Tom Decosimo
Decosimo Corporate Finance, LLC (DCF) — an advisory firm providing investment banking services, including sell and buy-side advisory, fairness opinions and valuation services to the middle-market— is reinforcing its core leadership. Tom Decosimo, managing member of DCF, has withdrawn as a shareholder of Elliott Davis Decosimo (EDD), committing his time fully to DCF's nationwide growth.
With offices in Chattanooga, Cincinnati and Nashville, Mr. Decosimo is joined by long-time partner Paul Cheney from the Cincinnati location as well as Charlie Gerber from the Nashville location. DCF, a broker-dealer member FINRA/SIPC, and its affiliates have closed eight transactions over the past 18 months, totaling $241 million. The firm is currently in the process of advising 13 sell-side transactions with companies whose total revenues are $430 million. DCF services clients from the manufacturing, food and beverage, professional sports, home décor, floor covering, mortgage services and oil and gas industries, among many others.
Championing service characterized by the firm as “trusted, experienced and connected,” Decosimo Corporate Finance touts a leadership team who each possess an extensive depth of experience within the field. As Mr. Cheney said, “This is an expertise that takes a lifetime of experience to develop.”
Molded from the legacy and signature transaction consulting style of Joe Decosimo, founder of Decosimo & Company and long-time Chattanooga civic and business leader — whose more than 65 year career has placed him hand-in-hand with the some of the nation’s most successful businesses— DCF is rooted in time-proven practice. Mr. Decosimo still remains a valued member of DCF's advisory board. Following in Joe Decosimo’s footsteps, Mr. Decosimo and Mr. Cheney began providing investment banking services beginning in the early 1980s when they worked with regional Coca-Cola and 7-Up bottlers in the consolidation of that industry. They later became lead advisors in the successful acquisition of five Major League Baseball franchises, including the St. Louis Cardinals. This past year Mr. Cheney provided the Cardinals advice in the acquisition of the Memphis Redbirds.
“A privately-held and/or family-owned business has one chance to maximize the value of generations of work,” said Mr. Decosimo. “We believe at the foundation of the selling process is an understanding of the value of the company, and from there we lead the company through our disciplined sell-side process. We have a tried-and-true formula that is tested and works.”
With a primary goal of providing middle-market companies with investment banking, corporate finance services and access to the capital needed to grow their businesses, the firm’s time-tested process has resulted in an impressive track record of successful transactions. One such transaction involves the owners of a southeast-based telephone company who had been offered $150 million for their company by a New York-based investment bank. After hiring DCF to take the company to market, DCF delivered a transaction value of $328 million over a nine month period. “That was certainly a larger transaction,” said Mr. Cheney, “but we have helped many much smaller companies as well. Our mission is to maximize value for family-owned companies.”
DCF’s success has gained the attention of CPA firms across the nation, earning the firm a network of affiliated, registered representatives throughout Dallas, Houston, New York, Rochester and Detroit. Through affiliation with DCF, professionals are able to obtain the requisite licenses and methodologies, as well as work with the firm to provide sell-side advisory at the highest level. Such sell-side advisory offers a tremendous extension of the CPA’s tool kit of tax, audit and valuation experience. Continuing in this vein, DCF plans to significantly expand its number of sell-side registered representatives over the next several years. DCF welcomes both non-CPAs and registered representatives, as well as investment bankers looking for a broker-dealer affiliate.
“We are very excited to build upon the legacy established by Mr. Joe Decosimo, who was a self-made, successful businessman with an unquenchable entrepreneurial spirit,” said Mr. Gerber. “Our first priority will always be to offer the same exemplary services to clients combining accounting discipline, valuation expertise and transaction experience to maximize value, but I also think that through our affiliation program, we are going to have the ability to empower a new generation of investment bankers from CPA firms across the country.”