The numbers looked clean. That didn't mean the work was done.
Some deals move fast because they're simple. This one moved at the pace it needed to because it wasn't.
A regional electrical contracting company with close to 100 employees, multiple sectors, and large contracts in place doesn't sell on a handshake and a set of financials. It sells after everyone involved has actually done the work.
What the Seller Actually Wanted
He'd started the business decades earlier as a solo licensed electrician and built it, year over year, into one of the most respected electrical contractors in the region.
By the time he was ready to sell, the business was doing more than $20 million in annual revenue and had real momentum behind it.
He knew exactly what he'd built and exactly what it was worth. He wasn't interested in handing it to just any buyer with a checkbook.
Trust and fit mattered as much as price, maybe more, given how much of the business's reputation was tied to his own.
Where the Real Work Happened
Deals at this size come with more hands involved than a typical main street transaction, more sectors to account for, more contracts to review, and more people on both sides doing their own diligence.
That naturally stretches out the due diligence and quality of earnings process. There's no way around it, and trying to rush it creates more risk than it saves in time.
Once that phase was behind everyone, the deal moved into finalizing the funding, and from there it came together quickly.
The Buyer
The buyer was an acquisition group that builds a portfolio of established companies in the services space, acquiring them and keeping existing staff and operations largely intact rather than absorbing them into something unrecognizable.
We'd worked with this same group on multiple deals before, which meant we already had a strong read on what they were looking for and knew this business would be a strong fit before formal conversations even started.
The Turning Point
Once the quality of earnings and due diligence came back clean, the deal moved substantially faster.
At this size, that clearance point is the real hinge in the process. Everything before it is scrutiny. Everything after it is execution.
How It Closed
The business sold within about seven months of being listed, at a multiple approaching 4x earnings, reflecting the strength and consistency of a company doing more than $20 million in revenue with several million in annual earnings.
Why This One Worked
Bigger deals don't close faster because everyone moves faster.
They close well because the people involved take the diligence seriously instead of trying to shortcut it, and because the right buyer, one who already understood the space and had a track record of doing right by existing teams, was on the other side of the table.