Case Study Pinion Sale to Smith System

Background

Evangeline Securities (“Evangeline”) was engaged by the Industrial Solutions Group, LLC, headquartered in Lafayette, LA, to run an auction process for an outright sale of its oilfield service software division known as the OQSG/Pinion (“Pinion” or the “Company”)
The Company, with an 18-year track record of success, focused primarily on SaaS training and compliance testing for the energy industry, and was owned by local businessmen (“Management”) who wished to deploy the sale proceeds into a different strategic area
Although consistently cash flow positive, Pinion had not been a core focus of Management, and suffered from limited investment and growth

Process

After performing a full valuation analysis for the Company, Evangeline launched a robust auction process, personally contacting over 250 strategic and institutional players with 90 NDA’s signed
The auction process proved extremely successful, leading to nearly 20 term sheets from investors around the country, thus allowing the Company to demand an optimal valuation and an all-cash offer

Result

In August 2018, Pinion was sold to Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, a Beverly Hills, CA-based private equity firm, who wished to bolt the business onto its existing platform business, Smith System, which focuses on driver safety training across multiple industries
Management was extremely pleased with the auction result as the valuation achieved precisely matched the range projected in Evangeline’s initial analysis