Diligence · Building Products

Quality of Earnings for Building Products Independent Sponsors

Securities and M&A counsel for independent sponsors coordinating building products transactions, from LOI to close to the capital markets that open up afterward.

EV range $10M to $150M EV EBITDA $2.5M to $25M Audience Buy-side / Sponsor
The deal context

Every building products acquisition has its own gravity. Quality of Earnings is the workstream where independent sponsor counsel earns the seat.

The typical building products platform sits at $10M to $150M EV with EBITDA in the $2.5M to $25M range. The thesis runs on regional manufacturer or specialty distributor consolidation. Pricing power lives in dealer contracts, not in branding. Read the dealer agreements before the LOI.

The moves

How Quality of Earnings actually gets structured.

  1. Engage QofE within five business days of LOI signing.

  2. Scope to include working capital normalization, deferred revenue, and customer concentration.

  3. Share preliminary findings with the seller before final report, to surface disputes early.

  4. Coordinate QofE findings into both the purchase agreement and the LP commitment package.

  5. In building products, layer in raw-material pass-through clauses confirmed as part of the Quality of Earnings workstream.

The common mistake

Treating QofE as a back-office exercise. It is the basis for the price, the working capital peg, and the LP pitch.

Jason's take
"The QofE is the deal book. Read it twice before you negotiate anything."
Jason Powell · Quality of Earnings
Capital after close

The deal is one thing. The capital that opens up after close is another.

After close, the call list for refinancing, recapitalization, and growth equity gets short and known. Jason carries that list.

MONTH 18
Senior refi
MONTH 24
Dividend recap
MONTH 36
Growth equity
YEAR 4–5
Strategic exit
TALK TO JASON

An LOI on the desk, a building products target, and a Quality of Earnings question worth a real conversation.

Twenty minutes of practitioner-grade input from a securities attorney whose first move is to read the deal, not the engagement letter.