Example 1: Finding that larger investment banks were not interested in searching for its ideal initial US acquisition, Italy’s PRISMA Impianti, SpA, a multinational industrial automation firm doing business in over 60 countries, turned to Stone Pier to craft a buy-side solution. Stone Pier met with the Company’s President, determined the relevant criteria for the initial US acquisition, and conducted a national search. Starting with a funnel of potential companies that narrowed as we worked through the details, we found the potential “perfect fit”, commissioned a Quality of Earnings report from a respected accounting firm selected from four bids, and negotiated and closed the deal on behalf of our client. As with virtually all of our clients, Stone Pier remains close with PRISMA and the controlling family, both through visits in the US and Italy.
Example 2: A few years before the 2020 pandemic, a well-known regional company with locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, Cardello Electric (electrical and lighting products, both retail and wholesale), was sold by the Cardello family to a private equity firm in a roll-up of similar companies. Matt Cardello remained as President of Cardello Electric. In 2019, the overall roll-up had significant financial problems while the Cardello unit financially supported the remainder of the roll-up. When the pandemic hit, with liquidation of the entire roll-up looking likely, an opportunity arose. With the entire transaction conducted during the most restrictive part of the pandemic, and Stone Pier never meeting its buy-side client Matt Cardello until the closing dinner a year after the deal closed, Stone Pier arranged and negotiated on extremely favorable terms an Article 9 purchase agreement with the roll-up’s senior lender, saving 90 percent of the jobs and all but one of the locations, and returning Cardello Electric to its roots. The story of the transaction was the cover story of an issue of the Pittsburgh Business Times.
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