Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Forsythe Appraisals has opened an office in Detroit, its 17th nationwide, despite a slump in the residential mortgage industry as interest rates crept up in the second half of 2003. That follows three additional offices opened in 2003, and precedes a fifth in Las Vegas planned before the year was out.
The financial fuel behind the expansion: The two Forysthe brothers who run the 63-year-old St. Paul company sold a majority stake last May to Hillcrest Capital Partners, a year-old Minneapolis firm started by John and Jeff Turner to purchase companies. Jeff Turner, the son of the father-son pair, notes that a slowdown in new and refinanced home mortgages holds down demand for appraisals.
The Turners have “a little deeper pockets to help support the business even when times are a little bit slower,” he adds.
“Our plan is to open 25 offices over the next five years,” Turner says about Forsythe Appraisals, targeting cities with more than a million people.
Forsythe Appraisals will end up dominating an industry with few large players, Turner believes, if they execute the expansion. “I’m not aware of anybody else that’s done it in this industry or that is doing it. This industry is so fragmented, there aren’t many large visible players.” Turner says.
Turner left a big job running the middle-market mergers and acquisitions department for PiperJaffray. His father used to run ReliaStar, the insurance concern. Hillcrest has made one other acquisition. Turner wants one or two more acquisitions over the next two or three years.
“We don’t have any need for liquidity from outside investors, or from outside investors who seek liquidity. We will stay in it as long as it takes,” Turner says.
The Forsythes had asked their attorney to find a business adviser to plan their future. The lawyer hooked them up with an adviser, who turned them on to the Turners. “We hit it off with them extremely well,” Turner says.
Jeff Turner, Hillcrest Capital: 612.333.9923; je**@******ic.com
