Specialty Construction Deals: Exit Preparation Done Right
Securities and M&A counsel for independent sponsors preparing specialty construction transactions, from LOI to close to the capital markets that open up afterward.
Exit Preparation on specialty construction deals is one of those workstreams that looks routine on a checklist and decides outcomes in practice.
The typical specialty construction platform sits at $8M to $110M EV with EBITDA in the $2M to $18M range. The thesis runs on trade-specific buy-ups (roofing, mechanical, electrical, fire protection). Bonding capacity is the gate. Without it, the independent sponsor deal stalls at the first big project bid post-close.
How Exit Preparation actually gets structured.
Clean the cap table 18 months before the planned exit window.
Refresh the IP, employment, and customer contract files for diligence readiness.
Build a quality-of-earnings ready financial package well before bankers come in.
Coordinate sponsor exit economics with the LP waterfall and any rolled-equity holders.
In specialty construction, layer in surety pre-qualification for the buyer entity as part of the Exit Preparation workstream.
Starting exit prep when the banker calls. By then, every fix costs price.
"Exit prep is what separates a 6x outcome from an 8x outcome. The work starts before the banker."Jason Powell · Exit Preparation
The deal is one thing. The capital that opens up after close is another.
Capital after close is where the IRR actually gets made. The right introductions at month nine through month thirty are where this practice works as hard as it does at the LOI.
Related deal pages.
Transaction Fee Structuring for Specialty Construction
The fee paid at closing to the independent sponsor for sourcing, structuring, and closing the platform deal a…
Working Capital Adjustments for Specialty Construction
The closing-date true-up that protects the buyer from receiving a business stripped of normal-course working …
Representation & Warranty Insurance for Specialty Construction
A buyer-side insurance product covering breach of seller representations, reducing seller escrow and indemnit…
Indemnification for Specialty Construction
The seller's contractual promise to compensate the buyer for breaches of representations, covenants, and spec…
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An LOI on the desk, a specialty construction target, and a Exit Preparation 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.