- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Entrepreneurial & Family-Owned
- Private Equity
- Supply Chain Management
- Transportation
Advising a Private Family-Owned Business Through its Successful Sale Process
Company Background
A market-leading customs brokerage and freight forwarding business looks for a partner to accelerate growth and expand capabilities
Alba Wheels Up International (Alba) is a logistics services company providing customs brokerage, freight forwarding, and other logistics services for importers and exporters across diverse sectors including apparel, pharmaceuticals, industrial, and food and drugs. The company is based in Valley Stream, NY, with additional offices in California, New Jersey, and Texas.
For more than 70 years, Alba has been insightful, innovative, and progressive in multiple facets of regulatory trade and transportation execution and management. Following a year of record performance, Alba believed that it had reached an opportune time to explore strategic alternatives. Their owners sought to find a partner that helped them strategically expand Alba’s touch and capabilities to the trade community, while also sharing their values and philosophies around company culture and growth.
50,000+
Annual Customs Entries Field
20,000+
Annual Freight Shipments Handled
95%
Average Net Revenue Retention With Top 10 Clients
The Challenge
Finding the right partner to help take the Company to the next phase of growth
Southfield Capital had become familiar with the Alba leadership team over the years and had pursued Alba for its extensive knowledge of U.S. customs and government regulations, consistent recurring revenue, scale, growth potential and strong management team. Alba saw their interest as a strategic opportunity—a partnership would provide Alba with the capital and resources needed to realize its tremendous growth potential.
Alba had scarcity value as one of the larger, independent providers of customs brokerage and import and export freight forwarding services in North America. Alba’s owners sought a financial advisor to guide them through the process and ensure that the transaction with Southfield was efficient and disciplined. Ultimately, they selected Republic Partners as their exclusive financial advisor.
Republic Partners' Role
Managed all aspects of the transaction to ensure a quality outcome and that the goals and objectives of ownership were met
Alba’s leadership brought in Republic Partners during the Letter of Intent (LOI) negotiating phase. Republic assisted with negotiations to reach an agreement on the LOI. In subsequent negotiations of the purchase agreement, disclosure schedules, employment agreements and ancillary agreements with Southfield, we managed the various discussions and worked in tandem with Alba’s M&A legal and accounting teams throughout the process.
Republic coordinated all due diligence including accounting, tax, legal, operational, insurance, human resources and commercial. We also managed the data room and all information flow between seller, buyer, and buyer’s third-party diligence providers.
The Results
A successful outcome for all parties
Damien and Salvatore Stile, the joint owners of Alba, continue in their existing leadership roles and maintain ownership in Alba, and the senior leadership team of Alba remains in place and continues to operate the business. In combination with Southfield, Alba has a bright future and the ability to build on its record performance in 2020.