M&A Fee Guide 2023-2024
For the third year running, Axial partnered with Firmex and Divestopedia on the annual M&A Fee Guide, the authoritative source…
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We are excited to release Axial’s Q3 2020 Lower Middle Market League Tables.
Axial league tables take into account three main characteristics: client quality, buy-side targeting, and process effectiveness (for detailed methodology, see the end of this feature).
For CEOs and dealmakers in the lower middle market, these league tables are a useful barometer to measure how an investment bank ranks against its peers, and how effective they are in financing and selling lower middle market businesses in various sectors.
16 of the top 20 investment banks were new to the list in Q3, with the remaining 4 firms returning from Q2.Â
708 investment banks brought deals to market using Axial in Q3.Â
Here are the top 20.
Top 20 Investment Banks
| Rank | Firm | HQ | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Network 1 Financial | NY | .99 |
| 2 | Mertz Taggart | FL | .99 |
| 3 | Clayton Capital Partners | MO | .98 |
| 4 | Woodbridge International | CT | .98 |
| 5 | Peakstone Group | IL | .98 |
| 6 | Liberty Ridge Advisors | WA | .98 |
| 7 | SECTOR Advisors | GA | .97 |
| 8 | eMerge M&A | NY | .97 |
| 9 | Vertess | AZ | .97 |
| 10 | National Security Capital Advisors | MD | .96 |
| 11 | Tsalach Corporate Finance | IL | .96 |
| 12 | Frontier Investment Banking Corp | KS | .96 |
| 13 | Mountain Summit Advisors | UT | .95 |
| 14 | Clarke Advisors | AZ | .94 |
| 15 | Austin Dale Group | TX | .93 |
| 16 | Gilbert & Pardue Business Advisors | TX | .92 |
| 17 | Flatirons Capital Advisors | CO | .92 |
| 18 | Mercantile Mergers & Acquisitions | ON | .92 |
| 19 | Forbes M+A | CO | .92 |
| Â 20 | Providium Advisors | NC | .92 |
Honorable Mentions
Client Quality
| Firm | HQ |
|---|---|
| Cornerstone Business Services | WI |
| SJC Business Capital | CO |
| Momentum Advisory Partners | CA |
| Axis Global Advisory | PR |
| Osage Advisors | CT |
Buyer Targeting
| Firm | HQ |
|---|---|
| UHY Advisors Corporate Finance | MI |
| Cascade Partners | MI |
| Bowman/Hanson | CA |
| True North Strategic Advisors | IN |
| The Turris Group | TX |
Process Effectiveness
| Firm | HQ |
|---|---|
| Tennessee Valley Group | TN |
| Strategic Finance | CO |
| Chatsworth Securities | CT |
| Infinity Financial Group | TX |
| Footprint Capital | OH |
Industry SpecialistsÂ
| Firm | HQ |
|---|---|
| Pharus Group | FL |
| Peak Technology Partners | CA |
| Sunfield Advisors | NC |
| RR Mergers & Acquisitions | MO |
| The Tenney Group | TN |
About the Top 20
1. 
“Network 1 is a full-service investment bank, brokerage, asset manager and advisory firm that provides creative capital solutions for corporate, governmental and institutional entities across the globe. Our reputation for integrity and service, coupled with our track record of success, has allowed us to serve an expanding number of clients from coast to coast. With 10 retail offices, a global institutional distribution network, an extensive trading desk and a strong partnership with banks, it has allowed Network 1 Financial Securities, Inc. to create a powerful and growing global financial services firm.”
Visit Network 1 Financial’s Profile
Industries: Manufacturing, Financial Services, Consumer Goods, Industrials, Materials, Technology, Energy & Utilities, Retail, Business Services, Distribution, Health Care, Consumer Services, Media, Real Estate, Life Sciences, Telecommunications
2. 
“Mertz Taggart is an industry-leading mergers and acquisitions firm specializing in home health, home care, hospice, and behavioral health. This focus yields invaluable insight into the challenges and opportunities operators face. The depth of our industry knowledge is garnered by our relationships with industry leaders, knowledge of buyers’ acquisition strategies, and our hands-on experience owning and operating a healthcare company. Our competitive advantages translate to maximizing value for our clients, as proven by over 90 successfully completed healthcare transactions since 2006. ”
Visit Mertz Taggart’s Profile
Industries: Health Care
3. 
“Independent of Clayton Capital Partners, our firm’s professionals have owned and operated more than 30 companies. Selling a business requires a specialist, not a general practitioner. At CCP, our sole focus is on successfully closing M&A transactions for our clients. We have no conflict of interest from corporate initiatives to sell multiple products and services to every client. We don’t sell you what you don’t need. Our clients are located from coast to coast and our specialists have closed more than 200 M&A transactions.”
Visit Clayton Capital Partners’ Profile
Industries: Aerospace, HVAC, Transportation, Software & Technology, Manufacturing, Business Services
4. 
“Woodbridge is an M&A firm with 19 offices in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, providing clients with the local knowledge and global reach they demand. Our U.S. team is committed to providing sellers with a dynamic global marketplace of buyers in which to find the best possible value for their company. Our bankers have collectively closed over 500 transactions (5 since March) and know success can only be achieved when the deal process is not allowed to languish. That’s why our entire global team is focused on selling your company in 200 days from the time of engagement.”
Visit Woodbridge International’s Profile
Industries: Manufacturing, Financial Services, Consumer Goods, Industrials, Materials, Technology, Energy & Utilities, Retail, Business Services, Distribution, Health Care, Consumer Services, Media, Real Estate, Life Sciences, Telecommunications
5.
“The Peakstone Group is an investment bank that specializes in mergers and acquisitions advisory and capital raising for middle market clients. Our team is comprised of senior investment banking professionals and operating executives, all of whom have decades of experience and have executed hundreds of transactions totaling billions of dollars.”
Industries: Business Services, Consumer & Retail, Distribution, Financial Services, Food & Beverage, Health & Wellness, Healthcare, Industrials & Manufacturing, Metals & Mining, Mortgage Banking, Paper, Plastics & Packaging, Real Estate, Technology & Data Services, Transportation & Logistics
6.
“Liberty Ridge is the most difficult and treacherous trek on the Pacific Northwest’s iconic Mt. Rainier. As founders, with deep roots in the Pacific Northwest, we consider Liberty Ridge the perfect metaphor to represent the challenging yet rewarding endeavors that a merger or acquisition can be for business owners.”
Visit Liberty Ridge’s Profile
Industries: Business Services, Consumer Products & Services, Energy, Industrials, Manufacturing, Distribution, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrials, Technology
7. 
“SECTOR Advisors helps companies successfully plan and execute merger & acquisition transactions. Our investment banking services are tailored to each client. We only serve the middle-market and exclusively serve three sectors: technology, healthcare, and consumer. Our core focus and industry coverage leads to deeper and more meaningful relationships with companies, buyers, and investors, and better outcomes for our clients.”
Visit Sector Advisors’ Profile
Industries: Consumer Goods, Technology, Health Care, Consumer Services
8. 
“Originally founded in 1989, our mission is to provide a level of expertise, knowledge, and execution not typically available to owners of privately-held middle market companies. With offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, and California, eMerge M&A is perhaps the most experienced and data rich M&A firm serving this market segment. No one has more experience with privately-held companies.”
Industries: Aerospace & Defense, Business Services, Construction, Consumer, Distribution, Energy, Health & Medical, Manufacturing, Media & Advertising, Technology, Transportation & Logistics
9.
“Vertess was formed by a visionary group of results-oriented professionals as an alternative to traditional M+A firms and investment banks. We focus primarily on your personal and professional goals and help facilitate transactions that make sense to you for the long term. We guarantee integrity, confidentiality and a commitment to the best outcome for you, your company and your family. Whether a start-up, a turnaround, the sale of your business or acquisition of another, we will provide outstanding, personal service.”
Industries: Health Care, Life Sciences
10. 
“We are a niche firm focused on Government Contracting with deep roots within the CyberSecurity, National Security Mission, and Intelligence Community market segments. We predominantly represent companies generating $10M-$100M in revenue and $1M-20M in EBITDA. Most of our clients are Technology-centric and, in many cases, have developed services and solutions that apply to both government and commercial use-cases.”
Visit National Security Capital Advisors’ Profile
Industries: Technology, Business Services, Telecommunications
11. 
“Tsalach Corporate Finance was formed by Paul Nelsen with the aim of becoming the leading broker of privately held businesses in the UK and North America. The word Tsalach – pronounced zalak – means prosperity, success and to go forward in power. This seemed to us an ideal name that sums up our ethos and intent.”
Visit Tsalach Corporate Finance’s Profile
Industries: Agriculture, Technology, Business Services, Industrials
12. 
“Frontier Investment Banking is a leading, boutique investment banking firm focused on providing Merger & Acquisition, Corporate Finance and other advisory services to middle market companies and their owners.”
Visit Frontier Investment Banking’s Profile
Industries: Manufacturing, Software & Technology, Health Care, Consumer Products, Logistics & Transportation, Supply & Distribution, Chemical, Aerospace, Food & Agribusiness, Steel & Metals, Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment, Advertising & Marketing Services, Consumer Services, Financial Services, Financial Institutions, Business Services, Building Construction, Utilities & Energy Services, Retail, Industrial Services, Oil & Gas
13. 
“Mountain Summit Advisors is a specialty firm focused on mergers and acquisition of primarily healthcare technology and services firms. Mountain Summit Partners (MSA) was founded in 2012 by principals that have had extensive experience in the world of Healthcare IT products and services. These Healthcare senior executives have built firms organically and through acquisition. By buying and selling firms over the past 30 years, the MSA executives bring a unique operational “hands on” perspective to the marketplace.”
Visit Mountain Summit Advisors’ Profile
Industries: Healthcare Technology & Services
14. 
“Clarke Advisors LLC is a specialized Financial Advisory and Merchant Banking Firm, providing the highest quality Investment Banking services including institutional financing, merger, acquisition and divestiture for small to medium-sized private and public companies. Clarke’s Industry Focus is Transportation, Logistics and Technology. Members of Clarke are FINRA Licensed Series 7, 79 and 63 . Based in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Clarke’s services include: Sell-Side, Buy-Side and Capital Market placements including; venture capital, private equity and debt recapitalization’s Clarke’s Merchant Banking services include principal transactions in profitable lower middle market entities. ”
Visit Clarke Advisors’ Profile
Industries: Technology, Distribution, Energy & Utilities, Industrials
15. 
“We help IT and technical service companies accomplish their merger, acquisition, divestiture, and exit goals. We specialize in privately-owned IT service companies, Internet and software businesses, and environmental firms. We offer a full range of M & A services related to the buying and selling of private companies. We also work with entrepreneurs to help them prepare and optimize their businesses for an eventual sale or merger.”
Visit Austin Dale Group’s Profile
Industries: Technology, Business Services
16. 
“Gilbert & Pardue (GaP) is a Houston based Business Advisory firm offering Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory and Brokerage, Business Owner/CEO Coaching and Business Consulting services to lower-middle and middle market companies. We work closely with business owners and CEOs to create added value in their business and then assist them in converting that value into liquid wealth, primarily through executing a well-designed exit strategy.”
Visit Gilbert & Pardue’s Profile
Industries: Manufacturing, Business Services, Distribution, Industrials
17. 
“Flatirons is the premier lower middle-market investment bank with extensive expertise in mergers and acquisitions. With thousands of strategic and financial buyer relationships we help our clients attract the most optimal transaction partner.”
Visit Flatirons Capital Advisors’ Profile
Industries: Industrials, Software, Advertising, Digital & Social Media
18. 
“Mercantile Mergers & Acquisitions Corporation is a mid-market mergers & acquisitions brokerage with an exclusive focus on company divestitures, acquisitions and buyouts. We have been a sell side intermediary firm since 1987. Mercantile has consummated over l72 transactions in a number of industries and market sectors. Transaction sizes have ranged in amounts of $1 million to $58,203,000.”
Visit Mercantile M&A Corp’s Profile
Industries:Financial Services, Consumer Services
19. 
“The Forbes M+A Group, an investment bank, provides strategic and financial advisory services in the United States and internationally. It advises clients in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets advisory, and other corporate finance matters. The Company has broad industry expertise and typical transaction sizes range from $10M to $250M, with the average size range falling between $25M-$50M.”
Industries: Technology, Energy & Utilities, Consumer Goods, Health Care, Life Sciences
20. Â 
“Providium was founded in 2016 out of a desire to bring top-tier corporate finance and advisory services to smaller privately held companies. Our team has over 50 years and hundreds of billions of dollars of finance, investment banking, small business mergers and acquisitions and private company valuation experience. We have worked for some of the largest investment banks in the world and yet have also owned and operated many small businesses. This unique combination of skills and experience enables us to bring a high level of success to our clients. Small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy and yet the top investment banking firms focus all of their time and attention on Fortune 500 and 100 companies. At Providium, we love focusing solely on the small business universe and find that working with the owners and management teams of smaller companies is much more rewarding.”
Visit Providium Advisors’ Profile
Industries: Software & Technology
League Table Methodology
Unlike traditional league table structures that have remained the same for years, with firms being assessed against deal volume and deal dollar volume, Axial league tables surface data on investment banks that reveal their selectivity, the relative attractiveness of their client’s businesses, and their overall sell-side process efficacy.
The investment banks at the top of the Axial League Table are leaders across the following three categories:
- Client Quality: Buy-side demand for engagements represented by the advisor
- Buy-Side Targeting: The advisor’s ability to balance selectivity, accuracy, and breadth when identifying potential buyers
- Process Effectiveness: The advisor’s ability to generate positive outcomes for their client Axial League Table data incorporates and includes:
- Overall Deal Relevance: How many buy-side mandates (financial and strategic) align with the advisor’s engagements.
- Process Selectivity: How broad or narrow are the advisors’ sell-side processes relative to their peers?
- Signed NDAs: How many buyers indicate interest in each of the advisor’s engagements, measured by the number of signed NDAs.
- Buyer Referrals: Feedback we receive from buyers regarding the manner in which the advisor manages their processes.
- Closed Deals: How many deals has the advisor closed where they involved one or more Axial buyers in the process?
Together, the top 20 investment banks are those who work with the most in-demand clients; balance breadth, selectivity, and accuracy in the buyers they engage; and generate the largest number of positive outcomes for their clients.
About Axial
Axial is the trusted deal platform serving the lower middle market ($5-$250M TEV).
Over 3,500 advisory firms and 2,000 corporate and financial buyers have joined Axial to efficiently connect with relevant capital partners, source actionable deals, and build new relationships.
Visit the Member Closed Deals page to see selected transactions that have been sourced and closed via Axial.
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