AI Issue 5 2017

48 Acquisition International - May 2017 Gulfstream Mergers & Acquisitions is a full-service mergers and acquisitions firm, recently awarded the prestigious Leading Financial Adviser of the Year – USA award, after which we caught up with Mike Sherry, Vice President, to learn more about their success. ulfstream Mergers & Acquisitions is a full-service mergers and acquisitions firm that has successfully completed over 500 transactions for our clients throughout the United States since 1993. Gulfstream’s services include divestures-including full or partial, company grooming, valuation services, and acquiring companies for select clients. Leading Financial Adviser of the Year – USA award Mr. Sherry told us, “Everyone at GulfstreamMergers is enormously enthusiastic to be recognised as a true global leader by a reputable organisation such as Acquisition International. Accolades like this provides us with worldwide recognition that simply can’t be bought. This prestigious award serves as a confirmation that the talented individuals making up our company are doing things the right way. Any time a company is recognised as a global leader by a group such as Acquisition International, it validates the efforts and strategies that our clients have come to count on from Gulfstream Mergers.” Company overview The team at Gulfstream Mergers and Acquisitions are recognised experts in the acquisition, merger, and selling of companies. Transaction services include: an accurate market valuation of the company, effective marketing, personal and ethical relationships with all parties involved, in depth negotiating skills, due diligence expertise, cooperation and creative solutions for legal and accounting advisers and traditional and alternative sources of financing. In addition to M&A transactions, Gulfstream Mergers & Acquisitions assists companies whose principals are looking for liquidity but also want to retain control or to take their company public through a reverse merger. Gulfstream also has the professional team in place to take a company from private to public. Company: Gulfstream Mergers Name: Mike Sherry Vice-President Email: MSherry@ Gulfstreammergers.com Web: www.gulfstreammergers.com Address: 17111 Kenton Drive, Cornelius, North Carolina 28031 Phone: +1 704 892 5151 Advice You Can Count On G 1705AI21 Divestures Gulfstream’s four-step process has been developed and fine-tuned over the years to allow their client a complete understanding of the options and opportunities that await in a step-by- step, methodical manner. The process of selling a business is meticulous and time consuming – and they will never sacrifice quality for quantity of deals. Company grooming/exit planning These should preferably be undertaken 2-5 years before a business (or equity stake) is offered for sale. Along with extensive business strategy and trying to improve the bottom line, creating clean historical financials (3 years) and maintaining and empowering employees is critical. These are a few of the indicators that sophisticated buyers want to see in place. Valuations GulfstreamMergers & Acquisitions is proud that their team includes experts in the field of valuations. Both sell-side and buy side-clients depend on Gulfstream Mergers & Acquisitions for accurate and dependable valuations. Their business valuations follow the requirements of a “valuation engagement”, as that term is defined in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Statement on Standards for Valuation Services No. 1 (SSVS No. 1). Acquisitions Gulfstream Mergers & Acquisitions has an established 24-year history of assisting our select buy-side clients in acquisition strategies, achieving external growth or purchasing companies for investment. Their goal is simple; to reduce and minimise their client’s risk potential, their wasted time and money by minimising the acquisition risk. The role of people – advisers and staff On his role at Gulfstream, Sherry said, “I am responsible for overall sales strategy as well as the company’s domestic and international expansion. Regarding current initiatives, “Most recently, I have been working on our 2017 Northeast expansion rollout, which includes the development of our Philadelphia office.” On how Gulfstream is different than typical M&A firms and Business Brokers, ”As a full service, mergers & acquisitions firm, we handle the entire process for our clients. From the initial intake of a new client, we understand that they still have a business to run, so we take special care to handle “More broadly speaking, as a full service, mergers & acquisitions firm, we handle the entire process for our clients.”