Goldsmith Agio targets micro market

Consistent with the ongoing shake-up among middle-market M&A advisors, Minneapolis-based Goldsmith Agio Helms has created a new “lower middle market” investment banking division through its recent acquisition of Benakis & Co.

Jack Helms, a managing director and chief executive of Goldsmith Agio, said in a statement that the firm’s core practice has “evolved with [its] clients”, which he noted have ascended into the “mid and upper end” of the middle market.

Robert Burns Jr., managing director, Goldsmith Agio Helms

The new division will fill in at the lower end of the market by representing sellers of companies with valuations that range from $10 million to $40 million in size.

Robert Burns Jr., a managing director at Goldsmith Agio, told PEO that the impetus for starting the new group was driven by its larger private equity and corporate clients, which he said, “need more of a national and international reach as they look at small companies for add-ons or divestitures.”

Burns added that Goldsmith Agio, with offices throughout the US and affiliates overseas, has a much more developed infrastructure than is common for the smaller boutiques that normally cater to the smaller companies.

The middle-market investment banking space has been percolating with activity in recent months. Lincoln Partners, based in Chicago, agreed to a merger with Frankfurt’s Peters Associates in January, while last September, Richmond, Virginia-based Harris Williams agreed to be taken over by PNC Financial Services Group.