Our clients are entrepreneurs, family offices, private equity firms, and corporations seeking to divest of non-strategic businesses. We are known for our insights into the M&A process, our problem-solving skills and dedication to our clients.
Franklin Partners is a team of senior executives from prestigious investment and commercial banks, and private and public companies. We've led technology, healthcare and energy practices; worked in multi-national corporate development departments; and led industrial companies.
We share an appreciation for entrepreneurs and private companies, where traditional business values abide and innovation flourishes.
Get to know us:
We have been buyers, sellers, investors, lenders, business executives and board directors—as well as advisors. Our array of leadership experiences is uncommon in a firm of our size. These perspectives enable us to forsee problems, analyze situations from multiple points of view and find practical solutions to satisfy all parties.
We are a firm of equals. We work as a team on each engagement, sharing information and insights. The team includes our client, the client's management and directors, and other advisors.
Our relationships extend to our many contacts, which include former clients and their advisors, as well as buyers who view us as a resource. Client relationships continue well beyond the transaction.
We have been engaged by service firms, including software delivered in a SaaS model, (Big) data and analytics delivered in a subscription model, and services leveraged with technology, in vertical markets such as healthcare, financial, education, industrial maintenance, and logistics. Our clients have ranged from young companies with meaningful market traction to established market leaders that have re-invented their service models with technology.
From our experience, we have learned to recognize true innovation, the milestones and attributes that drive valuation, and identified the buyers of these businesses.
As the fastest growing sector of our economy, healthcare's environment of innovation attracts investors and strategic buyers competing for the opportunity to scale these innovations and achieve promising high returns.
All aspects of healthcare, from hospitals to iPhone apps, are changing dramatically, driven by a belief that the current trajectory of healthcare spending cannot persist indefinitely, despite the needs of the aging population.
Smaller innovative firms can realize high valuations without taking the execution risk, time and ownership dilution from building a full business model. Franklin Partners understands the regulatory hurdles and qualifications, as well as industry contacts and insights. We've obtained excellent outcomes with buyers who have the resources to scale the business.
Traditional businesses continue to be acquired by corporations seeking growth, and by private equity firms seeking new platform and add-on acquisitions to round out existing platforms. More recently, long-term financial investors are making direct acquisitions of operating companies.
These buyers will pay premiums for firms with buoyant market fundamentals, high quality earnings and strong management teams.
Franklin Partners continues to successfully represent numerous manufacturing, distribution, and industrial contracting firms.
We take a fresh approach to each assignment—finding what makes the business most attractive as well as the best way to present the business to buyers. We roll-up our shirtsleeves to get the right information and to coach management through the complexities of the sale process.
From years of experience, we are able to anticipate and resolve the numerous issues that arise in complex transactions. Our senior people personally handle all aspects of engagements and we have no junior people between us and the client, and between us and the buyers. Furthermore, we promise a personal commitment to the outcome of each project, and will remain engaged through closing of the transaction.
By developing a fresh investment thesis, we seek to engage the buyers beyond the traditional buyers operating in our client’s industry.
In many industries, traditional buyers have inflexible valuation metrics based on established norms: a one-size-fits-all approach. We refer to these buyers as “the usual suspects”. To obtain better outcomes, we seek out growth-oriented buyers and investors from other industries and backgrounds who have different perspectives and who are willing to pay premiums for exceptional opportunities.
We uncover and present the business's attributes that will be most valuable to strategic buyers and investors. The result is an engaging investment thesis rather than a dull business description, and possibly repositioning the business in a more attractive industry segment. Investors consistently give us accolades for the content and quality of our presentations.
“Without Franklin Partners’ creativity and persistence, we would not have been able to articulate the strategy and engage buyers who would look at the business in different ways. Franklin had the insight to find a pathway through the obstacles that got this deal done.”
With operations in New York and Florida, the portfolio company is a recognized leader in a segment of the North American security market. A global search for a new strategic investor culminated with a publicly-held European company acquiring a majority ownership stake. Read more »
Smith System Manufacturing Company, a Texas-based manufacturer of progressive furniture designed to inspire better learning and improve outcomes for pre-K-12 students, has been acquired by Steelcase Inc. (NYSE: SCS). Franklin Partners initiated and negotiated the transaction as the exclusive advisor to Smith System and its shareholder. Read more »
Franklin Partners Inc.
222 South Ninth Street, #3050
Minneapolis, MN 55402
Chip Myers
CMyers@FranklinPartnersInc.com
612-436-0891
Joe Caruso
JCaruso@FranklinPartnersInc.com
612-436-0892
Joel Fischer
JFischer@FranklinPartnersInc.com
612-436-0894