Advisory — Sell-Side
Consumers & Retail
Ilan Jacobson
Alan Chettiar
Somant Maraj
Background
CSR is an Ontario-based, contract manufacturer of cosmetics and personal care products. The CEO and sole owner had operated the business for over 15 years and was ready for a well-deserved retirement. A sale process run by a top-tier accounting firm in 2015 was unsuccessful.
Solution
Undeterred by the accounting firm’s result, our M&A Advisory team dug deep into the company’s performance and metrics. We identified 102 potential buyers, both strategic and financial, through a search that went global and surfaced only 26% Canadian prospects. We created an auction-like environment that yielded 8 offers by the deadline, with Korean and American buyers making the most aggressive proposals. We overcame major cultural differences with the eventual winner, a Korean publicly traded contract manufacturer, and arrived at a deal in the upper end of the initial value guidance. The post-acquisition integration process was highly productive and the company is now growing under new ownership.
We engaged FirePower after an unsuccessful process with another firm. They cast their net worldwide for strategic and financial buyers, 102 in total. We had 8 offers to consider, the one we preferred from Kolmar. FirePower then helped us overcome the challenges of closing an M&A deal across the Pacific, setting both parties up for success post-closing. We sincerely thank the team for their hard work.
