technical Valuation Support

  • Verification of technical valuation assumptions including discounts and WACC inputers
  • Reasonableness/sanity checks

Exit Optimization

For shareholders of closely held companies, the idea of selling their company often creates great uncertainty. Exit Optimization answers key questions shareholders have.

  • “What can we do now to best position this company for a sale?”
  • “What is a realistic value for our company and how do we optimize it in a sale?”
  • “How does the process work and what ‘gotchas’ might we have with OUR business?”

Our Exit Optimization advisory services are designed to answer these questions and more.

We give the company’s stakeholders immediate and ongoing trusted advice from a partner who understands the transaction marketplace, and we translate what going-to-market with their company would mean for them.

Our exit optimization services are intended for business owners who first start thinking about or voicing questions about an eventual exit from their company. Our clients want current and real world advice to understand their options, next steps, and what stumbling blocks can get in the way of achieving their goals.

Business Valuation

Companies looking for help calculating business valuations turn to Forbes Partners to:

  • Access proprietary research tools and acquisition-transaction information for virtually every industry worldwide.
  • Assess the benefits and drawbacks of proposed transactions and alternatives.
  • Pinpoint the drivers and detractors of value to formulate actionable conclusions.
  • Understand the underlying market trends.
  • Work alongside a team with real-time, specific industry knowledge.

Whether our clients are selling a business, buying a business, planning an estate, or obtaining debt or equity financing, we’re experts at valuing businesses. Our distinctive ability to combine real-world deal experience, strategic perspective, and analytics into valuation projects enables our clients to draw informed conclusions—and make time-critical strategic decisions.

Our approach is further enhanced by our partnership with one of the nation’s top valuation firms. We work in tandem with certified business appraisers to produce comprehensive USPAP business valuation reports, fairness opinions, and evaluations of offers in hand. Over the years, our team has been involved in the appraisals of more than 16,000 firms worldwide ranging in value from $50,000 to more than $7 billion.

Simply put, we don’t just draw on theories and historical averages; instead, our extensive transaction experience coupled with our industry-leading valuation expertise enable us to develop the sound, reliable valuations you need.

Value Enhancement

Owners that want to position their company for a future sale turn to Forbes Partners as their advisor to:

  • Learn how the complex sales process works and how to prepare for buyer scrutiny.
  • Understand how to maximize the value of their company in a sale.
  • Identify the best buyers and pinpoint the value drivers that will be most important to those targets.
  • Prepare themselves to face the market challenges particular to their business.
  • Identify corporate strengths and weaknesses and benchmark performance against their industry.

The earlier business owners start to prepare for an eventual sale, the better they’ll be able to pursue key sales opportunities and respond to calls from prospective buyers. Smart business owners recognize the importance of partnering with transaction advisors to receive ongoing comprehensive, up-to-the-minute advice from experts they can trust. They want to understand their options, pinpoint the most pragmatic next steps, and identify ways to avoid the stumbling blocks that can prevent them from achieving their business and financial goals.

When you choose The Forbes M+A Group as your advisor, you gain real-world advice from a partner that knows the transaction marketplace inside and out. We act as an extension of your financial or business development group, and our value enhancement services take all the uncertainty out of the process. We place a premium on making sure you understand exactly what going to market will mean for you.