The Selling Company: Wayne Trail Technologies is a $55 million annual revenue manufacturer of flexible automated systems used in a wide variety of metal forming, fabricating and joining industries. Company revenue has tripled since 2009.
Why the company was sold: The major shareholder wanted to put an exit plan in place for his eventual retirement and the non-operational shareholders wanted liquidity.
Capital Alliance’s Performance: Capital Alliance sent 31 briefing packages to interested parties signing confidentially agreements. Fifteen of the 31 were strategic acquirers; 26 were from North America, three from Germany, 1 from Switzerland and 1 from Italy. Four acquirers visited the company and all four made offers. Of the visits and offers, three were large public strategic acquirers with the ultimate acquirer being a very large strategic acquirer. The process stalled when the acquirer significantly reduced his offer. Capital Alliance revived the process and ultimately sold the company for double what the ultimate acquirer’s last offer had been.
Terms of the Transaction: It was a stock transaction involving all cash at closing.
The Acquiring Company: Lincoln Electric is a $3 billion public company. They are the world leader in the design, development and manufacture of arc welding products, robotic arc welding systems, plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment and has a leading position in the brazing and soldering alloys market. They have 45 manufacturing locations, including operations and joint ventures in 20 countries and a worldwide network of distributors and sales offices covering more than 160 countries.
