A Massachusetts-based engineering firm specializing in AC mitigation and pipeline corrosion protection changed ownership through SBA financing, with the prior owner staying on during the transition. Shortly after the deal closed, the company won a $6M bonded project in upstate New York. That kind of contract is exactly what a new ownership structure is built to pursue. The challenge was that the acquisition's working capital plan had not accounted for what it would cost to mobilize and execute at that scale before the milestone payments arrived.
Vision
Winning a bonded, $6M project in the first months of new ownership was proof of concept. The acquisition was not about maintaining the business as it stood. It was about growing into something larger. This contract was the first real test of whether the new structure could support that ambition without flinching.
Opportunity
The project was already underway and 66% complete. A $1.2M collection was expected within weeks and a $2.6M invoice had already gone out for the following month. The math worked. It just had not caught up yet. A short-term capital bridge could keep the crew paid and the project moving while the milestone billing cycle ran its course.
Challenge
Timing Outran Cash
Mobilizing a Florida-based crew to upstate New York with $135,000 in weekly payroll on 45-day milestone billing created a real gap. A/R of $2.9M running well ahead of $900K in A/P was a sign of a healthy project.
Debt Stack Already Set
An SBA acquisition loan was already in place, and a bank line was being upsized with no firm closing timeline, leaving little room in the capital structure to absorb an unplanned need.
Equity Looked Thin on Paper
Purchase accounting and deal costs had swung equity from $4.6M to negative $1.6M. A common artifact of an acquisition, not operating distress, but it required a lender willing to read past the balance sheet surface.
How Fora Financial Helped
Fora Financial sized a facility to the actual gap rather than a standard formula. The structure was built around the working capital needed to keep a mobilized crew paid and a bonded, high-margin project moving while milestone payments worked through the pipeline. The acquisition debt and the bank line stayed untouched. The new ownership did not have to choose between protecting its existing capital structure and keeping its largest contract on schedule.
Results
Payroll Stayed Funded
The mobilized crew was paid in full through the remainder of the project without interruption.
Contract Carried to Completion
The high-margin, $6M bonded project moved forward on schedule rather than slowing down during a critical stretch.
Key Relationships Protected
The bonding relationship and the client relationship stayed intact through the period when cash flow was tightest.
Conclusion
A business in its first months under new ownership had its first major contract and a timing problem, not a business problem. Fora Financial read the situation correctly, structured around the actual need, and gave the new ownership team room to grow into the scale the acquisition was designed to reach.
Why Fora Financial
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Sized to the Actual Gap
Fora Financial built the facility around the real working capital need, which meant the acquisition debt and bank line stayed untouched and the overall capital structure remained clean.
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Speed When It Mattered
Funding moved fast enough to keep a mobilized crew paid and a bonded project on schedule during the weeks before milestone payments landed.