Any experience with acquiring companies that require contractors license?
April 22, 2022
by a searcher from University of Delaware in Malibu, CA, USA
I do not have a contractors license but am interested in purchasing a company that would require a GC license. The requirements vary by state but my understanding is that I will be compliant as long as I have employees that have the correct licenses. The risk is if I lose key employees that have the required licenses. I would love to discuss with anyone that has been down this path.
To provide a bit more context, this opportunity is a small home builder where I would be taking a majority equity stake. One of the partners has the required license but I do not want to be reliant on one person. Would like to know what other options are available.
Thanks
from University of Virginia in Hanover, NH, USA
As noted - the process to get new licenses can take some time and it's important to get ahead of keeping the current holder on so there's no interruption in services to customers or ability to bid.
It's also worth noting that, at least in our case, the licenses were all with an individual not the corporation so we had to figure out who the right person was to go take the licensing exam / apply and then hold the license. This included needing someone with the right experience for certain states (we were a multi-state company). I think that it was experience, resumes, financial position, and some relatively straightforward exams for requirements at the commercial contracting level for the states we were operating in
One other consideration that may come alongside this depending on the type of work and position (i.e. prime contractor) is if the business needs the ability to provide surety / performance bonds. This was the other item later in process that risked interrupting our ability to bid and perform work as we worked through getting a new bonding facility set up through our insurance broker.
from University of Wisconsin in Raleigh, NC, USA