Interview by Craig Karasin, President of VentureScope, LLC (ACG Marketing Committee Member) 

Based on a discussion with John Lee, Head, Commercial, Industrial and Services at Griffin Financial Group LLC and John Jadach, Managing Director at LBC Credit Partners

Background and Situation
Emtec, Inc., headquartered in Radnor, PA, is a leading IT consulting firm, providing industry-specific digital solutions to world class organizations in the education, government and enterprise markets. The Company was public prior to 2013, when it was taken private. In recent years, the Company completed a number of acquisitions, divestitures, and other transformations, resulting in a capital structure that was heavily weighted with subordinated debt and included a number of minority shareholders who were no longer involved with the company. In the spring of 2015, Emtec was preparing to finance the acquisition of Summit Technologies, Inc., and at the same time, wanted to increase its working capital for continued growth. With all of these factors in mind, the company decided it was time to recapitalize its balance sheet.

Selection of Griffin Financial Group as Emtec's Investment Banker
As Emtec set about the process of identifying a strong, experienced investment banker, they reached out to their trusted advisors to develop a short list of candidates. After completing the review process, Griffin Financial Group was chosen based on a number of factors:

- Recent experience with similar deals 
- Viewed by Emtec as being in tune with the debt market
- Offering creative ideas on how this deal might be structured
- Providing the opportunity for Emtec to have input at every stage of the process
- Griffin and John Lee were a good personal "fit" with the Emtec team

LBC Credit Partners Offers Best Fitting Financial Solution
Griffin worked with Emtec's Management to explore a comprehensive range of capital providers including banks, large junior debt and equity providers, and non-bank unitranche lenders. They determined that unitranche financing would be the best solution as it provided the lowest overall cost of capital, enabled easy administration going forward, and set the stage for additional funding with the right growth partner. The unitranche strategy narrowed the field of potential partners. When the Emtec opportunity was presented to LBC Credit Partners, they expressed strong interest based on a number of factors:

- The outlook for the IT services industry appears to be strong
- Emtec has demonstrated strong expertise in several high-growth industry sectors
- Emtec provides a broad range of IT service capabilities allowing end-to-end solutions for target sectors
- Emtec has an attractive recurring revenue model
- Management's proven past execution of growth strategies

This strong belief in Emtec, coupled with LBC's ability to (i) provide a flexible financing structure that met the company's needs (ii) provide a one-stop financing solution, (ii) underwrite and close the entire facility, (iii) provide certainty of execution, (iv) close on a tight timeline, and (v) support Emtec's acquisition growth led to the selection of LBC as the lead on the financing.

Getting the Deal Done
Emtec's pending acquisition of Summit Technology drove a very tight timetable. LBC and Griffin needed to work around the clock and over the Thanksgiving holiday, but were willing to do whatever was necessary to ensure the acquisition closed on time by the end of November, 2015.

Other Deal Participants
LBC selectively brought in participants post-closing to create a lender group with sufficient dry powder to support Emtec's acquisition growth strategy.

Teams
Griffin Financial Group LLC: Thomas Hill* and John Lee*
LBC Credit Partners: John Capperella, Homyar Choksi and John Jadach*
*ACG Philadelphia member