“Vendors Distorted Sense of Business Acquisition Financing Reality Kills Deals”

Ok, so perhaps a descent into madness is a bit harsh, but when I see some of the things vendors do to sabotage their own deals, it truly makes me cringe.

Here’s an example.

A buyer calls me up this week and he’s trying to get a business purchase finalized. The company to be purchased is service based with a high percentage of goodwill in the purchase price. Typical of these types of deals, the buyer is putting in money, a lender is prepared to put in money, and the vendor NEEDS to put in money.

All parties are in agreement with the deal, except for one thing. The lender does not want the seller to get paid out too quickly and drain the available cash out of the company and is asking for a delay in vendor principal and interest payments for 1 year.

This is hardly an unreasonable request as no lender (or buyer) wants to be left with a cash strapped company within a year of the loan being issued. Because there is so much goodwill in the deal, there is very little real tangible security, so if there are any cash flow hiccups, both the buyer and lender are going to be … in the soup.

But in this particular cash, the vendor is prepared to kill the deal over this, so the buyer is calling me up trying to locate another source of acquisition financing.

News flash to vendors of the world

This is a good deal.

In this case, the vendor would get 70% of the purchase price on closing, and start getting repaid on the remaining 30% in 12 months.

While this is also a typical deal structure for this type of deal, in many cases the vendor will not consent to any amount of vendor financing, especially anything that will place them in a security position behind the primary lender entering the picture.

Usually a vendor will have to go through two or three potential buyers before they realize that 1) likely no one is going to purchase their business for cash (everyone wants to leverage their investment) and 2) no lender wants to take the majority of risk, especially for a thinly secured deal.

Once reality starts to sink in several months later, after a number of false starts, the vendor starts becoming a partner to the deal and considers taking on some financing risk.

In the mean time, money has been wasted on accountants, lawyers, and other advisory costs, not to mention lost opportunity for potentially both buyers and the seller.

So my advise to the caller was to go talk to the vendor and work it out. Any new lender I could bring to the table would offer a similar deal. And if they were to realize the current offer was on the table, they wouldn’t consider the financing request at all based on the strength of the loan commitment already offered.

Next to start up financing, acquisition financing is the hardest to arrange. So when you’ve got this type of deal in hand, grab it hard and don’t let go.

Why?

Because the likelihood of a better deal being out there, right at the moment you need it, is slim. And if you take too long deciding, the lender may pull the deal off the table leaving you with nothing, leaving you to start the process all over again with the next buyer.

Madness

Click Here To Speak To Business Financing Specialist Brent Finlay