Mergium assists owners of schools (chains and stand alone K-12 schools, preschools, childcare centers) and other educational institutions (colleges and universities, continuing education & training institutions, education technology companies, language training institutions, publishing and instructional materials companies, and special education centers) in the sale of their businesses and real estate.

How do we differentiate ourselves from brokers and advisors that sell schools?

Our approach is very different to a typical broker. We approach the sale of a school as the sale of a business, meaning we establish a structured approach to assure that we get to a closing satisfactory to the Seller. Our differentiated approach includes the following:

• Buyers:
  • We have a large network of qualified buyers.
  • We maintain contact with those buyers, know their investment criteria and capabilities.
  • We present the opportunity to national and large operators and other international buyers.
  • We only present opportunites to buyers that we know have plenty of capital to acquire schools in cash or that have access to lines of credit to close a transaction smoothly.
  • Many of our buyers are owned by institutional investors such as private equity firms.
• Process
  • We set up competitive bids, presenting the opportunity only to qualified buyers.
  • The graph below presents the typical process for the sale of a school and the main activities in each phase, all of which Mergium will assist you with:

• Real Estate
  • We can structure the transaction to sell the real estate with the school business to the same buyer. Many large operators acquire the real estate themselves or bring an investor to the transaction to acquire the real estate.
  • If you prefer to retain the real estate and lease it to the buyer of the school business, we can market the transaction with that lease. We will assist you in negotiating the main terms of that lease, so you maximize that stream of cash after closing.
  • If the buyer only buys the school business, we can also assist you in selling your real estate after closing of the school business sale. We have a large network of national buyers of real estate for schools.
  • 1031 exchanges: We can also assist you in setting up 1031 exchanges, so you exchange the real estate of your school for other income generating real estate. A 1031 exchange is a swap of one investment property for another. Although most swaps are taxable as sales, if yours meets the requirements of 1031, you will either have no tax or limited tax due at the time of the exchange.
• Licenses to execute transactions anywhere in the 52 states:
  • In contrast to most advisors and brokers in this industry, we have FINRA securities licenses (24, 7, 79, and 63), meaning that we can work in any transaction that includes:
    • The sale/purchase of shares
    • The sale/purchase of assets
    • Exchange of securities at closing, such as the issuance of a note (under some circumstances)
  • Most brokers in the industry only have real estate licenses to perform transactions in 1 or 2 states. By having FINRA securities licenses, we can execute any type of transaction in any state.
  • If you hire an out of state broker to sell your business assets/shares or real estate, and if that broker is not registered in your state or do not have FINRA securities licenses, you might be running the risk of breaking business brokerage state laws, real estate state laws, or state and federal security laws, putting in risk your transaction.
  • Thus, when checking out brokers and advisors ask them what licenses they have to be able to sell a school in your state and if they have FINRA securities licenses to sell the shares of your school (if the case be).
    • You can check FINRA security licenses at BrokerCheck by FINRA
    • You can check real estate licenses at your state's Department of Business and Professional Regulation. If in Florida, for example, you can use the following link DBPR
  • We run our security related transactions through StillPoint Capital, a broker dealer based in Tampa, FL, member FINRA/SiPC. Our principal is a registered representative of StillPoint and has the FINRA securities licenses 24, 79, 7, and 63.

What are the benefits of having Mergium helping you in the selling process of your school?

Some of the benefits are the following:

• Focus: Our work allows shareholders and management to focus on the administration of the school. Shareholders and management enter the process to determine strategy and make the decisions of the process.
• Experience: Our day-to-day is to work on mergers and acquisitions, selling/aquiring schools, and valuing schools and other businesses. We are mergers and acquisition specialists. We have significant deal experience, knowledge of the education industry, market, and economic conditions and this will help you get to a satisfactory closing.
• Credibility of the process: Our hiring by you signals the potential buyers that you are serious about the process and are committed to closing the transaction.
• Coordination of activities: We coordinate the numerous activities of this type of process and the other advisors you might want to involve (legal, tax, and others as necessary).
• Stress: When the school is family owned and run, this type of process poses a lot of stress on the family. Thus, having Mergium in the process avoids partially the stress of managing it directly.
• Pricing: We help put together an objective valuation of the school and will be able to quantify a price range that will be useful during the negotiation process.
• Negotiation: We are very helpful during the negotiation process. It avoids the need for you, the management / shareholders to negotiate directly with the buyer and avoid any type of stress in the relationship. Also, it helps to execute the negotiation strategy, avoiding the need to have you, the shareholders / management direct participation in the negotiation meetings.

Featured Transaction:

Mergium advised Nobel Learning Communities in its Acquisition of Park Maitland School

Mergium Advisors Inc. (“Mergium”) is pleased to announce that it was the exclusive advisor to Nobel Learning Communities Inc, in its acquisition of Park Maitland School Inc. This acquisition will allow Nobel to enter and expand the PreK through grade 12 private school market in Central Florida.

“We are pleased to have acted as exclusive M&A advisor to Nobel in this transaction, from origination of the transaction through closing. A central tenet of Mergium’s strategy is our ability to provide quality transactional services in M&A in order to enhance the growth of our clients” said Luis F. Lopez, President of Mergium.

About Nobel Learning Communities Inc.

Nobel Learning Communities operates 205 nonsectarian private schools under multiple brands: 175 preschools (fourth largest operator of preschools in U.S), 29 K-12 schools (largest for-profit operator of K-12 schools in U.S.). In addition, Nobel Learning also operates Laurel Springs School a global online college preparatory K-12 distance learning school. Nobel Learning educates over 30,000 students across 18 states and D.C. Further information on Nobel is available at www.nobellearning.com.

About Park Maitland School Inc.

Park Maitland School is one of the premier private schools in Central Florida offering preschool, elementary and middle school education services for students in the Orlando Metro area. Further information on Park Maitland School is available at www.parkmaitland.org/

About Mergium Advisors Inc.

Mergium Advisors is an advisory firm that offers services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, capital raising (equity and debt) and other advisory services. Mergium’s clients are located across the globe and include businesses, private investors, institutional investors, private individuals, and families. All regulated securities activities are conducted through StillPoint Capital LLC.

Further information on Mergium is available at www.mergium.com.

About StillPoint Capital LLC

StillPoint Capital LLC is a U.S. registered broker dealer, member of FINRA and SIPC. Further information on StillPoint Capital is available atwww.stillpointcap.com

Latest industry newsletter:

Trends and Recent M&A Activity in the Early Childhood Education Market - Spring 2021

This newsletter presents the latest trends and M&A activity in the industry, what today's buyers are looking for, deal structuring topics, and how to run a well structured sale process.

Read more

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