Merrell Stout Email & Phone Number

Charlotte, Nc, Us

My mission is to help business owners with the single most important financial transaction of their life: selling their company. I have negotiated the purchase and sale of nearly 100 different businesses. From investment banking, to leading multiple companies, to working in private equity, my career spans across a wide breadth of experiences that equips me to partner with business owners and advise them on the best course of action to secure their future.Business owners spend a lifetime building a business and when it comes time to sell, they often leave money on the table. Knowing how to position a company in the best possible light is challenging. Knowing the market of potential serious buyers can be even more difficult. By combining my 25+ years of deal experience with access to the largest network of potential buyers in the southeast, my intention is to become a true resource to you. My approach is to open a dialogue with you, so that when you are ready to sell your business, you are more prepared and more protected to earn the highest valuation possible. I am working with business owners in Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Greer, and surrounding areas. If you are interested in having a conversation, please feel free to reach me directly via:mstout@vikingmergers.com864-626-6056Specialties: Mergers and Acquisitions | Preparing Businesses to Sell | Business Valuations | Employee & Partner Buyouts | Succession Planning

• Conducted extensive review and analysis of each transaction from perspective of financial viability for the buyer• Reviewed operations and made detailed recommendations for operational and strategic changes / initiativesStout Holdings provided custom financial and operational analysis – on retained basis – that included analyzing and negotiating potential transactions and terms of sale between parties for small to middle market companies with EBITDA range of $1 M to $10 M.

• Sourced and reviewed many potential investments from a broad network of investment bankers, business brokers, attorneys, accountants, former colleagues, and personal relationships• Filtered promising investments and met with management; performed operational and financial due diligence; built detailed financial models; and, along with two partners, jointly determined if an investment should be explored• Determined the preferred financial structure for transactions, recruiting potential senior and subordinated debt financing providers• Executed and negotiated all facets of a private equity transactions, including, purchase agreements, senior and subordinated debt agreements, senior management employment agreements, and all other ancillary documents• Served on the portfolio company Board of Directors, acting as the Board’s representative while monitoring, assisting, and advising the portfolio company’s management team to help them grow the company and achieve strong returns for RCH partners and RCH. Ridge Capital is a private investment partnership that makes direct investments into small to middle market companies.

• Recruited by a private equity firm to serve as CEO, change the culture, and improve the operating performance• Doubled EBITDA in 2 ½ years• Implemented operational changes that enabled selling Southland to a national competitor, generating an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of greater than 80% for the company’s private equity investors. • Recruited and hired an entirely new leadership team, including operations, finance, customer service, and mid-level route supervisors• Improved customer relations and organizational reputation by completely revamping hiring requirements and procedures to ensure that only courteous and professional people were hired• Retained and renewed all 14 of the company’s municipal contracts – all of which were at risk due to poor performance. Process involved: rebuilding trust by improving service; negotiating long term contract extensions; and cementing relationships with city and county staff, administrators and council members• Improved fleet up-time and reduced repair / maintenance costs by creating a rigorous preventative maintenance program• Reduced overall operating cost by implemented annual vendor review program – including reducing tire expense by 40% by negotiating a national account agreement with Michelin• Lowered worker’s compensation insurance costs (from mod rate of 1.3) and improved service levels by introducing a new driver training program and industry best safety practicesSouthland Sanitation was the largest independent waste hauler in SC with $14M in revenue and 110 FTEs, supporting 14 municipal accounts / customers with a 50-truck fleet in and around Columbia, SC.

Us

• Maintained full P&L responsibility for $70 M multi-location, wholesale HVAC distribution business, including Residential, Commercial, and Aftermarket product lines with 70 FTEs and more than $10 M inventory with more than 300 different models and more than 1000 SKUs• Managed residential and commercial sales groups, 4 aftermarket parts locations and an 110,000 sq. foot regional distribution hub• Grew market share in all product categories during tenure, driving largest market share gain in any market countrywide for high-efficiency residential and packaged commercial products• Re-engineered sales approach from “drop-by” to data-driven, customer-specific approach, providing talking points that Territory Managers could use to generate sales• Re-structured annual sales planning process to create quantifiable plans – leveraging heretofore untapped historical data – establishing account-specific sales targets for specific products and models, which could be reviewed and tracked quarterly• Grew Light Commercial market share more than any other domestic market, by initiating company-first technical presentations on emerging industry and business trends• Invited to share “Best Practices” at internal corporate sales and training events, presenting at countrywide, new hire sales trainingCarrier Corporation, a wholly owned brand of United Technologies Corporation (UTC), manufactures and distributes heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

• Implemented entire acquisition program including research, analysis, due diligence, negotiation, and integration resulting in more than 40+ completed acquisitions valued in excess of $150 million• Consolidated secondary market internet service providersOneMain, Inc. was a start-up consolidation of secondary and tertiary market internet service providers, being one of the first ISPs to drive location-specific content to its subscriber’s home page through partnerships with local media in each market. The company made over 50 acquisitions in fewer than 19 months and grew to over 800,000 subscribers making it the 6th largest ISP in the country at the time. OneMain, Inc. went public in March of 1998 and was sold to Earthlink in September 2000.

Hanover, Maryland, Us

Manager, Corporate Development (1997 to 1998) • Managed analysis and execution of acquisition, partnership, and joint venture opportunities for CIENA, a telecommunications equipment manufacturerAssistant to the Office of the President (1996 to 1997)• Worked directly with CEO and CFO in all business activities• Oversaw and executed $470 million follow-on offering of common stock by directly negotiating the participation of the company’s extensive venture capital shareholder baseAnalyst (1996)• Prepared company for IPO; performed due diligence; accompanied CEO and CFO on “IPO Roadshow,” and acted as liaison between company, investment bankers and attorneysCIENA was a start-up, optical telecom equipment manufacturer that pioneered wavelength division multiplexing technology that is widely viewed as responsible for alleviating bandwidth bottlenecks in today’s long haul and metro loop telecom networks. At the time of CIENA’s IPO, it was the largest venture backed IPO in history.

Master Of Business Administration (Mba), Operations Management & Finance

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Economics