Founders Advisors investment bank has formed a new market value assessment company, Investment Grade Advisory, to evaluate and grade middle market private companies.
Investment Grade Advisory will work with business owners of middle market companies to identify areas of strength and deficiencies that can be addressed to drive company value, making their companies more attractive to investors.
“Due to several market dynamics, it’s a profitable time in the mergers and acquisitions industry, with many business owners contemplating a sale or recapitalization due to concerns over taxes going up under the new administration,” said Zane Tarence, managing director of Founders Advisors and IGA advisory board member.
“Even in this strong M&A market, sometimes we find we are unable to assist owners because their business is not well positioned for a market process making it challenging to achieve their expected valuation, or even worse, is their company attractive enough to attract institutional capital,” Tarence said.
IGA was developed to advise companies on what areas hold the most enterprise value and provide a plan to increase the value for a sustainable future, recapitalization or sale.
The Birmingham-based company will use a proprietary 90-question LITE assessment that will appraise how well-positioned a company is to sell and provide a roadmap on how to build on the value of the company.
IGA will be led by Jon Hyman, a global executive with more than 25 years of experience across a broad spectrum of industries. He also has expertise in mergers and acquisitions, business startups and development, new product commercialization, manufacturing, distribution, sales and marketing and sustainable business strategy.
“I’ve worked all over the world in so many different sectors, but the most rewarding thing to me is helping successful entrepreneurs reap the most benefit of their years of hard work,” said Hyman. “IGA is a perfect fit, as I’ve been on both sides of a deal several times for companies of many industries and sizes and know what institutional investors want to see.”
In addition to Hyman, IGA’s team includes Brian Daley as executive vice president, Joseph Vinar as analyst, Tarence, Wesley Legg as an advisory board member and chief compliance officer of Founders Advisors, and Duane Donner as an advisory board member and founder and CEO of Founders Advisors.
