A venture-stage manufacturer
Sold at a premium to invested capital, three weeks before the cash ran out
A venture-stage manufacturer had built a commercial-scale plant with a genuinely better production process and could not show whether it was profitable. Raw materials were bought six months ahead, the accounting had never kept up, and the company had less than a year of cash from its investor.
Fairlead's mandate was a financing or a sale before the money ran out. The accounting team restated three years of financial statements after uncovering significant errors. In parallel, with no time to implement an ERP, the analysis team rebuilt the production process in a model alongside the VP of Operations, which both validated the founder's efficiency thesis and gave operations the data to improve it during the process.
With proof of the plant's performance, the company drew customer and competitor interest. After a competitive auction, its largest customer bought the company at a premium to invested capital, three weeks before the cash ran out, with three years of audited financials delivered at close.