At the start of every year, we at Oaklyn Consulting like to look back at the past 12 months to reflect on projects accomplished and lessons learned from our clients.
Building on our achievements from 2021, Oaklyn Consulting worked with 34 organizations in 2022 on M&A, succession and capital-raising projects.
Our role is to fill a gap in the availability of high-quality transaction advice in deal situations that are too small, complex or uncertain in their outcome for the traditional investment banking industry to serve well.
Last year, our activity fell into 7 categories:
- Owner-entrepreneurs who wanted to respond to M&A opportunities with very limited deal processes. In some cases, that meant running down an opportunity with one suitor as our clients pursued the goal of selling their businesses. Other times, we pursued unique business combination opportunities that opened new avenues for growth. Congratulations to BrakeQuip, AAC Utility Partners, TapCloud and Metalcraft of Georgia on their acquisitions.
- Professional services firms navigating a change in ownership. In these situations, deals sometimes involved employment or internal transfer from one ownership group to another rather than a clear “sale.” Congratulations to the Craftpeak team on combining with Arryved.
- Venture-capital-backed companies whose growth emerged more slowly than the extremely high levels required by these investors, and which therefore needed new homes that weren’t in a venture capital portfolio.
- Minority-owned businesses whose designated DBE client relationships made the transfer of ownership complex. We were pleased to welcome Monty Bruell to our team to head this coverage effort.
- Nonprofits navigating the pros/cons of selling to or buying other operations in order to pursue their missions in new and creative ways. We were honored to continue to support the Journey Health Foundation, the successor to Hospice of Chattanooga.
- Infrequent acquirers of businesses who needed support standing up a corporate development (internal M&A) function for the first time.
- Business owners of all types who needed deal guidance but didn’t have the deal certainty or size necessary to get “big company” investment banking attention as they explored growth in a changing environment.
We’re grateful to our peers in the professional community who continue to refer their clients to us, often business owners. This serves as the strongest possible validation for the continued need for our unique approach to M&A. Referrals drove 100% of our 34 client projects last year, as former clients, investment bankers, investors and the broader professional community (lawyers, wealth advisors, CPAs, peer networks) introduced us as a helpful resource.
In the year ahead, we look forward to working with clients both new and familiar.