C.M. Advisors Ltd. ("CMA")
"Athelera allowed us to realize our strategic and financial objectives. After investing in getting to know our Company and understanding our overall objectives, they led us through the entire process of attracting a strategic partner for our business. They articulated our business and our investment case, they identified and confidentially contacted potential buyers and then managed our search process so as to unearth and attract the optimum partner under a transaction structure that allowed us to meet our overall objectives. Throughout the process we felt we had a partner committed to our project and whose objectives were our own."
- Sabby Mionis
Founder and CEO
Capital Management Advisors

Client
CMA is a Bermuda-based Fund of Hedge Funds ("FoHF") manager founded in 1997 with US$1.6 billion in assets under management.

Transaction
CMA's principals wanted to strengthen their company through a partnership with a leading financial institution. Such partnership would allow the joint entity to leverage existing distribution channels with high quality FoHF offerings thereby accelerating their growth potential.

Challenges
CMA's principals had two objectives from this transaction: (i) they wanted to sell a significant stake in the business to a committed partner with a strong distribution platform that would allow them to accelerate their growth and (ii) they wanted to preserve a large degree of autonomy and maintain the Company's entrepreneurial culture that made them successful.

Athelera's Strategy
Athelera thoroughly researched current trends in the FoHF and Hedge Fund industry in order to contact a broad, yet targeted, group of potential strategic partners with customized marketing materials that carefully outlined CMA's strengths and potential synergies. A competitive yet highly confidential auction process was established to maximize value and optimize acquisition/partnership structures. Athelera also established a close relationship with potential partners submitting final bids in order to gauge compatibility and help them structure proposals that would meet the objectives of both parties.

Result
After seven months of intensive due diligence and negotiations, CMA established a partnership EFG International, a fast-growing and highly entrepreneurial private bank seeking a FoHF platform. EFG provides CMA's management with a large degree of autonomy to run the business while at the same time supporting growth through its proprietary international distribution network. The partnership was structured through an up-front acquisition of a 55% economic stake in CMA with the remaining stakes to be acquired over a 5-year period with pricing based on the financial performance of CMA.