From Cold Call to Closed Deal: How a Private Equity Investment Comes Together, Part 3 – The Dotted Line

“She thinks $60 million is a discounted price? Can someone shoot her with an animal tranquilizer gun until she snaps out of it?” John says, looking around in disbelief at all the other Partners.

David turns to you and his eyes light up as a new idea percolates to the top of his head, and then sputters out of his mouth.

“You do know about the special analyst bonus, right?”

Everyone else in the room laughs, as you contemplate whether or not they really want you to tranquilize the CEO.

$60 million would be 6x EBITDA – a reasonable price for a larger company – but significantly higher than what you’d pay for a small, Founder-dominated business in a niche market.

David speaks up once again as the laughter subsides.

“And let’s not forget about her other demands: she wants to roll over 20% of her ownership and put aside 5% in an options pool for the management team.”

“So we’re paying for an overpriced business and then giving up 25% for no apparent reason. This sounds like a better investment than finding Google in 1998,” John replies while rolling his eyes.

Everyone else sits there in silence as you weigh your options before speaking up.

“Well,” you say, “On a positive note, I think I could call in a few chips to get the financing in place.”

“What bank would even look at this? It’s too small for any of the usual suspects,” David points out.

“Right now everyone’s desperate for business – in normal times they’d say no, but beggars can’t be choosers.”

From Big 4 Restructuring to Investment Banking: How to Make the Leap

“Help! I hate my accounting job and want to move into banking, what do I do?”

“What group should I transfer to if I want to get into finance?”

“My Big 4 salary doesn’t give me enough cash for bottles!”

If you’re at a Big 4 firm right now, you’ve had one of the thoughts above before – maybe multiple times.

We covered how to move from accounting to investment banking before, but this time around there’s a different twist - an interview with a reader who moved from a Big 4 restructuring group to investment banking.

Here’s how he made the leap, and how you can do the same:

From Cold Call to Closed Deal: How a Private Equity Investment Comes Together, Part 2 – The Deal?

“No, no, and no again,” shouts John, the Founding Partner.

“This is a crap deal in a tiny market with a Founder who wants to leave in 12 months? She stays, or we don’t even take another look at this. This business is worth $0 without her.”

David jumps in before you can say anything.

“We don’t know how serious she is about leaving. And don’t you think the LPs might like seeing a new industry that we haven’t invested in before?”

“Are you crazy?” John blurts out, “The problem is that she doesn’t know what she’s doing, which is much riskier than if we knew for sure, either way. And there’s no way the new Limited Partners will get behind this – they know jack about technology and don’t feel comfortable with the industry.”

“You realize she’s willing to sell at a 50% discount, right? We could still get a solid return.”

“50% of $0 is $0.”

Everyone turns to David, waiting to see what his next retort will be.