Jordan Company's Portfolio Company, Ameriking, Inc.
Acquisition of C&N Dining, Inc.

Identification of true participants leads to the restart of a deal...

The Jordan Company is a major private equity player in the middle market. Starting in the late 1970s, Jordan, an active practitioner of the "Buy and Build" strategy, bought well over 300 different companies for both platform and add-ons. Jordan found a Burger King franchisee as a potential platform, and, after performing initial due diligence, determined that, with the franchiser's blessing, they could build this organization into a major restaurant chain under the Burger King umbrella. The key to rapid growth was to make acquisitions of other Burger King franchisees that were interested in cashing out and/or retiring. The synergies in combining these operations would be significant in quantity purchase discounts, management expertise, and availability of better financing for capital growth opportunities, like real estate and equipment purchasing.

Jordan, which has their own aggressive acquisition program, also supplements their activities with the efforts of trusted intermediaries - since a buyer never knows where a deal can come from. Jordan informed Valufinder of their acquisition criteria, which were then entered into Valufinder's proprietary database of buyers actively seeking deals. In due course, Valufinder's continuous prospecting uncovered such a deal.

For over a decade, Valufinder has consistently done a tremendous job of introducing us to quality companies in a variety of industries. We truly value their business development capabilities and look forward to closing more deals with them in the future. A. Richard Caputo
Senior Principal
The Jordan Company, L.P.

C&N Dining, Inc. was a 27-unit Burger King franchisee owned by two partners. One partner had recently passed away and the surviving partner was interested in selling and had entered into discussions with a potential buyer. Time was of the essence, since he was expecting an offer fairly soon; however, he was open to talking to Jordan, although he was not familiar with the firm. We immediately called Jordan and were informed by them that they were already speaking to the owner and were in fact, waiting for a call back. Confused, we called the partner we had previously spoken with and asked him for clarification. Again the owner said he did not know Jordan and did not know what we were talking about. Now totally mystified we called Jordan back and spoke to the partner in charge of the roll-up, who again assured us he was already in contact, and added that he was waiting for "Peter to get back to him". We had been talking to John the surviving partner; Peter was the partner who had died. Peter was never going to get back to Jordan and therefore, Jordan was going to miss the opportunity.

Once we clarified the players and the urgency, Jordan was re-introduced to the surviving partner and was quickly able to make a successful offer that closed three months later.

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