Featured Sponsor of the Week

With less then a week to go we are finalizing the list of attendees and getting ready for the best week of the year!
Make sure to check out the Wafra booth while you are in the exhibit hall!


 
Business Description:
Wafra Partners, LLC is a private equity firm that seeks to invest in and build successful companies with enterprise values between $20 million and $120 million.  We purchase control or significant minority positions in North American based companies with strong management, high-upside, discernable value and growth drivers.

Wafra Partners focuses on investing in traditional middle-market companies where we can work in partnership with management.  We target industries where we have relevant experience and have a particular interest in consumer-driven businesses and outsourced business services (including education services and healthcare services).

We have experience with the following transaction types:  control acquisitions & recapitalizations, expansion financing, industry consolidations, corporate divestitures, and majority & minority control co-investments with financial and strategic investors.
Web Page: www.wafrapartners.com

Investment Criteria:
Wafra Partners invests between $5 - $30 million in equity per transaction in consumer-driven and outsourced business service businesses with the following characteristics:
•       $20 - $120 MM of Revenue and Enterprise Value;
•       $4 - $12 MM of EBITDA;
•       Continuing core of senior management; and
•       Discernible and executable growth opportunities whether organic or through add-on acquisitions.
Flexible criteria for add-on acquisitions.

Make sure to meet up with Eric Norfleet at the conference to see how he can help you!
#winterbet2012

Featured Sposnor of the Week

The exhibit hall is filling up! Don't miss out on meeting all these great sponsors and seeing all the awesome ways they can help you!

Make sure to meet up with Sharefile!


Finally- An affordable, secure and easy-to-use Virtual Data Room solution!
Virtual Data Rooms have become increasingly popular in the M&A and other important legal, accounting, and real estate transactions.  A Virtual Data Room (VDR) is an internet portal that allows documents to be posted in an organized way and allows parties around the world to access the documents in an easy, secure, and totally auditable manner. VDRs reduce the significant costs of physical data rooms by providing a secure online viewing of confidential information, eliminating travel and time wasted to meet in a physical environment.
ShareFile VDR was designed from the ground up to be extremely easy to set up and maintain, requiring little or no involvement from your IT department.  Learn more about how a virtual data room, like ShareFile, allows companies to share security sensitive information with parties around the world in this short 3 minute video.

This SaaS solution allows an unlimited number of participants in any geographical region and an increased transaction speed, which results in a shorter due diligence cycle, less overhead and maintenance, and more security. Customers can rest assured that their data is secure with ShareFile VDR because it is hosted on SAS 70 Type II servers.

Take a look at how ShareFile’s data room solutions make virtual data rooms affordable for small and mid market companies at just a fraction of what other providers charge. If you’d like to further evaluate ShareFile’s VDR solutions, simply submit a request to see a demo or open a free trial. Or, to speak with an enterprise sales representatives, call 1-800-441-3453 (international callers dial +1 919-324-6656).

Be sure to stop by The ShareFile booth (#21) at the 2012 AM&AA Winter Conference. We look forward to seeing you there!
#winterbet2012

Who do you Trust!

Join us in just over one week for our Winter Conference! Stephen Covey, our keynote speaker, will be presenting Wed. morning at 8am and covering topics that affect us all!

• Who Do You Trust - And Why?  
• Why Other People Trust You - And Why They Don't.  
• Organizational Trust Verses Personal Trust.  
• The Practical Economics of High and Low Trust Organizations.

We will also discuss 13 everyday behaviors common to high trust leaders and organizations around the world. This discussion will be aided by examples that demonstrate how trust affects everything in the five spheres of our existence - personal lives, business lives, the place we work, the marketplace, and society at large.

Drawing from his collaborative relationship with the Covey Leadership Center and The Speed of Trust organization led by New York Times best-selling author, Stephen M. R. Covey, this discussion is one you will not want to miss.
#winterbet2012

Dodd-Frank Readiness: An Investment Advisors Act Readiness Assessment Discussion

Thursday, Jan. 19th During Lunch 

Please join us for a regulatory round table discussion  during the lunch hour to discuss "What Private Equity and Intermediaries should know but where afraid to ask?" as well as other regulatory concerns and issues that you may have.

Here are a few examples of the questions that can be answered at this discussion

Investment Adviser Regulatory Issues/Questions

Registration Requirements

•             What are the exemptions?

•             I was previously exempt from registration as an investment adviser. Do I need to register now?

•             Do I need to register with the SEC or my home State?

•             What is the process and timing requirements?

Exempt Reporting Advisers

•             Do I qualify for any exemptions for registration with the SEC?

•             Do I still have filing and books and records requirements?

•             Am I subject to SEC examinations? What does that mean?

Compliance Requirements

•             What are my ongoing compliance requirements or issues if I am required to register?

•             Do I need written policies and procedures? What should they contain?

•             Are there advertising restrictions?

•             What are the costs?

 Intermediaries Issues/Questions 

Registration Requirements

•             Do I need a securities license to do M&A or other Investment Banking transactions?

•             How will it change my practice?

•             What does the process of becoming licensed entail?

•             How long does it take before I can be fully registered?

•             How do I know if I should open a broker-dealer or affiliate with one?

•             What should I look for in an affiliation?

Functional deal related questions

•             What if I co-broke a deal and the other party isn't licensed?

•             What if I want to refer to another company (Broker-Dealer or non-Broker-Dealer) can I take a   fee?

•             Can I earn a finder's fee once I'm licensed and not run it through the broker-dealer?

•             What are the risks of not being securities licensed and why has so much changed?

Are these questions you have? Make sure to meet Amy Cross from Still Point Capital and Bart McDonald and Louis Dempsey from Renaissance Regulatory Services at this round table discussion!
#winterbet2012

Join us for "Business Innovation 2012, A New Beginning"

Business Innovation 2012, A New Beginning

Join us for a Webinar on January 5 

Mike Nall the founder of AM&AA and Bruce Wright, Co-founder of Equanicity Resources will be discussing KEY DETAILS that you can immediately put into action to speed and ease your prosperity and fulfillment in business and in life.

In addition to the topics below, they will discuss many of the most common mistakes people make and how to overcome the thinking that produces undesirable results. Be sure to have ALL of your key advisors, colleagues, partners and personnel attend with you so you can move forward on time, in synergy.

4 Key Topics:
* Creating Your Best Future Business Strategy
* Capital, Where to find It, How to GET It
* Cutting Edge Cash Flow Tactics That Produce Results Within 30 Days
* Building Your Personal Financial Independence Exit Strategy Now

Title: Business Innovation 2012, A New Beginning
Date: Thursday, January 5, 2012
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00 pm CST 

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

  System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/172807830

#winterbet2012

Featured Sponsor of the Week!

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Only three weeks left until the Winter Conference. Here is another great sponsor who will be in attendance on Thursday, Jan. 19th.


Hammond, Kennedy, Whitney and Company, Inc. ("HKW") is a 108 year-old private equity firm that focuses on acquiring and building businesses with sales between $20 million and $200 million, $3-$30 million in EBITDA, talented management teams, headquartered in North America, and a low risk of technological obsolescence.

HKW is a generalist firm and has been successful in a variety of industries including:  medical products and devices, aerospace, utility related infrastructure, energy, oil/gas, nuclear, coal and niche manufacturing, business services, among others.

 HKW is headquartered out of New York with an office in Indianapolis and has sponsored 40 platform businesses and made an additional 39 add-on acquisitions since 1982.

Make sure to meet up with Andrew Gustin at the conference to see how Hammond Kennedy Whitney can be your next connection!
#winterbet2012

Five Finalists Named for Annual M&A Middle Market Thought Leader Award

Congratulations to the Five Finalists who were chosen for the Annual Middle Market Thought Leader Award!
The five finalists include:

• Graeme Frazier and Andy Greenberg of GF Data Resources LLC for their quarterly reports and online searchable database of Private Middle Market transactions.
• Nitin Kumar, management consultant, for white paper and article contributions to the M&A industry including Hostile Takeovers: The Dark Side of M&A, M&A Information Risk Management, and Turnaround of a Derailed M&A Integration Effort.
• Craig McCrohon of Burke Warren MacKay & Serritella, P.C., for his extensive study on deal terms titled: 2011 M&A Benchmarking Study.
• John Paglia of Pepperdine University for advancing ongoing research to understand the true cost of private capital across market types and the investment expectations of privately-held business owners.
• Author Rob Slee of Robertson & Foley for his book Private Capital Markets: Valuation, Capitalization, and Transfer of Private Business Interests, Second Edition.

The Middle Market Thought Leader of the Year 2011 will be announced at a luncheon on Wednesday, January 18, 2012, during the AM&AA Winter Conference in Las Vegas, January 17-19, 2012. Be there to see who wins!!
#winterbet2012