http://mergers.com/toughtimes Tools to Help Business Owners Understand and Survive the Financial Crisis Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:04:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The market for private companies depends on two primary sources of demand, strategic buyers and private equity.  We’ve reported that Focus’s M&A practice has remained strong notwithstanding the recession with six closings year to date.  These deals have all been strategic with our firm representing both buyers and sellers.  Only ... http://mergers.com/toughtimes/2009/private-equity-and-the-state-of-leveraged-ma/ Congress and the President appear dead set on creating lasting damage to independent business through ill conceived tax policies. The latest reports show that Congress is planning to solve our health care crisis at the expense of the “rich” with family incomes over $350,000 by imposing a new surtax of ... http://mergers.com/toughtimes/2009/proposed-changes-to-estate-and-gift-tax-a-wakup-call-for-business-owners/ As I write this, summer has officially begun with 100° plus days to prove it.  The past two summers have not been kind to the financial markets.  The collapse of the leveraged loan market in August 2007 marked the beginning of the current financial crisis and July of last year ... http://mergers.com/toughtimes/2009/have-the-green-shoots-turned-to-brown/ The recently released Brookings Institution Metro Monitor confirms something I have thought for some time; the recession’s impact has been very different in the Central U. S., including Memphis, where I live.  Certainly unemployment is up, but there is no feeling of impending doom or of pervasive despair. Fourteen of the ... http://mergers.com/toughtimes/2009/the-worst-of-times-%e2%80%93-the-not-so-worst-of-times/ Many companies remain under pressure from their lenders, but we have seen recent signs that selected lenders are becoming more aggressive in offering new loans to credit-worthy borrowers.  We are quite active in helping companies find senior debt to replace existing lenders and are getting good response from selected lenders, ... http://mergers.com/toughtimes/2009/494/ Since the collapse of the syndicated loan markets in August 2007, the private equity M&A market has gone from red hot to stone cold at the high end and luke warm in the middle market. The primary cause of this collapse is not lack of equity; at the beginning of ... http://mergers.com/toughtimes/2009/secondary-loan-markets-on-a-tear-%e2%80%93-is-ma-rebirth-far-behind/ Recently we have been presented with the spectacle of a high flying banker in deep financial trouble proclaiming that he and his organization have been wrongly singled out for reprisal by the Federal government.  The charges are clear.  His bank aggressively sought deposits from around the world to fund a ... http://mergers.com/toughtimes/2009/allen-stanford-proclaims-his-innocence/ This morning the New York Times reported that the Treasury is planning to convert TARP holdings of preferred stock into common equity at a number of banks. As we previously raised, the real issue is whether and why the Treasury is committed to protect the bondholders of the big ... http://mergers.com/toughtimes/2009/time-for-transparency-on-bailing-out-the-banks-bondholders/ Seven months ago (Monday September 15, 2008) we learned of the failure of Lehman Brothers and soon thereafter the sale of Merrill Lynch and the bailout of AIG.  These events were the culmination of a series of market shocks that had started with the demise of the sub-prime loan market, ... http://mergers.com/toughtimes/2009/we%e2%80%99re-seven-months-into-the-great-mess-what%e2%80%99s-going-to-happen-next/ The old saw goes “a banker is someone who lends you an umbrella when the sun is shining and asks for it back when it begins to rain.” It’s certainly raining now and we are working with a number of clients who are in danger of losing their umbrellas. My ... http://mergers.com/toughtimes/2009/it%e2%80%99s-raining-has-your-banker-asked-for-the-umbrella-back/