SERVICES

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

GENERAL: Merger, acquisition, divestiture and partnering opportunities are significant milestones in the life cycle of any company and for its owners or prospective owners.  The financial, organizational, managerial and strategic problems which they pose are different from the usual operating problems of any management.  Solutions to these new problems can be very complex.  Bentley’s team of senior professionals have broad experience in assisting clients in all aspects of the merger and acquisition process.

BENTLEY PROCESS: We participate with clients from the earliest stage of helping to define objectives and the identification and search for potential candidate companies through the contact and negotiating phase and finally on to the successful closing of a transaction.  This process involves careful planning and execution.  Based upon our extensive experience working with both private and public companies, our professionals are sensitive to the different techniques that are most helpful in achieving successful transactions.  Bentley’s professionals maintain a wide range of valuable contacts both domestically and internationally, within the financial community and throughout industry.  Having worked with many large corporations while members at major Wall Street firms, we are especially skilled at representing middle market companies and sponsors in dealing with these larger companies as potential acquirors or strategic partners.

BENTLEY CLIENT FOCUS: Bentley serves its client companies and sponsors solely as a financial advisor, and not as a principal.  We believe that there is an inherent conflict of interest in having a firm both advise on a transaction and invest in that same transaction.  Accordingly, our professionals work solely as financial advisors to our clients, with our only goal being to maximize the accomplishment of the clients’ objectives.

EXCLUSIVE SALES: Most of Bentley’s M&A assignments are to serve as the exclusive advisor in the sale of a company.  Because middle-market business owners can sell his/her company only once, they appreciate having an experienced Bentley investment banker representing them in this important and complex process.  Business owners (including middle-market financial sponsors) are not interested in having their company sale be handled by a junior banker as “practice” for larger assignments, which frequently occurs at larger firms. At Bentley, middle-market sponsors can count on a senior level professional to carry through an exclusive sale assignment for its portfolio companies, ensuring a high quality process that will result in optimum value.

ACQUISITION ADVISORY: Bentley periodically is hired for acquisition advisory assignments.  These projects can range from (i) being the advisor on a single acquisition to (ii) advising on a small group of potential acquisitions to (iii) managing a large acquisition search for potential targets domestically or internationally.