M&A experts worldwide are using an insurance policy known as a Representation and Warranty (R&W) to transfer risk from the parties in a transaction to an insurance company. R&W policies are designed to, “step in the shoes” of a seller to pay indemnification claims made by the buyer for inaccuracies of the representations and warranties outlined in the purchase/sale agreement. Due to the low cost of R&W insurance, sellers are driving the demand for these policies rather than accept large, lengthy escrow or withhold terms. Buyers are discovering how R&W insurance can enhance their bid without having to raise their offer.
Limit Capacity – Up to $100M on a single policy. Excess capacity up to an additional $400M available as needed.
Retentions – commonly 1% to 3% of the purchase price. Reduces over time
Premium – 3% to 4.5% of the limits purchased (including taxes and fees). Minimum premium is $300,000
Underwriting Fee – From $25,000 to $35,000 in addition to the premium. Covers the cost of Insurer’s attorney’s fees and due diligence costs to review and manuscript a policy. Non-refundable.
Terms – designed to match the survival period. Post survival extensions available upon request.
On this week’s episode of M&A Masters, we are joined by Ryan Milligan, Partner of ParkerGale. Guided by their principle – “products that matter, cultures that last” – ParkerGale is a small private equity firm that focuses on profitable, lower middle market technology companies and the convergence of private equity and software.
“Let’s just be transparent, and let’s just give everyone the answers to the test,” Ryan says of the empathy he has learned in the market – take the competitive advantage off the table and make it about the people.
We chat with Ryan about his journey to building a successful company and culture in ParkerGale, as well as:
Listen now…
Patrick Stroth: Hello there. I’m Patrick Stroth, President of Rubicon M&A Insurance Service. Welcome to M&A Masters, where I speak with the leading experts in mergers and acquisitions. And we’re all about one thing here. That’s a clean exit for owners, founders and their investors. Today I’m joined by Ryan Milligan, partner of ParkerGale. ParkerGale, is a Chicago based private equity firm that focuses on lower middle market technology companies, and is guided by their principal: products that matter, cultures that last. And on a personal level, I’m especially pleased to have Ryan here today because it was ParkerGale’s podcast, which is entitled The Private Equity Funcast that opened the entire private equity world to me four and a half, five years ago. And I’m eternally grateful for that. So Ryan, welcome to the show.
Ryan Milligan: Thank you so much, saying thank you so much for having me. It’s always fun to hear. Hear that. And we get in the history of that a little bit. But no, this is a treat. So thank you for having us.
Patrick: Now, we’ll get we’ll get into the funcast and ParkerGale, and just a lot of groundbreaking things that you started doing years ago ahead ahead of other private equity firms on a lot of levels. So I’m really looking forward to it. But before we do that, let’s talk about you. What brought you to this point your career?
Ryan: Yeah, good question. Um, yeah, a lot, a lot of a lot of things along the way. But no, I mean, I’ve always I had always, you know, for us for kind of software, or things are software and private equity, you know, in the in the convergence of those things. And, and then, you know with ParkerGale became more and more is becoming more and more the convergence of how do you run, having a perspective on how you run a small software company as well. So, you know, kind of the convergence of those things, I always had an interest in software and tech, I mean, back to, I went to Boston College, and I worked at the help desk. So my job and my job and in college, just to pay for, you know, for meals, I guess I’d call it was cleaning out antiviral and anti spyware and all that stuff from you know, unknowing, fellow students’ computers and things like that.
But then, I was a finance degree and went into went into investment banking blindly, you know, not really understanding what that was, and that was drinking from the firehose, but, you know, kind of horrible at the same time, so that had that cocktail for a couple couple years. But then I joined it, you know, a group that became the software team at, at a larger private equity firm, and we were having fun together, over really, for me eight years, was kind of my tenure at that spot. And that’s really when we decided that, you know, we like this thing, we’re doing these small software businesses and how you run them and, and having a perspective on that, and how you how you build a company, how you build a culture, you find people you want to work with, and live with for five, six years, and hopefully do good things.
And that manifested itself in forming ParkerGale, and then those are the things that you know, he referenced the funcast, but that’s those are the types of things that we spend every day talking about in our walls outside our walls publicly, privately. And now we feel like we’ve got something going on at ParkerGale, that we’re just trying to do things a little differently every day and be really good at the types of things that we’re looking for. So that’s that’s what led me to this in a nutshell.
Patrick: Well, what really is striking is your first introduction with software is working on a help desk. So a lot of the goal of companies and folks both in and outside of technology, if you’re trying to help customers, you’re trying to solve problems. And you were at the granule granular level, then of solving people’s problems. And you’re, you know, a technologist dealing with non tech people. So that must have been real impressionable for you.
Ryan: Yeah, I get you know, we talk a lot about empathy. So, yeah, it definitely helped me build empathy for for people’s problems. And then also the people trying to solve those problems and things like that. So for sure.
Patrick: Well, let’s transition over at ParkerGale, and I always ask my guests, you know, to get a feel about culture of a firm and so for this kind of come up, find out why they came up with the name they came up with because unlike law firms and insurance firms that name their firm after their founder, there was no Parker and there has been no Gale at ParkerGale.
Ryan: Yep, that’s correct. No, it’s funny, and I appreciate you asking us because it’s actually been it’s probably been three years since since we kind of told this. I’ve told this story. So takes us back. So a nice little trip down memory memory lane. But yeah, we did have a few rules. You kind of already went there. You know, we said no bodies of water, no ski, ski hills, no cross streets, you know, things like that. And we actually, you know, we had a lot of internal discussions. There’s, so story a little bit, but one of my partners so Jim Milberry, who you know, well, was the godfather of the PE funcast and and then Devin, he pulled Devin in and they kind of got that whole thing started. But Jim is a boxer.
So you know, we were, Jim is I was a professional boxer, I boxed on the amateur level. But you know, we were thrown around things like Dempsey Capital for Jack Dempsey, and lots of different names. But what actually exists in our bones is, you know, we do these personality tests, and actually a lot of us like in aesthetics, of all things, if you can believe that. And Devin, actually, my partner kind of came up with this idea, but it was based in Chicago, and Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect has Chicago roots. And he had a career that was going well, but he kind of saw what he was doing. He wanted to do more of it and do it independently. So he kind of branched off and started his own thing.
And we were looking at ways to kind of play off of that. And in Chicago, in the Chicagoland area, there’s a couple houses still even two are ones called the Parker House. And then there’s one called the Gale House. And those names kind of jelled off each other well enough, and ParkerGale.com was available. That’s always important to check before you solidify your name. But we kind of made that our thing. And it was it was a little bit of the attitude, a little bit of the aesthetics, a little bit of the Chicago roots. And all that kind of came together that said, this was something we came up with together, not on the backs of just one name, or one idea and things like that. And it’s kind of stuck with us ever since. So that’s that’s where we came in. That’s how ParkerGale was born.
Patrick: You know, I think is a great iconic reference because is homage, to your area of Chicago. And also, I mean, I would tell you coming from California here that is the most trendy style of architecture now by state of California in the last maybe seven, eight years. So you went from, you know, the mission style to the Mediterranean style, you know, and and now it’s a Frank Lloyd Wright, which which is there and I would say that the little history note nugget for you on Frank Lloyd Wright is he designed the city hall for the city of San Rafael people outside of California called San Rafael but it’s San Rafael. So it was highlighted in the movie Gatica. So I know you guys like doing a lot of movie references in your thing. So that’s mine, to Jim Milberry is getting that good.
Ryan: No it’s great. It actually and it paid off. So I’ll expand on the story a little bit. It’s already it’s already paid off. You know, you talk about karma and stuff like that. So I grew up in Iowa. I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. I was born in Chicago grew up in Iowa, though, and we were looking at we own a company called DealerBuilt now. DealerBuilt is based based in Mason City, Iowa. Like 10s of 1000s of people not very small town. Okay. My dad had a lake house in Clear Lake which is attached to Mason City. So I’ve been to Mason City. Nobody’s, been amazing city. Well, so I go to visit DealerBuilt, Jim and I drive to DeakerBuilt offices. Turns out the only hotel in town is the last Frank Lloyd Wright standing hotel in the country. So we’re meeting with the founder and the CEO. We breakfast in the restaurant at the last standing Frank Frank Lloyd Wright Hotel in the country. So that was like, we’re just everybody sitting there. Both sides like huh, okay, like this, this is probably supposed to happen. So anyway, it’s fun when things like that come together.
Patrick: It is really nice how they circle around. Give me a little bit more background with regard to ParkerGale. You’ve got the passion and in capability and skills, and the appetite for technology, you can get a hardware software. Why the lower middle market avenue because you’ve been around for a few years, you haven’t ramped up, tell me about your commitment to the lower middle market and your targets there.
Ryan: Yeah, it’s just yeah, we like again, it comes back to the convergence of software, which we like and we think that’s a trend that is just a good one, it’s a good space to be involved in. Obviously, the last 12 months has pushed the world to a place where we’re relying more and more on software every day, to do the work that we’re all trying to do. So that existed, you know, we do like getting involved in these, you know, it’s for us, it’s either a founder own situation where there’s a transition, or corporate carve outs, or maybe a consolidation and bringing things together. But for all of those there’s a certain level of business building and scaling and kind of work that needs to be done where there’s products you know, it’s products that matter cultures that last we’re kind of adding process sticks to that as well because we’ve been expanding our our ops team.
But we just like that work that we you know, we like we like the space we like companies that are doing well but need resource. And that’s what we bring to the table resource in a perspective. For companies that are succeeding, but to continue to succeed, there’s a certain either level of resource and some perspective that they need to continue on. And we’re looking for the convergence of those things. So we think we’ve built a firm that knows how to find those, how to engage in those conversations the right way, in a way that is received while on the other end. And people feel like, we care. And this is all we do. And this is what we’re looking for, that we have credibility, to get that deal done, we have credibility to make that transition the right way. And that gets into how you do it in the culture that you’re building and how you take care of people and things like that.
But then also, like harder skills, perspective about products and how products are built and what customers are looking for, and how you learn from your customers and build that back into the product and all those feedback loops. So we do come into this with an operational bend that we think is fun to engage in and and help and and bring all those things to the table. So and then for us, yeah, we it’s hard to do all that stuff. If you get too big, because there’s, you know, private equity firms, private equity, by its nature is kind of their the incentive is to get bigger and bigger and bigger, because there’s fees and things like that. So there’s kind of a gravitational pull out of this space. And we, because I think we’d a lot of conversations about it in the formation of our firm, are we ever religion to stay where we’re at, within reason, and keep doing just more of this thing better? That makes sense. So yeah, that’s kind of where we’re at why we operate where we do?
Patrick: Well I appreciate how you fight that temptation to scale up as things get bigger. And I also appreciate the commitment you have to the lower middle market, because quite frankly, if you’re an owner and founder, you’re not doing this, I’m gonna we’ll talk about this over and over again. But they’re not experienced in doing M&A they’re experiencing experience in doing what they do. And when they come to some inflection point, they don’t know where to turn. And unfortunately, what will happen is, if they’re uninformed, they don’t know where to look, then they’re going to default to either a strategic that may not have their best interests at heart, or they’re going to look at an institution, and it’s just brand name, I heard about them, let’s go there.
And they will, you know, be underserved. They’ll get overlooked. And I think they’ll get overcharged. And the more that we can highlight organizations like yours, that it not only, you know, know what you’re doing, you can deliver on execution. But you’ve got the passion, you really want to do this. And you’ve had the experience, because I’ve heard this on your podcast, where you’ll have recommendations, you’re dealing with owner owners and founders that built something from nothing, but they did it their way. And that’s that whole learning curve and new experience they have as they bring in outsiders to come and get them to that next level. And you’re so experienced in that.
Ryan: Yeah, I think and and that is yes, that’s and it’s finding that balance of understanding what got them there. And then Brent, how you how you bring your perspective to the table in that way. But even before that point, I mean, that is a good that you kind of just described why the funcast exists. And if you look at our website, we try to be we try to do a lot of writing. And when it really comes down to is transparency. So yeah, we do think our strategy, our approach to all that was, you know, I think private equity was getting to a point where it was trading, you said it, they haven’t done this before, they don’t understand what it is they don’t understand what they’re getting into, necessarily, because they haven’t been through it before.
And some private equity folks, I do think treat that information gap as a competitive advantage. Well, we kind of said, let’s just be transparent. And let’s give everybody the answers to the test. Like just put it out there. The lemons problem, the fact that you understand more than the person you’re selling to and all that like that, just put it out there, explain to them what it means explain to them what it how it’s going to be have, you know, forecast what a tough conversation looks like. Forecast what you’re trying to accomplish, and why. You know, the more people have heard exactly what the deal is, before a decision is made, the faster you can go because there’s no surprises and people know what they’re getting into.
So it’s kind of do that lead with our lead with our implied you know, competitive advantage. Just take that off the table. Talk about what we’re going to do and and then you got to be able to back it up and then do that do those things over five or six years and then you know, we’re now you know, we’ve been doing this for a while so then we can refer back to the people that heard it at the beginning. They’ve now been through a full cycle and a success story and say they call them. So that’s that’s kind of been our approach.
Patrick: All now since you’ve opened ParkerGale. I learned about private equity and mergers and acquisitions. Well, I mean, the number of PE firms has just exploded. We’re we’re an account of north of 4000, private equity firms in the US. Majority of them are targeting middle and lower middle market. And so they’re as, as more competitors come into this space, what I like about a space filling up as it becomes sustainable, because you have to have innovation, and services, quality wise go up, costs go down, things get more efficient, a lot of good benefits come out, you know, for competitive advantage. And ParkerGale is unique in this and that you have made some innovations in focusing years ahead of the competition. I’d like you to talk about this, because in this modern era, now, people are talking about the importance of culture.
And they’ve been paying lip service to culture, you know, the last 10 years, but there’s a competitive advantage to it. And so now, people are talking about it more, but it’s still more art than science. And your organization, you’ve spoken about this. I invite you to go and take a look at private equity funcast episodes with you’re actively working to measure culture, and not only identify it, or define it, but measure it. And so why don’t you talk about that, because that’s something that you bring to the table that, you know, everybody’s all into closing a deal. But it’s it’s the it’s the post acquisition, you know, that’s where real magic needs to happen. And so talk about the efforts you have done in the strides you you’ve taken.
Ryan: Sure, yeah, I think it for us, yeah, it comes down to yeah, it’s taking care of your people, which are really the assets of the company. And, you know, and we’ve we’ve invested in that we, you know, I talked about the the taglines that we come up with, you know, we have, you know, two full time resources basically just focused on the talent practices of our companies and bringing more of those talent practices into our companies. But, yeah, culture is kind of a stew that’s created from a whole list of things that we’re doing that wouldn’t you know, what it comes down to is, you know, within companies communication, you know, consistency, feedback, alignment, you know, all these different things.
But yeah, culture specifically, you know, the combination of communication and the consistency and then listening to your organization, I mean, that just comes down to a process that you put in place that goes out into the company on a regular basis, we use a tool called culture IQ, that full disclosure is a portfolio company of ours. So that’s fortuitous, you know, creating this listening organization, that you create a baseline, it basically comes through a survey process, that you go out into the company, and you invite them to respond to a bunch of different attributes and react perspectives and things like that about the company. And that ends up in scores that are baseline metrics for the company and how you’re doing on different parameters.
So that might be alignment, that might be communication, that might be innovation, you know, things like that. And you can look at it by team and by a group or manager and things like that direct reports. So if you open up that conversation, and you measure it, you’re listening, and then you look at it, and then usually the best practice for companies is to then look at where you’re strong look at where you want to be stronger. And then they basically commit, create committees to address those things. And a lot of times, we would recommend that the executive team, you know, not even make it it’s not like the CEO is the chair of each committee, you kind of push some of the control of those decisions further down in the organization. You got committees to give some of your star people some authority to work on how do we improve this thing? And what are the actionable insights that would come out of this to increase those scores?
And then you do follow up, you know, pulse, checks, from time to time, and you measure it. And our CEOs, actually, it’s kind of fun. Sometimes we’ll put, you know, line graphs of how they’re doing on different attributes, and you show them how they’re doing versus the other leaders of the companies and things like that. And it just turns out that turns out the CEOs tend to be a little competitive. And that’ll get their attention. But then you can ask yourself, Well, why is this one doing this? Why is this one doing this? And you can start to you know, apply pain medicine or things like that to, to each company situation. But yeah, that’s that’s, that is kind of like an overall management, or just measuring tool of the ether that exists in a company, I think.
Of all the things that we bring to the table, whether it’s leader, you know, org design or leadership development or manager training, or how you hire, you know, how you onboard all those things are in support of culture as much as the analytical side of measuring culture, I think. So that’s been something that and we’ve been doing this long enough where eventually, you know, I think, through time, then we can actually start to look at some harder data because we haven’t really gone through the exercise yet, but we will have, you look at a p&l and try to Is there any correlation between these improvements and how that performs or this margin or a top line or and things like that. So overall, that’s just kind of been our approach. And the nice thing about that is the intangible that I think is a tangible benefit.
But the intangible is that if you are focused on that, you’re actually making those companies a better place to work for the people that are in. So if that’s not, you know, if, as a backdrop, the rest of your career, if all these things that you’re doing to try to generate better returns for your investors, I also happen to make the 40, 60 hours a week that everybody takes away from their family to go spend it a company more enjoyable and better and more fulfilling. Then, you know, I don’t know what’s better than that. If we can kind of converge those two things. So that is a fun and nice thing that we kind of have in the back of our mind. And try to live to is we’re as we’re doing this work in private equity.
Patrick: And I think with most of the target companies, you’re dealing with owners and founders, how, what percentage maybe, are just looking for an exit? And what percentage are rolling over and saying, hey, I want to I want to see this story play out. So I’m staying I’d like to stay what’s what’s the ratio?
Ryan: Yes, it’s it’s across the board, it’s probably seven, I’m going from gut 70. Like 75% are maintaining some participation, and to go forward. Oftentimes, an ongoing advisory board type role. In some instances, there’s either a family situation or just something going on where they want a clean break, and there’s a transition usually do an heir apparent that type of thing. But yeah, when we can, we try to at least maintain relationship and contact in contact with the founder. And that’s probably the split.
Patrick: I think it’s just another value add that you’re you’re delivering, as it look, owner and founder you’re rolling over, we’re not changing your company, you know, ground wise, we’re gonna sit there and we’re going to watch as the culture, we’re going to maintain it, protect the good stuff, and just see how it evolves. And that’s gotta give them peace of mind. Gives you an advantage over other organizations that may be sitting there saying, oh, we’re the best we’re gonna get you big, you’re gonna make this kind of returning, you know, come on with us because we’re bigger, faster, wider, all that other stuff.
Ryan: Yeah, we can’t we kind of, we relieve the burden of we caught. Somebody came up with this phrase, the chief worry officer. So there’s a point where you build a business and you’ve kind of done it, you lead the way you lead by example, you’re doing a couple different jobs, you’re now making 10, 15 million in revenue, and it’s profitable. And it’s a good thing, and you feel like you made it you did. But there’s a point where then you start every opportunity you chase feels like a risk to you, you know, every new hire giving up some control, and you start feeling like every of every, then every risk in your mind that you take is yours.
Like I’m taking this risk. So that’s the chief worry officer. And we come in and we say, well, let’s, what if you just took that, what if we took that burden on we’ll call it opportunity not risk. And, you know, companies at a point need a hand at their backs and keep going, keep going got to progress. Got to make that hire, make the wrong one, we’ll do it again. You know, that’s, yeah, try to push that train forward. Because if not, there’s somebody else hungry. That was where they were 10 years ago, they’re gonna try to get you know, get back to where you are. And if you’re not pushing that train forward, then then something’s gonna happen.
So, so yeah, that’s, that is a dynamic that we kind of sell into and say, hey, you want you wanna just go off into the sunset, we will, you will convince you that you’ve left it in good hands. If you want to maintain involvement. You can put the bag of worries down and ride along and do the stuff you enjoy doing, and have some fun with and not feel like every incremental investment we make is from your pocketbook, you know, that type of thing. So yeah, that’s that is a dynamic that we we often see. And then I think we built our firm well to work with.
Patrick: I think, I think that that post integration focus that you have here is a real competitive advantage for. Profile wise, give me give me the profile of what your ideal target company is. What are you looking for?
Ryan: Yeah, I mean, there’s, it’s, it’s kind of, you know, I mean, so software, right, so that’s tons of those that are out there. We’re control investors. So that just means we buy majority only. So that can be 51% in a buy out. Buying out a founder that’s a partial buy can be 80%, it could be 100%. So that’s kind of a buyout. The smaller ones are more but you know, it can be kind of a recap. We can do carve outs from you know, sometimes businesses get embedded in in lost in larger companies. We’ve done carve outs as well. But that’s kind of what we’re looking for. Size wise, you know, 10 to 30 million in revenue, you know, you reference the amount of private equity firms out there.
So we’ve started to think through more, hey, should we work with an executive and put a couple things together out of the gate, you know, starting to play play more in that regard and try to create a formidable companies, that might be a couple smaller ones, before they come together. And we’ve kind of built our ops team to be able to support that type of initiative. But anyway, those are the overall parameters for our business they are, they’re probably number in a lot of cash, or at least profitable, they can be loosely profitable. But we don’t want to have a big burn position. They’re nice products that are standing on their own. And there’s a situation where there’s some sort of transition needed transition from a fall founder transition to a CEO, passing it down to an heir apparent.
Transition, where somebody wants to step out and somebody else needs to come in. Transition to a carve out that needs a company stood up and needs a lot of resources brought to the table to then have that kind of operating on its own without constraints and doing its own thing. So at the end of the day, that’s what we’re looking for. And then we kind of do our thing with it. And, you know, hopefully have a fun next five or six years.
Patrick: So and yeah, you’re based in Chicago, but you’re looking at things, opportunities all over the country.
Ryan: Yeah, really North American. Our headquarters are all currently based in the US. But we do have a lot of satellite offices in either Canada or Europe today. And some effort, you know, there’ll be satellite things that could be overseas and things like that. But yes, really domestically focused for us.
Patrick: Well, I want to circle around to something you’ve mentioned, where and what’s crazy, we’re talking about the transparency, which is really important to me, because for the longest time, private equity was a members only type of sector and the financial, institutional sections, because if you didn’t know about it, it was really hard to learn if you weren’t in the club, I mean, forget about learning, you couldn’t even reach out to people. And you could, you could demonstrate that by looking at websites and private equity firms where the old days, you couldn’t get any information about team members or anything. Now at least you’ve got not only pictures, but the contact information and stuff like that, which, you know, is a nice development out there.
But you also talk about transparency when you’re in negotiations with, you know, these inexperienced M&A counterparts. Yeah, you know, I, I believe that I mean, they’re not, they’re not naive, and, and just not experienced in doing deals, particularly when it’s their own, you know, their own firm, and you can’t remove the human element from M&A is not in a vacuum, there are risks out there. And, you know, you’ve got to lay those out. And there are a lot of times, if you can understand you’re dealing with an inexperienced owner and founder who’s just gone through a very rigorous due diligence process, we will call a thorough, but you know, they go through that process, and then they’re there through that. And then their attorney sits down with them, they have to talk about the indemnification provision, and not everybody explains to them upfront what that is and how it works.
But essentially, it’s in to be very simplistic is where the buyer tells the seller, I’ll tell you what, I know, we’ve done this due diligence, but in case we missed anything, and it costs us money, you got to pay that tip. And the response from you know, the very understandable responses. Well, wait a minute, I’m selling the company, you did the diligence, you can’t hold me responsible for something I didn’t know about, particularly years after this happens. And then the experienced buyer is going to have an immediate response is just going to say, yeah, well, I’m betting 10s of millions of dollars, that your memory is perfect. And you’ve told me everything, just not going to do that. And immediately that collaborative environment is at risk of becoming, you know, adversarial and worst case scenario. And the tragedy about that, is that all that can be avoided.
And the way you can avoid it is if there’s some risk out there, why don’t we put an insurance policy, the insurance industry came up with a product called reps and warranties insurance, which essentially looks at the diligence the buyer performed over the sellers reps. And for a couple bucks, the insurance company says I’ll tell you what, buyer, if you have if there’s a breach and you lose any money because of the breach, come to us we’ll give you a check. So the buyer has certainty that they can collect seller, two major benefits. Okay, first of all, the policy comes in and is going to replace it some if not all of an escrow. Those are the money that was going to be held back at purchase time, you know, and held for 12 to 18 months. Well now that’s released because you got an insurance policy there. So seller gets more cash at closing. Even better though, they get the peace of mind knowing that they get to keep all their cash because there’s no risk or variable Little risk of a clawback because if something bad happens, buyer goes to the insurance company, not to the seller, and that’s what we call a clean exit.
And I would tell you that if it’s done, right, this costs zero to a buyer, because the buyer simply offers this up, you know, this process rather than an escrow or reduced escrow. And the seller 99 times out of 100, in our experience, 99 times out of 100, they’ll go with it, and they’ll embrace it. And that speeds, you know, the process and negotiations, it lowers the temperature in the room, and you will avoid, you know, they may forgive the process, but they’ll never forget that feeling. And you can avoid all that, you know, but I you don’t take my my word for this. Ryan, good, bad or indifferent? What’s been your experience with rep and warranty on your deals?
Ryan: Yeah, it’s been, you know, it’s a tool, it’s kind of part of the, you know, it’s it’s just part of the process at this point for us, honestly. And I would say overall, in a good way, for sure. It’s, I mean, you described it, well, I’ll kind of just take it from the top and give my perspective on it. Because yeah, I think, so much of the time, and attention and angst, in a negotiation does come through these reps and warranties. And my experience has always, they seem like a big deal. In the negotiation, you know, once you’re in the legal docs, and have spent 60, 70% of your time on them, and money, and worry. And just thinking through hypotheticals, and honestly, in our experience, outside of like, you know, certain taxes or things like that, that come up, they’re not ever really touched again, or used to, like, but at the time, it seemed like a really big deal. very stressful, and just gets a lot of time and attention and all that.
So yeah, I do think, you know, I was probably a little skeptical at the start when it came up, because I was a little worried about, you know, seller then not feeling like they have skin in the game or, you know, for what they’re saying or doing and that type of thing. But you know, it’s been around for five, six years now, pretty ubiquitous. And I’ve never had an issue. It’s not, I mean, it’s not something I think a lot about, you know, once the deal’s done, it’s part of our process and things like that, and it does exactly what I think you do. You’re talking about you want to if you want to have a tough conversation, let’s have it be about what’s your role is going to be what’s your compensation going to be? What’s this going to be? What’s that going to be?
How are we going to work together going forward, you know, tell us a lot of political capital on a knowledge rep for some mundane, you know, employment law, or exhaustive diligence around that this thing that I didn’t even know what it was until the lawyer explained it to me, and why this three page paragraph, you know, needs to be adhere to having that the risk of that spread across kind of every deal, which gets the cost of these things down pretty meaningfully and take all of that stickiness out of what is the deal, which is a lot of work and angsty and a big, emotional moment for a seller and a big commitment on a buyers part.
Yeah, yeah, removing all that, from the conversation, I think has been, you know, a nice enabler for M&A transactions in particular, in my sector of the market, for people that are learning about these things for the first time.
So anything you can, you know, it’s kind of like a big release valve on the pressure on a seller for sure. For all that type of thing. So now we have good experience, we use them pretty much pretty much in every deal. And and yeah, why would why should somebody have to let millions of dollars sit still for 12 or 18 months when, you know, is when when you look at I think the history of reps being paid out on the the actual risk is quite low. So that’s, that’s just kind of my general perspective on it’s been positive.
Patrick: Yeah, I think the great development in why you’re really trying to speak about this from the rooftops is that rep and warranty was not available for deals under $100 million 18 to 20 months ago. And there are so many of these lower middle market deals, I mean, as low as $13 million, $12 million that are now eligible for rep and warranty and that’s a real big deal if you can save somebody a million dollars on a $15, $16 million deal and and the only way the word gets out about that is through the these kinds of conversations. And so I appreciate what you have there. And that’s the next you know, foray for us is not only just getting on the checklist for acquisitions, but for add ons and now it makes sense when not only you’re doing the big you know, platform but then you get the add ons and so that it you know, people don’t know about unless we put it out there.
So you know, I appreciate your perspective on this. Now Ryan, as we’re, you know, talking about now we’re getting I mean, we’re blinking it, we’re going to be in the mid part of 2021 where Clearly, I think at the beginning of the end of the pandemic, I probably won’t be eligible for a shot for another four months, the way things are going California, but, you know, give me a perspective on what trends do you see out there for the rest of the year? And this is technology, ParkerGale, what do you see?
Ryan: Yeah, I think so I’ll start with just kind of the software side of things. Yeah, I think software has been a good place to be. You know, it’s more important than ever, for everybody to do their jobs, you know, at the end of the day, so. So that’s a good thing. And that’s gonna sustain. Now with that, there’s gonna be more competition, more capital, more firms and all that. So it’s a good time to be a seller of a software business, you know, as well. So that’s something that we need to get navigated. But underneath all that, just talking about what, what I think, is interesting, you know, people want data at their fingertips.
And that’s kind of right data at the right time. So I think there’s been more, we invest a lot in b2b enterprise software, those are a lot of there’s a lot of data and systems of record, and you have to go find it, things like that. But I do think just thinking about right data, right place, right time, and the efficiency and getting to that whatever it is, you need, you know, even in your even you can tell Microsoft even as Apple, you know, people use email and phone every day, when you see autofills and it guessing about things and stuff like that, like that, that all gets and that’s not easy stuff that’s going into long histories of databases and things like that, kind of bring it into the surface. So that’s that really is kind of an analytic trend.
Patrick: Real helpful for passwords, though.
Ryan: No passwords, that’s a whole other topic. Well, I’m gonna stop talking about passwords. Everybody needs to, yes, security is a big thing. Um, but um, that gets also into automation. So, machine learning, and AI is an overused term. But it is becoming much more practically important. I do think and necessary. So loosely speaking, automation, automating tasks, having things just happen in the background, things that happen again, and again, taking the human element out of it, and having a machine do something for you learn and then do it again. Building that into your technology, I think can really help a user and that’ll be all finished up with kind of my lap. But that that theme of a user is a big theme, I think for software as well. Dashboarding. So that’s another way of just saying like bringing to the surface.
So having one place to go to just see the things that you care about. That’s something that we’re trying to embed a lot into, into a lot of our software solutions, and things like that. So I think dashboarding is is a big topic around how you present data in an eloquent way. But really what all these things are, there’s a theme here, what it kind of comes down to, I think, is UI and UX. So you know, user interface, user experience, how it looks and feels, and the front end of that is just more and more important. And then so late, that’s where the pandemic really comes in. So, quick aside, my dad’s in his 60s, and he was one of those holdouts that he probably didn’t have his email on his phone until about two years ago, okay, like he fought it tooth and nail.
He had a flip phone, all that stuff. Well, he uses zoom now. Okay. So he’s familiar, and usability and that interface. And so it basically did a couple things. One that is becoming more and more important every year as people that are used to phones and how how easy that is to use, get graduated and, you know, leadership positions. At the same time, we just forced people that were less comfortable with technology to get comfortable. So I think there’s like this big convergence of people who care, we’re going to use more technology and care more about usability. So I’m less focused on like new uses of software, but more of the execution of the software that I bring into market and how users experience that software, if that makes sense.
Patrick: So you’re going there going from can we do it to? How do we make the experience better?
Ryan: Yeah, how do you do it? And we do like that, because that’s an that gets into an exit. So we don’t need to like recreate the world, or do sciency stuff, we can bring some science elements into it, but it’s really about understanding how that is how they want. It’s not creating new technology. It’s it’s changing the way people interact with it, which is less revolutionary, but it is, I think it is making people’s experience and their lives better and how they interact with that. So those bringing that into older spaces, or more tired spaces are ones that weren’t given attention. Because it’s kind of boring and stuff like that, I think is an interesting trend.
For us to go re examine and think about how the companies we own even that’s a big topic is how do we listen to our customers, learn from our customers, not guess what they want, or just let them figure it out? How do we create that feedback loop, filter that into our product owners and our developers and then give that back to them in a better way. I think that’ll be important. So those overall, those are the big trends. We like to space overall. You know, I wish there were less people like me looking at it. But we like where we are. And that’s how we’re kind of playing.
Patrick: Well, there’s no shortage of opportunities out there, because there’s a lot out there. And there’s, you know, everything is easier. I mean, you see is the website and they were tracking that when you did, you know, ecommerce, and purchasing online and so forth. So yeah, that’s gonna keep evolving. So you know, very, very well done. Ryan Milligan of ParkerGale, our audience members find you.
Ryan: Yeah, we try to be easy to find. Yeah, I mean, anybody can send me an email to ryan@ParkerGale.com. Our website is ParkerGale.com. We do have blogs, and we publish on our LinkedIn, you know, our perspectives and thoughts and things like that. So we try to be open to receive people however they want to reach out. Don’t be a stranger. We tried it, we say, you know, karma, like we try to just be I’ll take any conversation, we try to be as helpful as we can to as many people as we can. Because we all view ourselves as having at least 20-30 year careers left and something I do today, might pay off in 15 years. So if we can be helpful down the road, even if it’s not, you, we’ll get introduced to somebody that helps us get introduced to somebody and that’ll be cool for us too. So happy to help, happy to listen, happy to engage and reach out anytime.
Patrick: If anybody wanted to go in an anonymous low profile insight to really get a feel for this organization, its members, its culture and everything. Highly recommend Private Equity Funcast and is everywhere that the podcasts are available, but highly recommended great stuff. There’s no shortage.
Ryan: Yeah, it’s on Apple, and Google Play and you know, all that stuff. And yeah, there’s a fun one going on right now. It’s that date this but the there’s a March Madness, business books edition, where our ops team are all debating the best business books and people can engage with that. So yeah, check us out. We try not to take ourselves too seriously and have some fun from time to time as well.
Patrick: Fantastic. Well, Ryan, thanks again for joining us and best of luck to you guys the rest of the year.
Ryan: Thank you. You know, I appreciate you being a listener and engaging with us. So best of luck to you.
As vaccines roll out and COVID-related restrictions are lifted across the country, it’s time to look at the impact the pandemic has had on the use of Representations & Warranty (R&W) insurance to cover M&A deals… and what to expect in the near term.
R&W insurance, of course, transfers all the indemnity risk to a third-party – the insurer. If there are any breaches of reps and warranties post-closing, the policyholder, usually the Buyer, simply files a claim and gets paid damages.
The use of this specialized type of coverage had been steadily growing and becoming more widespread pre-pandemic. Even lower middle market deals were being covered.
Just as M&A deal-making contracted, there was a reduction in the number of R&W policies being written in the first three quarters of 2020. But by the fourth quarter, it had rebounded and even surpassed 2019 levels. That trend continued into the first quarter of 2021.
In fact, according to the BMS Group’s Private Equity, M&A and Tax 2021 Report:
“As the initial challenges of operating amidst a lockdown were managed, deal volume rebounded strongly in Q3 and Q4 was the busiest quarter ever in the M&A insurance market. As we go to press, early indications are that M&A activity has levelled up somewhat but nonetheless we expect 2021 to be a record year for M&A insurance.”
Thanks to a rush to get back to deal-making, as well as the previous pre-pandemic growth, I expect a rising trend to continue as more dealmakers – both Buyers and Sellers – realize the value of this coverage. I forecast that this rebound will continue into 2022.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be key changes.
First thing to mention – especially if you have been hesitant to use R&W insurance – you should know that it’s well established and popular.
The BMS Group report highlighted that:
Key Trends in R&W Insurance to Watch
The pandemic is going to impact how R&W policies are written, cost, and other factors. But some of this would have happened anyway – without COVID – simply due to the increasing popularity of this coverage.
The COVID Impact Is Limited
While it’s still early to make a final judgement, it appears COVID hasn’t had a catastrophic impact on the R&W market.
As it states in the BMS Group report: “Despite the increase in claims frequency and severity, premium pricing has remained relatively low whereas it has hardened across other lines of insurance.”
Going forward, COVID will have zero impact because it’s “known.” R&W insurance covers the unknown. Underwriters won’t necessarily issue blanket exclusions for COVID-related issues, but they will take it into consideration.
Limits on the Rise
Another trend to watch for: Expect buyers of R&W insurance policies to buy more limits. In the last couple of years, Buyers have been securing policies at 5% to 10% of transaction value, which is largely to just cover the escrow. Problem is if you have a $100M deal and a $10M policy, what happens if you have an $18M loss?
The eight million over the R&W policy is uninsured.
As a result, Buyers are seeking to transfer more risk. So, look for them to buy more Policy limits, or select “hybrid” Excess Policy Limits only or Fundamental Reps (the cost of which are a fraction of the R&W pricing). Because there’s no remedy for anything uninsured, as the Seller is off the hook.
In the event there is a breach, and the amount of loss is significantly higher than the amount covered by R&W insurance, Buyers are beginning to make claims of fraud or misrepresentation against the Seller… because they know the Seller has a D&O policy.
If there is a loss that exceeds the R&W policy, Buyers are looking to recoup some costs through the Seller’s D&O policy. So it’s no surprise there has been an increase in fraud lawsuits.
D&O policies don’t pay for fraud. However, that exclusion only happens if fraud has been proven in court. The defendant has to admit they knew of fraud in court, or there must be a final judicial finding that fraud existed.
Up until then, the insurance company pays defense costs. If they settle, which is often the most cost-effective option, the insurance company pays the settlement. As part of the settlement, Sellers don’t have to admit fraud was committed.
This is why Sellers are being required to secure a D&O tail policy (if they don’t already have D&O in place) – Buyers should insist on it – and why they also need a R&W policy.
Costs Are Going Up
As more R&W policies are purchased, the cost will go up.
The rate will go from high 2% to mid 3%. And it’s already beginning to happen. On a minimum premium deal like I do, it’s already at 3%. A $5M policy is $150,000 to $175,000. But on a $20M limit policy it’s going to be at $600,000 whereas last year it was closer to $500,000.
PE Firms
There was a serious contraction of M&A activity in 2020 and the early part of 2021 – no surprise there. PE firms were holding back – not willing to commit their money. Plus, it’s a natural result of meetings moving online, workplaces going virtual, and the like. Many industries slowed down over the last year and lost productivity.
But now, PE firms, who’ve been sitting on all this cash for a year or more, are ready to start deal-making again. They – and their investors – are looking to start adding value to their portfolios again and rebuilding their balance sheets.
Since PE firms are so committed to R&W insurance, there was a natural dip in policies being written that mirrored the drop in M&A activity. But R&W has returned.
SPACs
Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) will also have a hand in this growth in R&W policies being written in the next year or more. There are more than 400 SPACs that must complete an acquisition by 2023 – at the farthest out. That’s deadline pressure.
SPACs mostly target middle market companies – those $100M or more. As these so-called “blank check companies” start doing deals again, expect to see a spike in R&W policies written.
The one purpose of a SPAC is to acquire or merge with an existing company – it makes going public easier, quicker, and cheaper than a traditional IPO. And R&W coverage is perfect for these deals because even in the best of times, SPAC founders face tremendous pressure to get deals done within a two-year window. Because R&W insurance hedges risk for both Buyer and Seller it facilitates fast mergers and acquisitions.
Insurers Scramble for Qualified Underwriters
A natural side effect of the increasing use of R&W insurance over the last few years is that insurers are seriously understaffed with experienced Underwriters compared to demand for their services.
There are only so many Underwriters out there with the “know how” to underwrite M&A transactions. And as more insurance companies have entered the growing market, we’ve actually seen them “poach” underwriting teams from other insurers.
Pressure on Underwriters
R&W insurance is a complex line of coverage. Even if Underwriters outsource due diligence to an outside law firm, they are seriously stretched for time due to the sheer volume of policies being requested.
Many policies are being delayed – even declined – due to an insurer’s lack of bandwidth.
What does this mean for Buyers and Sellers?
You can’t expect Underwriters to turnaround a policy to cover your deal in a week or even a couple of weeks. Insurtech has not reached the R&W world yet. Although it was possible in the past, waiting until the week before closing to begin the R&W process is as prudent as waiting until April 14th to call your CPA for tax assistance.
If you’re interested in having this coverage for your deal, you need to start the Underwriting process at least four weeks out so there are no surprises. Don’t come in last minute and expect miracles. Underwriters are people too.
You can’t push them to the brink without losing relationships. A good Underwriter wants to be your partner; they want to do it right and be as timely as possible. So, start the process sooner rather than later.
A note of caution: Some insurers advertise faster processing, but they are prone to delays. Best case scenario – you’ll find an insurer to cover your deal on schedule but at exorbitant costs (2-3X the normal underwriting fee) that result in extra expense.
What Underwriters Are Watching For
The ideal situation for an Underwriter is to put as few limitations as possible on deal. Their objective is to have as few exclusions as possible because exclusions create friction. But they still need a sustainable product. They must protect the insurance company they work for.
As a result, we’ll see Underwriters exercising more caution on wide open worded Reps. For example, if there is a Rep with the following wording “will continue to be” or “will continue” – which means post-closing – the Underwriter will read that out as if the wording doesn’t exist.
In this market dynamic, Underwriters are also watching out for the definition of “damages”. They don’t want to explicitly cover multiplied or consequential damages, which are very problematic.
But they have been known to strike a balance with policyholders. If, in the agreement the definition of damages is “silent” with regard to multiplied or consequential damages, the proposed policy will match the agreement with the intent that while the policy is not specifically covering consequential or multiplied damages, such damages are not specifically excluded either. This enables the parties to consider such damages in the event of a claim.
It’s essential for the insurance broker to make clear with the Underwriter that silent doesn’t mean excluded. In other words, if it’s not there it doesn’t mean it’s excluded, it means it’s agreed.
Where to Go From Here
As with many things, COVID has had an impact on M&A and the specialized type of insurance that covers these deals: Representations and Warranty. Yet, I expect the true value of this coverage to shine through, and for its popularity and widespread use to not just continue, but to grow and expand.
Here’s how they put it in the BMS Group report:
“We remain optimistic about the outlook for M&A insurance and expect it to continue to play a vital role in M&A, especially given how ingrained it has become in the deal process and the part it plays in unlocking both capital and negotiations which have reached an impasse on M&A transactions.”
In light of these trends, I wanted to offer you a free download of some best practices to consider going forward when it comes to incorporating Representations and Warranty insurance in your next M&A transaction.
If you have a deal coming up or one closing between now and the end of the year, and are open to having a conversation on how R&W can work for your particular deal, you can contact me Patrick Stroth, at pstroth@rubiconins.com.
Pre-pandemic, the M&A world was all about hitting the road, with companies meeting potential capital providers or Buyers personally in board rooms all over the country. That’s a lot of airline miles.
But for the last year or so, the majority of business development has been done online. And an innovative online platform that facilitates these sorts of interactions has taken off in a big way.
Axial makes it easier than ever for lower middle market companies looking to raise money or get bought to meet privately with PE firms, VCs, Independent Sponsors, and even Strategic Acquirers.
I liken it to the Match.com of M&A. Companies that are looking to be bought, or are seeking capital, post a profile and what they are looking for. Buyers and investors do the same.
Axial also provides “concierges” who help connect appropriate members on either side who could do business together.
The platform has been widely adopted in the time of Covid. According to Axial, 5,000 companies with EBITDA between $1M and $5M privately marketed their deal on the platform last year.
Lower middle market companies, many of whose founders and management teams are not well-versed in M&A, can also hire advisors through Axial to help them find potential deals and walk them through them.
And here’s the thing: Even as travel resumes and we move towards business as normal in many parts of our lives… don’t expect in-person business development to go back to the old way. Firms have discovered just how much they saved on travel during the pandemic. And how effective the Axial platform is at facilitating relationships between Buyers and Sellers.
Any attachment Acquirers and investors had to conferences and other face-to-face meetings at almost every step of the deal process is fading.
As Mark Gartner of ClearLight Partners put it back in Sept. 2020:
“The game of staffing up one or more business development professionals to focus their energies on literally the exact same strategy every other private equity fund is employing is simply dead. The famous investor Sir John Templeton once said, ‘It is impossible to produce superior performance unless you do something different.’ This is sage advice as we usher in business development 3.0 and say farewell to the following activities that are sort of like rocking chairs – they give you something to do but don’t really get you anywhere.”
Gartner cited the following strategies as “dead”:
These strategies, of course, still have some sort of place going forward in M&A, but it will be radically different. I think most PE firms will reserve travel for when deals are further along… and make first contact online. And Axial is ideal for this new strategy. They’ve more than proven they can handle these deals and facilitate them quite nicely.
Take this example…
Trinity Consultants is an air quality consulting firm out of Dallas that has made more than 20 acquisitions in the past 12 years. But most of those deals were in the air quality space. They turned to Axial to find deals in new industries and from new sources.
As the company put it in a case study on the Axial website:
“Axial brings deals to us and helps us think about the realm of possibilities that could make sense.”
Working with Axial, led Trinity to acquire ADVENT Engineering, a life sciences engineering consulting firm. Says the ADVENT CEO of the deal:
“Without Axial, there’s no reason the company or their banker would have heard of us, and no reason we would have heard of them.”
It’s deals like this that make Axial so powerful…and the leader in this space. Over the last 10 years, it’s grown into the largest online platform for buying, selling, and financing private companies.
The Paradox of Choice
Common wisdom is that the lower middle market is underserved… that these small companies are the redheaded stepchildren of the M&A world and all the services are geared towards bigger companies.
Peter Lehrman, founder and CEO of Axial, has a different view. He says the problem is there are too many providers. There are all different types of investors and service providers who are vying to do business with lower middle market companies.
The Buyer’s universe for lower middle market companies includes 4,000 PE firms, tens of thousands of Strategic Acquirers looking to grow inorganically, thousands of family offices looking to invest in something other than the stock market…and even Independent Sponsors, individuals who, backed by private equity, are looking for companies to run and take to the next level.
The problem is, says Lehrman, is that potential acquisitions in this space actually have too many choices, and it’s tough to navigate them and find the right providers and potential acquirers. And that’s precisely why Axial focuses on this space.
As he told me in a recent interview:
“I think the lower middle market has a level of dynamism to it that makes it a market where information problems plague Buyers and Sellers, that make it harder for Buyers and Sellers to find one another, to be found by one another, and to assess one another as counterparties and partners.”
“There are a lot of problems and challenges that are, I think, much more unique to the lower middle market than to really any other sort of ‘category’ of private capital markets.”
This reminds me of some relatives of mine from Ireland who were visiting recently. They needed aspirin, so I sent them to the chain drug store down the street from my house. They came back empty-handed. Faced with 30+ different varieties of pain relievers they couldn’t make a choice.
Adds Lehrman:
“I don’t think [the lower middle market] is underserved. I just think it’s very, very hard, as a business owner, to know how to sort of assess all of these potential partners to work with. And I think that’s actually the bigger challenge. It’s not that there are not enough people serving the lower middle market.”
“It’s about helping the owners and entrepreneurs navigate that huge list of choices. They’re looking at say 100 private equity firms, and they’re thinking ‘What am I going to do, go to every single one of their websites? They all sound the same and say the same thing, right? So how am I really going to figure this out?’”
“So that’s what I think is actually the bigger challenge. It’s not that they’re underserved. It’s that there’s too much choice, and they need help slicing through those choices by getting their hands on good information and good resources.”
The paradox of choice in action.
Potential investors and acquirers of lower middle market companies also face difficulty. These small businesses are scatted around the country… and there are tens of thousands of them owned by private equity. And as some firms grow and enter into the middle market, new entrants come in. It’s a constant churn.
It’s no wonder that a platform like Axial, which uses technology to connect potential partners, has become a go-to for savvy dealmakers.
Next Steps
Of course, no matter how Buyer and Seller came together, there is a unique insurance product, which has become available to lower middle market deals only in recent years, that is a must have for M&A transactions.
Representations and Warranty (R&W) insurance, which transfers indemnity risk to a third party (the insurer), has been…
I specialize in this type of insurance, and I’d be glad to discuss how it can specifically benefit your deal. Please contact me, Patrick Stroth, at pstroth@rubiconins.com.
You have PE firms… you have Strategic Buyers… you have VCs…
You have Independent Sponsors.
These are individuals looking for a deal. They have money and experience, and they’re looking to buy a company.
They differ from other M&A players in key ways.
A PE firm reaches out to investors, builds up a nest egg and then, with that pool of money, buys a series of companies… They might buy at $20M, put $10M into the company and then sell for $150M to $200M – a nice return for the fund and the investors.
They’re buying to build a portfolio for the benefit of their investors.
But Independent Sponsors often don’t worry as much about portfolios or building a fund…
In fact, they used to be called Fund-less Sponsors.
A common perception in the M&A world is that anyone without a fund behind them doesn’t have the money to do deals.
But Independent Sponsors do, although they are often not the sole source of capital…
They find a target, put it through their vetting process, and then they go to PE firms or other sources of money as potential investors.
The Independent Sponsor’s point is that a PE firm has cash it needs to put to work – why not with me? The Independent Sponsor has done the legwork and found a viable target.
Typically, PE firms and other investors struggle to find good deals in today’s environment. They cold call owners/founders, go through their referral network, or work with investment banks to find targets. It’s not a terribly efficient system.
Simply put: Independent Sponsors find deals but might need capital. PE firms and other investors have capital and are looking for deals.
So it’s a win-win.
Jon Finger, a partner with McGuireWoods whose practice focuses on private equity and corporate transactional matters, is a big believer in Independent Sponsors. As he puts it, we learned that going to trade shows, calling on companies, and the like is “very time consuming. The lightbulb moment for us was that the Independent Sponsor in our network can be doing a lot of that spadework if you will, for us and our network. So if we spent more time nurturing our Independent Sponsor relationships, and really finding opportunities that they had, which we could then introduce to our capital partner network, it really made what we were doing much more efficient.”
The match made in heaven with Independent Sponsors is made even more powerful when you consider the potential advantages Independent Sponsors may have with target companies.
Who Are Independent Sponsors?
Independent Sponsors are so diverse… coming from many different backgrounds and points of view.
Often, they are former CEOs or top executives. They know the industry they are investing in. They have contacts… they know the landscape. That makes them ideal “judges of characters” for what targets to invest in.
Finger works extensively with Independent Sponsors. He explains what makes them so effective:
“A lot of our clients in the Independent Sponsor world spun out of blue chip, private equity firms. They have that pedigree of doing deals, and now they’re doing deals as Independent Sponsors.
“[Many] are entrepreneurs who founded and sold a business. And now they want to go out and do it again. And frankly, a lot of our Independent Sponsor clients are true CEO level talent, that may have made a lot of money for investors in the past. And they have a Rolodex within a market or within a segment to say, I want to go out and do a roll up in this space. And that allows them, with that domain expertise, to really be a powerful and successful Independent Sponsor.”
The Drawbacks to Being an Independent Sponsor
Independent Sponsors face a serious issue. They cannot afford to have a deal go south. If they spend $100,000 on due diligence and other expenses, they are out that money if there is no sale… because negotiations fell apart, for example.
A PE firm with a $150M fund can more easily pursue deals that don’t pan out. They can bat .700 or .800. But an Independent Sponsor must bat 1.000.
There is a way Independent Sponsors can mitigate that risk.
Representations and Warranty (R&W) insurance can actually reduce the friction in the negotiations of Reps. This specialized type of insurance covers any financial loss from a breach in Reps. That gives peace of mind to the Buyer. And the policy can replace 90% of an escrow. So less money from the purchase price is being set aside and goes right to the Seller’s pocket. Good to get more cash at closing, even better to get the peace of mind
Another benefit is that the post-closing integration process is more successful because there is no mistrust and animosity in the leadership of the acquired company. They feel they were treated fairly in the deal, and they have cash on hand.
Both parties can move forward together, which is key to a successful and profitable acquisition.
R&W coverage helps close deals and integrate the companies.
These days it’s more widely available than ever, even for sub-$20M deals.
And thanks to competition, eligibility standards for R&W insurance have never been simpler. The cost has never been lower. And the claims have not overwhelmed the industry, so we can see these lower rates continuing for a very long time.
As a broker specializing in Representations & Warranty insurance, I’d be glad to discuss the benefits of coverage for your specific deal. Please contact me, Patrick Stroth, at pstroth@rubiconins.com.
