The Selling Company: Smart Resources Inc. (SRI) is a well-known and respected, high-end boutique staffing and recruiting company based in Chicago, Illinois. Over a 23-year history, it has built a sterling reputation, consistently receiving “best in the industry” awards, by serving their market with exemplary temporary/contract and direct hire staffing services specializing in high-skilled administrative and accounting/finance professionals.
Why the company was sold: After guiding the company’s strategic development and growth for 23 years, the company founder made the decision to take advantage of the favorable seller market conditions and step away from the business to pursue other opportunities.
Capital Alliance’s Performance: Capital Alliance Corporation (CAC) consulted with the founding shareholder and developed a plan to approach key buyers in the industry who CAC determined to have a strong interest and strategic alignment with SRI. Running a formal process, managing both the number of buyers and a managed timeframe for negotiating initial offers, CAC delivered four strong and competing offers and subsequently improved those offers by over 30%, resulting in an all-cash market valuation plus earn-out. In the end, our client had three well-matched acquirers with competing offers to choose from and elected the acquirer who provided the most promise in terms of experience and resources, capital, and future career growth opportunities for the SRI team.
Terms of the Transaction: The selling shareholders received 100% cash of a market valuation, plus an earn-out for additional purchase price consideration. Additionally, key employees were retained by the acquirer and some promoted – an important concern for our client.
The Acquiring Company: BG Staffing, Inc. (NYSE:BGSF) is a publicly traded professional temporary staffing platform that has integrated several regional and national brands. The company was ranked as the 60th largest U.S. staffing company in 2017, and was named the 71st fastest-growing staffing company in the country in 2016 by Staffing Industry Analysts. Its acquisition philosophy is one that not only brings financial growth, but retention of unique and dedicated talent.
