Which 10 Los Angeles - based Investment Banking Firms should we
approach for a sale of our company? The List should inculde: Name of
Firm, URL, Telephone, and Name of contact within the firm.
You as a researcher:
We expect you to understand the meaning and relevance of "Ebitda" and
"1st tier Investment Banking firms". You should also be aware that
Investment Banking is an extremely misused term, and anybody can pose
as an Investment Banker, since there is no regulating body or
certification required to do do. We are looking for firms that have a
verifiable track record as a firm.
About us (you will need this to narrow down to the right firms):
We are a privately held Southern California based pure E-commerce
company, i.e we sell our products exclusively through our websites.
We own our inventory and ship products ourselves (i.e. we are not a
virtual site like www.buy.com which fulfills orders using other
warehouses) We generated $30 million in 2003 revenues, and we are
EXTREMELY profitable with EBITDA margins in excess of 25%. The 2003
revenue figure represents a 50% growth over the prior year; in 2004 we
expect a 30% growth rate over 2003, while maintaining the current
EBITDA margin. We believe that we can obtain between $45 million and
$50 million value for our company. Since we are profitable, we can
afford the significant up-front and monthly retainer fees charged by
Investment Banking firms.
Selection Criteria:
Your list must be exclusively a list of 2nd tier firms. As examples,
Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns are 1st tier, Houlihan Lokey
(www.hlhz.com) is 2nd tier, and Geneva (www.genevaco.com) is third
tier. Also, while we would consider a firm such as Roth Capital
(www.rothcp.com) to be 3rd tier, it could also possibly be a
borderline 2nd tier, and a similar firm would therefore be acceptable
as a 2nd tier.
Why we are seeking a 2nd tier IB firm:
~ 1st tier IBs will simply not be interested in a company of our size
~ 3rd tier IBs are too weak and slow for us, as they do not have an
established network of interested acquirors.
~ We have already been approached by a 2nd tier IB firm; we just want
to make sure we have interviewed a few more before to select from.
Physical Location of the IB firm:
Since we are based in Southern California, the IB firm we select must
have a real presence in Los Angeles either as its HQ or as a
significant branch office. At least 5 of the firms must be
headquartered in Los Angeles.
Narrowing down the selection:
If you uncover a lot of firms that meet our criteria, we expect you to
do some additional work (such as actually calling the Investment Bank
yourself to figure out if they are a good match) to narrow it down to
10 names. |
