M&A Advisor in Georgia: Buy-Side and Sell-Side Engagements for Lower Middle Market Businesses

Georgia anchors the Southeast lower middle market. Atlanta is the dominant M&A hub for the region by a wide margin, with 18 Fortune 500 headquarters in the metro and a Fortune 500 roster that includes Home Depot, UPS, Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola, Southern Company, Aflac, Genuine Parts, Newell Brands, and Mohawk Industries. The metro is the country’s payments capital (the “Transaction Alley” cluster processes roughly 70% of U.S. payment volume), home to the world’s busiest passenger airport, and the consolidation base for one of the most active residential home services platforms in the country. ACG Atlanta’s M&A South is the largest regional M&A conference in the Southeast, drawing 1,000+ dealmakers annually. For founders running $1M to $50M EBITDA businesses across Georgia, and for acquirers building platforms with Georgia add-on density, the question of how an M&A advisor fits in the transaction is the right place to start.

This page covers what an M&A advisor does in Georgia, how the role differs from a business broker and an investment banker, what buy-side and sell-side engagements look like, and how CT Acquisitions’ buyer-paid model fits into the picture. We are an M&A advisory firm, not a registered broker-dealer. We do not hold seller funds or securities. We do not engage in public-offering activity. The regulatory framing matters because it determines what we can and cannot do in a Georgia transaction, and Georgia is notably stricter than Florida or Texas in that it has not codified a state-level M&A broker carve-out. The economic framing matters because it determines who pays whom and when. Both are covered below in detail, with citations to the underlying statutes and primary source material.

What an M&A Advisor Does in Georgia

An M&A advisor in Georgia facilitates the sale or purchase of privately held businesses, typically in the lower middle market range of $1M to $50M EBITDA. The advisor sits between the operating business and the eventual transaction counterparty, managing the process steps that determine whether a deal closes on terms the client can live with. Those steps include positioning the business for sale (or sourcing acquisition targets if buy-side), preparing diligence-ready financials and supporting materials, identifying and approaching the right pool of counterparties, managing competitive tension across multiple interested parties, negotiating the letter of intent, coordinating diligence workflow, and shepherding the transaction through close.

The role exists because the alternative is materially worse. Founders who attempt to run a sale process themselves typically encounter three problems in sequence. First, they cannot reach the institutional buyer pool. The PE platforms, family offices, search funds, and strategic acquirers that pay the highest multiples for lower middle market businesses do not respond to cold inbound from sellers without representation. Second, even when contact is made, founders do not have the negotiating position that comes from running a multi-party process. A single bilateral negotiation produces a single bid. Third, the diligence and close-of-transaction workstreams are detail-heavy enough that running them while also running the operating business produces preventable mistakes that cost real money at close.

The role of the M&A advisor in Georgia is structurally identical to the role anywhere else in the United States, with three Georgia-specific overlays. The first overlay is regulatory: Georgia has not codified a state-level M&A broker exemption, so advisors here lean on the federal Exchange Act Section 15(b)(13) exemption and on careful structuring around Georgia’s broker-dealer registration regime in O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30. Georgia also requires a real estate license issued by the Georgia Real Estate Commission for business brokerage when the deal includes any interest in real property. The second overlay is tax: Georgia has a flat 5.19% individual income tax rate for tax year 2026 (per HB 111, with a legislated glidepath toward 4.99% subject to revenue triggers), and capital gains are taxed as ordinary income with no state-level QSBS preference. The third overlay is market density: Atlanta is the largest single Southeast hub for institutional buyers, with 18 Fortune 500 strategics, a deep PE bench, and a platform-active home services consolidator headquartered in Marietta.

We are CT Acquisitions, a buy-side M&A advisory firm. We work with acquirers building platforms in the lower middle market, and we also represent founders on the sell side under a buyer-paid model where the buyer pays our fee at close and the seller pays nothing. We are not a registered investment bank. We are not a registered broker-dealer. We operate under the federal M&A broker exemption described above and structure Georgia engagements so that the activity falls within the federal carve-out and does not trigger a Georgia broker-dealer registration requirement. We are also not a Georgia business broker in the Main Street sense, which is the next distinction worth drawing.

M&A Advisor vs Business Broker vs Investment Banker in Georgia

The three roles overlap in popular usage but separate cleanly along four axes: deal size, regulatory status, fee model, and engagement structure. Georgia sellers commonly hear all three terms used interchangeably, but the practical differences shape the entire trajectory of a transaction. Below is the structural comparison.

Role	Typical deal size	Regulatory status	Fee model	Engagement
Business broker	Main Street: $0–$5M enterprise value	Asset-sale focused. Georgia real estate license (GA Real Estate Commission, Chapter 520-1) required when the sale includes a real property interest; no FINRA registration required for pure asset sales	5–12% success fee paid by seller; sometimes flat retainer	Listing agreement, 6–12 month exclusivity, BizBuySell-style buyer marketing
M&A advisor	Lower middle market: $1M–$50M EBITDA	Operates under federal Exchange Act Section 15(b)(13) M&A broker exemption (eligible private companies, no fund/securities custody); Georgia has NO state-level M&A broker exemption, so activity must be structured to avoid triggering O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30 broker-dealer registration	Sell-side: 3–10% success fee, retainer common. CT Acquisitions: buyer-paid, $0 to seller. Buy-side: retainer plus modified Lehman success fee	Engagement letter or no-contract model; targeted buyer outreach to institutional counterparties
Investment banker	Middle market and up: $25M+ EBITDA, public offerings, securities-related transactions	FINRA-registered broker-dealer, individuals hold Series 79 (or Series 63/82 as applicable); SEC and state regulated, including Georgia broker-dealer notice filing under O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30	Retainer plus Lehman or modified Lehman success fee; may include equity participation	Engagement letter with 12–24 month exclusivity; auction-style process

Where each role fits in practice. A Georgia business broker is the right choice for a Main Street business under $1M EBITDA where the buyer pool is local owner-operators or first-time business buyers, particularly where the deal includes the underlying real estate and a Georgia real estate licensee is required. An M&A advisor is the right choice in the $1M to $50M EBITDA range where the buyer pool is institutional (PE platforms, family offices, search funds, strategic acquirers). An investment banker is the right choice when the transaction involves securities registration, a public offering, a large-scale debt-financed buyout, or a process that requires FINRA-registered execution. CT Acquisitions operates squarely in the M&A advisor band, with no overlap into investment banking activity that would require broker-dealer registration.

A regulatory note on the “investment banker” label. Under U.S. securities law, a person who facilitates securities transactions for compensation is generally required to register as a broker-dealer with FINRA. The federal M&A broker exemption at Section 15(b)(13) carves out a specific class of intermediary that facilitates the transfer of ownership of eligible privately held companies without holding funds or securities and without engaging in public-offering activity. M&A advisors operating under that exemption are not investment bankers and should not be called investment bankers. The distinction is not stylistic. It is regulatory.

Buy-Side M&A Advisor Engagements in Georgia

On the buy-side, we work with acquirers building lower middle market platforms through add-on acquisitions in Georgia and nationally. Typical buy-side engagements involve sourcing $1M to $15M EBITDA add-on targets for an existing PE platform, sourcing first-acquisition targets for search fund operators, or sourcing direct acquisitions for family offices and strategic buyers. Buy-side engagement structure differs materially from sell-side: the buyer pays our fee through a retainer plus success-fee combination, typically on a Lehman or modified Lehman scale. Buy-side engagement fees range widely depending on transaction size, mandate complexity, exclusivity terms, and the depth of sourcing required.

Four primary buy-side client types engage M&A advisors in Georgia. Each operates with different capital, different acquisition criteria, and different process expectations.

PE Platform Add-On Acquisitions

Private equity firms that have already invested in a Georgia-headquartered or Georgia-active platform engage M&A advisors to source add-on acquisitions that grow the platform. The economics of platform consolidation depend on multiple-arbitrage: the platform trades at a higher EBITDA multiple than the add-ons it buys, so every add-on creates incremental enterprise value at close. Wrench Group (headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, controlled by Leonard Green & Partners with TSG Consumer Partners and Oak Hill Capital as significant minority co-investors) operates in 26+ markets across 15 states with 7,300 employees and 1.75M annual customers, and closed a $1.3B debt refinancing led by Blue Owl and Oak Hill in September 2025. The platform’s anchor unit is the Coolray family of brands in metro Atlanta, including Coolray, Mr. Plumber, Atlanta Water Works, and BriteBox Electrical. Atlanta-resident sponsors active in lower middle market consolidation include Roark Capital, MSouth Equity Partners, Sterling Investment Partners, Cortec, and Atlanta Capital Group, with platform offices for Carlyle and others. Georgia-based add-on targets are particularly active because the headquarters proximity creates relationship density and operating familiarity for sponsors with regional theses.

Search Fund Acquisitions

Search funders raise capital from investors specifically to acquire and operate a single privately held business. Georgia is a high-flow state for search fund deal activity, driven by the Atlanta MBA pipeline (Emory Goizueta, Georgia Tech Scheller, Terry at UGA), the metro’s cost of living relative to coastal hubs, and the depth of family-owned LMM businesses across north Georgia, the I-75 corridor, and the Savannah port economy without succession plans in place. A search fund acquisition is typically a single $1M to $5M EBITDA target where the searcher will become the new CEO at close. M&A advisor engagements on the search-fund buy-side often involve broad outbound to founder-led businesses in specific industries (industrial services, B2B distribution, healthcare services, niche software, logistics services) within defined Georgia metro geographies.

Family Office Direct Acquisitions

Family offices in Georgia (concentrated in Atlanta, with secondary clusters in Augusta and around Sea Island) increasingly pursue direct private-company acquisitions rather than allocating exclusively to PE fund commitments. The family-office buyer profile differs from PE in three ways: longer hold horizons (often perpetual or generational rather than the standard PE 5-to-7-year fund cycle), lower required IRR thresholds (which translates to capacity to pay higher multiples), and more operational flexibility (no fund-level deployment pressure). Atlanta-based family offices often skew toward consumer, real estate adjacent, financial services, and industrial services. M&A advisor engagements on the family-office buy-side typically involve narrower, more curated target lists matched to the family’s industry preferences and the principal’s operating capacity.

Strategic Acquirers Building Platforms via Add-Ons

Public companies, established LMM platforms, and corporate development teams at multi-site operators engage M&A advisors to source bolt-on acquisitions that fit a specific strategic thesis. Georgia’s 18 Fortune 500 headquarters (Home Depot, UPS, Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola, Aflac, Southern Company, Genuine Parts, Mohawk Industries, Newell Brands, AGCO, Carter’s, Equifax, Veritiv, Asbury Automotive, Norfolk Southern, Pulte Group, Beazer Homes, and Smurfit Westrock among them) make the metro one of the deepest strategic-buyer benches in the United States. The payments cluster (“Transaction Alley”) alone, which processes an estimated 70% of U.S. payment volume, includes Global Payments, NCR Voyix, FIS, and a large supporting cast of strategics in card networks, fintech infrastructure, and merchant services that buy directly in the LMM range. Strategic buy-side engagements in Georgia often look more like targeted-search projects than the broad-outreach style of PE platform sourcing.

Sell-Side M&A Advisor Engagements in Georgia

On the sell-side, M&A advisors in Georgia represent founders and ownership groups exiting privately held businesses, typically in the $1M to $50M EBITDA range. The classic sell-side engagement is what most founders encounter first: a sell-side advisor or broker offers an engagement letter that includes a retainer of $25,000 to $100,000+ (depending on deal size), a 12 to 24 month exclusivity period, and a success fee of 3% to 10% of the transaction value at close, sometimes structured on a Lehman scale where the percentage steps down as deal size grows.

The classic sell-side process runs in five phases. Phase one is positioning and materials preparation: the advisor builds a confidential information memorandum (CIM), management presentation, and supporting financials, typically over 60 to 90 days. Phase two is buyer outreach: the advisor approaches a defined target list of strategic acquirers, PE platforms, family offices, search funds, and other potential counterparties, typically over 30 to 60 days. Phase three is initial-bid management: interested parties submit indications of interest (IOIs), and the advisor manages competitive tension across the parties to produce a short list. Phase four is letter-of-intent negotiation: the advisor coordinates LOI terms across the short list and the seller selects a winning bidder, often after management meetings. Phase five is diligence and close: 60 to 120 days of confirmatory diligence followed by definitive documentation and close.

That process works. It also costs the seller 3 to 10 percent of the transaction value at close, plus the retainer paid up-front. For a $20M transaction at a 5% success fee, that is $1M in advisor fees plus the retainer. For a $40M transaction at the same fee, it is $2M plus retainer. The fee makes sense when the alternative is leaving more than that on the table through a worse process. The fee does not make sense if there is a path to the same buyer pool with the same competitive tension without paying it.

CT Acquisitions runs that alternative path on the sell-side for a subset of founders who fit the model. We do not run full sell-side auctions. We run buyer-network-led processes for founders who are open to engaging with our existing network of 76+ active acquirers under a buyer-paid model. The seller pays nothing. The buyer pays our fee at close. There is no engagement letter, no retainer, no exclusivity period, and no obligation to engage. We are not a substitute for a traditional sell-side advisor in every situation, particularly when a founder wants a broad-market competitive auction with named investment-bank pedigree. But for founders who want a fast, confidential, buyer-network-led path to a transaction without paying a sell-side fee, the model is different from a traditional Georgia sell-side advisor or business broker.

The CT Acquisitions Model: How Buyer-Paid Works

The traditional sell-side M&A advisor or business broker charges the seller 5% to 10% of the transaction value through a fixed-term engagement letter, plus retainer in many cases. CT Acquisitions charges the seller nothing. We are paid by the buyer when a transaction closes. There is no engagement contract, no retainer, no exclusivity period. We are not a substitute for sell-side representation in every situation, but for founders who want a buyer-network-led path to a transaction without paying a sell-side fee, we are a different model than a traditional broker or M&A advisor.

Here is the actual flow. A Georgia founder reaches out through the form or schedules a call. We have a confidential 30-minute conversation to understand the business, the seller’s goals, and the realistic buyer pool. If the business fits the buyer profile of one or more counterparties in our network, we make targeted introductions. The buyer (PE platform, family office, search funder, strategic acquirer) engages with the seller directly. If a transaction proceeds and closes, the buyer pays our fee at close. If the conversation does not lead to a transaction, no one owes anyone anything. There is no obligation to engage with any introduced buyer, and there is no obligation to use us at all.

Why buyers pay us willingly. The economics work because we save the buyer money on the alternative. A PE platform sourcing add-ons without an external advisor is paying its corporate-development team, its outsourced sourcing vendors, or both, to surface qualified targets. The all-in cost of internal sourcing per closed deal is typically 1% to 3% of transaction value, sometimes higher. We deliver pre-qualified, sponsor-fit, ready-to-engage sellers at a comparable or lower all-in cost, and we do it without a retainer or month-to-month burn. For the buyer, it is a variable cost. They only pay us when a deal closes.

What the model is not. It is not a free alternative to a traditional sell-side advisor in every scenario. We do not run broad competitive auctions across hundreds of named parties. We do not produce a 90-page CIM. We do not represent the seller’s interests in adversarial negotiation with the buyer in the same way a sell-side investment bank would in a $50M+ transaction. The model works best for founders who value speed, confidentiality, and a buyer-network-led process over a maximally-competitive auction. For sellers in the $20M+ EBITDA range running formal processes, traditional sell-side representation often still makes sense, and we will say so when it does.

Element	Traditional GA sell-side	CT Acquisitions (buyer-paid)
Seller fee	3–10% success fee on close	$0
Retainer	$25K–$100K+ up front	None
Engagement period	12–24 months exclusivity	No contract, walk anytime
Process style	Broad competitive auction (60+ buyers)	Curated buyer-network introductions
Timeline to close	9–14 months typical	60–120 days to LOI; total 4–7 months
Best fit for	$20M+ EBITDA, max competitive tension	$1M–$10M EBITDA, speed and confidentiality

Georgia-Specific M&A Activity in 2025-2026

Georgia produces a disproportionate share of disclosed lower middle market M&A activity in the Southeast, anchored by Atlanta’s Fortune 500 strategic-buyer density and a deep resident PE bench. The IBBA Market Pulse Q4 2025 ranked the Sun Belt region (which includes Georgia, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama) as the highest-velocity region for lower middle market deal flow. ACG Atlanta’s M&A South, held each spring, is the largest regional M&A conference in the Southeast and one of the largest in the country, drawing 1,000+ dealmakers annually and serving as a primary deal-origination forum for the region.

Georgia-Headquartered or Georgia-Active PE Platforms

Wrench Group. Headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, in metro Atlanta. Controlled by Leonard Green & Partners with TSG Consumer Partners and Oak Hill Capital as significant minority co-investors. Operates in 26+ markets across 15 states with 7,300 employees and 1.75M annual customers across residential HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and water treatment. Closed a $1.3B debt refinancing led by Blue Owl and Oak Hill in September 2025, signaling continued sponsor support and continued add-on appetite. The platform’s anchor unit is the Coolray family of brands in metro Atlanta and north Georgia, including Coolray (founded 1966), Mr. Plumber, Atlanta Water Works, and BriteBox Electrical. Wrench Group is the marquee Georgia-headquartered residential home services consolidator and a primary destination for Georgia HVAC, plumbing, and electrical sellers in the $1M to $10M EBITDA range.

Atlanta-Resident Private Equity Firms. Atlanta hosts one of the deepest resident PE benches in the Southeast. Roark Capital (consumer and franchise-heavy, including the Inspire Brands ecosystem) is among the largest sponsors headquartered in the metro. MSouth Equity Partners and Sterling Investment Partners run middle market growth and buyout strategies with frequent Southeast deal flow. Cortec Group, Atlanta Capital Group, and a long list of regional sponsors round out the bench. Carlyle and other national platforms maintain Atlanta offices. The combination produces persistent in-market sourcing pressure for $1M to $15M EBITDA add-on opportunities across the consumer, services, industrials, and healthcare verticals.

Strategic Acquirers Headquartered in Georgia. Georgia’s 18 Fortune 500 headquarters make it one of the deepest strategic-buyer benches in the country. Home Depot, UPS, Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola, Southern Company, Aflac, Genuine Parts, Mohawk Industries, Newell Brands, AGCO, Carter’s, Equifax, Veritiv, Asbury Automotive, Norfolk Southern, Pulte Group, Beazer Homes, and Smurfit Westrock all maintain headquarters in the metro. Corporate development teams at these strategics buy in the LMM range routinely, particularly in supply chain services, distribution, industrial services, professional services, and B2B technology adjacencies. The Transaction Alley payments cluster (Global Payments, NCR Voyix, FIS, Fiserv presence, and a long supporting cast) is itself an active LMM acquirer in payments infrastructure, merchant services, and fintech-adjacent software.

These are publicly active acquirers in Georgia disclosed via press releases, corporate development pages, and sponsor portfolio listings. The phrase “publicly active acquirers” is precise: we are referencing platforms with documented Georgia deal flow or Georgia headquarters in the public record, not asserting any current advisory relationship between CT Acquisitions and any named entity.

Georgia Deal Velocity and Sun Belt Concentration

The IBBA Market Pulse Q4 2025 (the most recent published as of this writing) reported that the Sun Belt region produced the highest year-over-year deal volume growth among U.S. regions in the lower middle market band. Within the Sun Belt, Georgia and Florida generated outsized density of disclosed home services, healthcare, financial services, payments, and B2B services transactions. Capstone Partners separately reported continued multiple expansion in trade-services M&A through 2025, with multiples just below the 2020-2021 peak. S&P Global Market Intelligence reported that global PE add-on transactions targeting HVAC service providers rose 88% year-over-year through June 2025, with Georgia-headquartered Wrench Group among the platforms contributing to that activity. ACG Atlanta’s M&A South conference, drawing 1,000+ dealmakers annually, serves as the year’s primary regional convening point and a leading indicator of deal flow direction.

Georgia Tax and Regulatory Context for Business Sales

Georgia sits mid-pack on tax friendliness for sellers, with a flat individual income tax rate of 5.19% for tax year 2026 (per HB 111, signed in 2025). The rate has been falling rapidly: 5.75% (pre-2024), 5.49% (2024), 5.39% (TY 2024 retroactive via HB 1015), and 5.19% (TY 2025 and into 2026 under HB 111). The bill provides a legislated glidepath toward 4.99% subject to revenue triggers. The corporate income tax rate moved to 5.19% on the same schedule, effective July 1, 2025. Georgia does not have a preferential capital gains rate. Long-term and short-term gains, including gains on the sale of a closely held business, are taxed as ordinary income at 5.19%. For asset sales of pass-through entities (the most common LMM structure), the gain flows to the seller’s Georgia return at 5.19%. Stock sales of C-corporations are likewise taxed at 5.19% on the gain. Georgia conforms to the federal taxable income starting point, so federal Section 1202 QSBS exclusions flow through to the Georgia return, but there is no separate Georgia QSBS-style exclusion.

Federal capital gains tax still applies on top of Georgia. The federal long-term capital gains rate is 20% for high-income taxpayers, plus the 3.8% net investment income tax where applicable. Section 1202 Qualified Small Business Stock treatment may eliminate or reduce federal capital gains on qualifying stock held more than five years. Section 1031 exchange rules do not apply to operating-company sales (only to real estate held for investment), though structured installment sales, F-reorganizations, and rollover-equity treatment can defer or reduce federal recognition. For Georgia residents considering a pre-sale relocation to a no-income-tax state (Florida, Tennessee, Texas), the timing matters: the Georgia Department of Revenue scrutinizes “pre-arranged sale” and convenience-of-the-taxpayer relocations, and a move executed after an LOI is signed often fails to escape Georgia tax. Pre-transaction tax planning is a separate workstream from the M&A advisor’s role and should be engaged with qualified state and federal tax counsel well before a binding LOI.

Georgia Has No State-Level M&A Broker Exemption

This is the central regulatory point for Georgia M&A. Unlike Florida (FL Statute 517.061(7), effective July 1, 2016), Texas (Texas Securities Act § 4005.024), Tennessee, and a growing list of states that have either codified statutory M&A broker exemptions or adopted the NASAA Model Rule Exempting Certain Merger & Acquisition Brokers (most recently amended May 6, 2024), Georgia has not codified a state-level M&A broker carve-out. The Georgia Uniform Securities Act of 2008 (O.C.G.A. § 10-5-1 et seq.) imposes a broker-dealer registration requirement at O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30. The implementing rules at GA Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 590-4, particularly sub-chapter 590-4-2 (Exemptions), contain exemptions for federal covered securities, limited offerings, the intrastate Invest Georgia Exemption, and not-for-profit securities, but no separate M&A broker carve-out.

What this means in practice. M&A intermediaries operating in Georgia rely on the federal exemption codified at Section 15(b)(13) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (added by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, effective March 29, 2023) for federal broker-dealer registration relief, while remaining subject to Georgia’s broker-dealer registration regime under O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30 unless an applicable Georgia transactional exemption or no-action position applies. Broker-dealers without a place of business in Georgia have limited transactional exemptions under O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30 (for example, transactions with the issuer, other registered broker-dealers, or certain institutional investors). The Georgia Securities Division (within the Secretary of State’s office) issued an M&A-broker no-action letter dated January 23, 2015; the no-action letter does not amount to a formal state rule or statutory exemption, and advisors relying on it should obtain the current text directly from the Securities Division and confirm its present standing.

Georgia Real Estate License Requirement for Business Brokers

Georgia treats brokerage of a business sale as a real-estate-licensed activity when the transaction includes any interest in real property. A Georgia real estate license issued by the Georgia Real Estate Commission (GA Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 520-1) is required for business brokers transferring real property interests as part of a business sale. This regime catches many Main Street and lower LMM transactions where the founder owns the underlying building and the deal contemplates either a sale or a long-term lease of that real estate alongside the operating business. It does not, however, apply to advisor work on equity sales of operating businesses where the real estate is held in a separate entity and is not part of the transaction.

Federal Exchange Act Section 15(b)(13)

On December 29, 2022, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 added Section 15(b)(13) to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The new federal M&A broker exemption became effective March 29, 2023 and superseded the prior SEC no-action letter framework. Under Section 15(b)(13), an M&A broker may facilitate the purchase or sale of an “eligible privately held company” without registering as a broker-dealer with FINRA, provided the company has prior-year EBITDA of less than $25M or prior-year gross revenue of less than $250M, and the broker reasonably believes that the acquirer will, after the transaction, control the eligible privately held company.

Two important nuances. First, Section 15(b)(13) does not preempt state securities laws. The federal exemption operates independently from state registration regimes; an M&A advisor active in Georgia should confirm that the activity falls within Section 15(b)(13) and that the activity does not trigger Georgia broker-dealer registration under O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30. Second, the federal exemption applies to transactions, not to all activity of the intermediary. Anti-fraud provisions of the 1934 Act continue to apply to any securities transaction and to any M&A broker.

Practical implications for Georgia sellers and buyers. An M&A advisor operating under the federal exemption does not need to hold a FINRA Series 79 or Series 82 license to facilitate the sale of an eligible privately held company. The advisor must not hold seller funds or securities, must not engage in registered public offerings, and must operate within the scope of the federal exemption while avoiding activity that triggers Georgia broker-dealer registration. The regulator on the Georgia side is the Office of the Commissioner of Securities within the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. CT Acquisitions operates under the federal exemption and confines its activity to eligible private-company M&A transactions falling within Section 15(b)(13). We do not hold client funds. We do not engage in public-offering activity. We do not represent ourselves as a registered broker-dealer or registered investment bank.

Georgia Regional Deal Context by Metro and Industry

Georgia’s M&A activity concentrates in four primary metros, each with distinct industry clusters. Atlanta dominates by a wide margin: it is the largest single LMM M&A hub in the Southeast and one of the top five LMM hubs in the country by deal volume. Understanding which buyer pools are most active in which metros materially affects the realistic outcome of any sale process. Below is the regional breakdown.

Atlanta and Metro Atlanta

Atlanta is the dominant Southeast M&A hub by every measure that matters: Fortune 500 density, resident PE bench, deal volume, conference activity, and inbound corporate relocations. The metro hosts 18 Fortune 500 headquarters, including Home Depot, UPS, Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola, Southern Company, Aflac (Columbus-headquartered but Atlanta-active), Genuine Parts, Mohawk Industries, Newell Brands, AGCO, Carter’s, Equifax, Veritiv, Asbury Automotive, Norfolk Southern, Pulte Group, Beazer Homes, and Smurfit Westrock. Industry clusters include logistics (Hartsfield-Jackson is the world’s busiest passenger airport, UPS HQ in Sandy Springs, Delta HQ, major rail and intermodal infrastructure), fintech and payments (the “Transaction Alley” cluster processes an estimated 70% of U.S. payment volume, anchored by Global Payments, NCR Voyix, FIS, and a long supporting cast), healthcare services and health IT, media (CNN, Turner, Warner Bros. Discovery, Cox Enterprises), film and television production (still approximately $2.3B in FY25 spending despite a slowdown from the 2022 peak), manufacturing (Mercedes-Benz USA HQ in Sandy Springs, Kia automotive supply chain), and residential home services consolidation (Wrench Group HQ in Marietta). Atlanta-resident PE includes Roark Capital, MSouth Equity Partners, Sterling Investment Partners, Cortec Group, Atlanta Capital Group, and platform offices for Carlyle and others. ACG Atlanta’s M&A South is the largest regional M&A conference in the Southeast.

Savannah and Coastal Georgia

Savannah concentrates port logistics, manufacturing, and tourism. The Port of Savannah is the fourth-largest container port in the United States and the largest single-terminal container facility in North America, anchoring an extensive 3PL warehousing and distribution corridor along I-95. Gulfstream Aerospace is headquartered in Savannah. The Hyundai Metaplant EV manufacturing campus in nearby Ellabell opened in 2024-2025 and is rapidly building a supplier ecosystem that is reshaping LMM deal flow in coastal and southeast Georgia. Hospitality and tourism are also material in the metro. Savannah-area sellers in port-adjacent logistics, 3PL, light manufacturing, and EV supply chain have particularly active buyer pools driven by the regional industrial buildout.

Augusta and East Central Georgia

Augusta concentrates cybersecurity, healthcare, and nuclear. Fort Eisenhower (formerly Fort Gordon) hosts the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and the NSA Georgia signals intelligence facility, making the metro one of the densest cybersecurity and federal-contractor clusters in the country outside Northern Virginia. Augusta University Medical Center and Wellstar MCG Health anchor the regional healthcare base. Plant Vogtle (Southern Company’s nuclear units 3 and 4 came online in 2023-2024) and the nearby Savannah River Site add a nuclear and advanced-energy dimension to the deal flow. Augusta produces specialized deal activity at the intersection of govcon and tech that is materially differentiated from the rest of the state.

Columbus and West Central Georgia

Columbus concentrates financial services and insurance, manufacturing, military, and distribution. Aflac is headquartered in the metro, as is Synovus Financial. TSYS (now part of Global Payments after the 2019 acquisition) maintains a significant presence. Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning) hosts the U.S. Army infantry and armor schools and anchors a substantial defense-contractor and military-services base. Columbus produces steady mid-market deal flow in financial services, insurance, manufacturing, and defense-adjacent services.

Other Georgia Markets

The I-75 corridor between Atlanta and Macon, the north Georgia carpet and floor-covering belt around Dalton (Mohawk Industries’ Calhoun headquarters anchors the region), the Athens biotech and university-driven ecosystem, and the south Georgia agricultural and food-processing base each generate steady LMM activity in their respective industries. Sea Island and the southern coast host a smaller but established family-office community. Macon, Valdosta, and Albany produce regular dealflow in regional services, healthcare, and distribution.

What to Look For in an M&A Advisor in Georgia (and Red Flags)

The Georgia M&A advisor and business broker market includes a wide range of quality. Some operators run rigorous, institutional-quality processes. Others functionally relist businesses on broker websites and wait for inbound. The seller (or buyer) needs to be able to distinguish between the two before signing anything. Below are the markers we would look for, and the red flags to avoid.

Green Flags

• Specific buyer references. The advisor can name actual PE platforms, family offices, or strategic acquirers they have worked with by name, with specific recent transactions in the seller’s industry. Generic “we have a network of hundreds of buyers” language without specifics is a warning sign.
• Industry-specific track record. The advisor has closed transactions in the seller’s industry within the last 24 months. M&A is industry-specific, and a strong home services advisor is not automatically a strong healthcare services advisor.
• Clear regulatory positioning. The advisor explicitly identifies the regulatory framework they operate under (federal Section 15(b)(13) M&A broker exemption, Georgia broker-dealer registration status, real estate licensure if real property is involved) and does not use the terms “M&A advisor” and “investment banker” interchangeably. In Georgia specifically, an advisor should be able to explain how their activity sits in relation to O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30.
• Transparent fee disclosure. The advisor will tell you the fee structure in the first conversation, including retainer, success fee scale, and any other charges, without making the seller chase the information.
• Quantified buyer pool. The advisor can describe specifically how many buyers fit the seller’s profile, with rationale, rather than gesturing at “many interested parties.”
• Reasonable timing expectations. A credible sell-side advisor will quote 9 to 14 months end-to-end for a traditional process, or 4 to 7 months for a curated buyer-network-led process. Anyone quoting “we’ll have you closed in 60 days” on a traditional auction is overpromising.

Red Flags

• Pressure to sign immediately. Any advisor pressuring a founder to sign a 12 to 24 month exclusivity contract on the first or second call is optimizing for their own pipeline, not the seller’s outcome.
• Listing-style marketing. If the proposed marketing approach is to post the business on broker MLS sites, BizBuySell, or generic business-for-sale aggregators, the advisor is functioning as a Main Street broker, not an institutional-buyer-focused M&A advisor.
• No retainer transparency. Sell-side advisors who refuse to disclose retainer expectations in the first conversation are signaling fee opacity that will surface later in the engagement letter.
• “Confidential buyer list.” Any advisor claiming a secret buyer list that they will only share after the seller signs an exclusivity letter is selling air. Real buyer relationships should be specifically describable without naming names in the first call.
• Conflicts of interest. Some advisors collect fees from both the buyer and the seller in the same transaction without explicit disclosure. The dual-fee model is permissible with full written disclosure to all parties but problematic when undisclosed.
• Inflated value indications. Any advisor promising a transaction multiple at the high end of the range without diligence-level financial analysis is producing a marketing number, not a valuation.
• Silence on Georgia regulatory status. Because Georgia does not have a state-level M&A broker exemption, an advisor who cannot articulate how their activity relates to O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30 and to the federal Section 15(b)(13) exemption has not done the regulatory homework. That is a meaningful tell.

Fee Structures: Buy-Side vs Sell-Side in Georgia

M&A advisor fees in Georgia vary by side, deal size, advisor type, and engagement structure. The dominant fee model in lower middle market sell-side work is the modified Lehman scale, in which the success fee percentage steps down as deal size grows. The Lehman scale itself dates to the 1960s; modern “double Lehman” and “modified Lehman” variants are the current norm. Below is the structural breakdown.

Sell-Side Fee Structures

The classic sell-side M&A advisor or business broker engagement in Georgia includes three components.

• Retainer. $25,000 to $100,000+ at engagement signing, sometimes credited against the success fee at close, sometimes not. Larger investment-banking-grade engagements ($25M+ EBITDA) can see retainers of $100,000 to $250,000.
• Success fee. 3% to 10% of total transaction value at close, often on a Lehman or modified Lehman scale. A common modified Lehman structure: 10% on the first $1M, 8% on the second $1M, 6% on the third $1M, 4% on the fourth $1M, 2% on everything above $4M, with a minimum total fee floor (often $150K to $300K).
• Expenses. Travel, third-party costs, legal coordination, sometimes capped, sometimes not.

For a $20M Georgia sell-side transaction at a representative modified Lehman scale, the success fee runs $700K to $1.2M. Add the retainer and expenses and the all-in cost to the seller is typically $750K to $1.4M.

Buy-Side Fee Structures

Buy-side engagements differ in three ways. First, the client is the buyer, not the seller. Second, the engagement typically involves sourcing multiple potential targets over a defined mandate period, not selling a single business. Third, the fee structure usually involves both retainer and success fee, with the retainer often crediting against future success fees.

• Retainer. Monthly retainer ranging from $5,000 to $25,000+ depending on mandate scope and exclusivity.
• Success fee. 1% to 5% of transaction value per closed acquisition, often on a Lehman or modified Lehman scale similar to sell-side but at a lower absolute percentage because the buy-side mandate generates multiple closings per year on a successful platform engagement.
• Mandate exclusivity. Exclusive mandates (one advisor sourcing for one platform in a defined geography and industry) command higher retainers; non-exclusive mandates command lower retainers but lower priority.

CT Acquisitions’ Fee Structure

CT Acquisitions operates a buyer-paid model on the sell-side, which means the seller’s fee is $0. The buyer pays our fee at close. The buyer-side fee is structured per engagement type. For sourced add-on acquisitions, our fee is paid at close on a percentage of transaction value, typically in the 1% to 3% range depending on deal size and mandate exclusivity. For dedicated buy-side mandates with a named acquirer, we structure as retainer plus success fee on a modified Lehman scale. The exact economics are scoped in the buy-side engagement letter.

For Georgia sellers, the practical implication is straightforward. Working with us costs the seller nothing. Working with a traditional sell-side Georgia M&A advisor or business broker costs the seller 3% to 10% of transaction value plus retainer. The trade-off is process scope: traditional sell-side runs broad competitive auctions; our model runs curated buyer-network introductions. For founders who fit the model, the seller-side economics are materially different.

M&A Advisor in Georgia: Frequently Asked Questions

Does Georgia have its own M&A broker exemption?

No. Georgia has not codified a state-level M&A broker exemption in either the Georgia Uniform Securities Act of 2008 (O.C.G.A. § 10-5-1 et seq.) or in the implementing rules at GA Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 590-4. Georgia has not adopted the NASAA Model Rule Exempting Certain Merger & Acquisition Brokers (most recently amended May 6, 2024). M&A intermediaries in Georgia rely on the federal exemption at Section 15(b)(13) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (effective March 29, 2023) for federal broker-dealer registration relief, while remaining subject to Georgia’s broker-dealer registration regime under O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30. The Georgia Securities Division did issue an M&A-broker no-action letter dated January 23, 2015; advisors relying on the letter should obtain the current text from the Securities Division and confirm its standing.

What is the Georgia state tax on capital gains for business sellers?

Georgia taxes capital gains as ordinary income at the flat individual rate of 5.19% for tax year 2026 (per HB 111, signed in 2025). The rate has been falling rapidly from 5.75% pre-2024 and is scheduled to drop further toward a 4.99% floor subject to revenue triggers. There is no preferential capital-gains rate at the state level and no separate Georgia QSBS exclusion, though Georgia conforms to the federal taxable income starting point so federal Section 1202 QSBS exclusions flow through. Federal long-term capital gains tax (currently 20% for high-income taxpayers, plus 3.8% NIIT where applicable) applies on top of Georgia. Sellers should engage qualified tax counsel separately from M&A advisory services for pre-transaction tax planning.

Do I need a real estate license to broker a business sale in Georgia?

Only if the transaction includes an interest in real property. Georgia treats brokerage of a business sale as a real-estate-licensed activity when the deal includes any real property interest. A Georgia real estate license issued by the Georgia Real Estate Commission (GA Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 520-1) is required for business brokers transferring real property as part of the sale. The regime catches many Main Street and lower LMM deals where the founder owns the underlying building and the deal contemplates a sale or long-term lease of that real estate. It does not apply to advisor work on equity sales of operating businesses where the real estate is held in a separate entity and is not part of the transaction.

Why is Atlanta considered the Southeast M&A hub?

Atlanta combines four characteristics that no other Southeast metro matches at the same scale: 18 Fortune 500 headquarters (Home Depot, UPS, Delta, Coca-Cola, Aflac, Southern Company, Genuine Parts, Mohawk, Newell, AGCO, Carter’s, Equifax, Veritiv, Asbury Automotive, Norfolk Southern, Pulte, Beazer, Smurfit Westrock) producing persistent strategic-buyer demand; a deep resident PE bench including Roark Capital, MSouth Equity Partners, Sterling Investment Partners, Cortec, Atlanta Capital Group, and platform offices for Carlyle and others; favorable cost of doing business that drives continued inbound corporate relocations; and status as a national consolidation hub for residential home services through Wrench Group in Marietta. ACG Atlanta’s M&A South, drawing 1,000+ dealmakers annually, is the largest regional M&A conference in the Southeast.

Which Georgia-headquartered PE-backed home services platforms are most active?

Wrench Group is the marquee Georgia-headquartered home services platform. Based in Marietta in metro Atlanta, controlled by Leonard Green & Partners with TSG Consumer Partners and Oak Hill Capital as significant minority co-investors, Wrench operates in 26+ markets across 15 states with 7,300 employees and 1.75M annual customers across residential HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and water treatment. The platform closed a $1.3B debt refinancing led by Blue Owl and Oak Hill in September 2025, signaling continued sponsor support. The platform’s anchor unit is the Coolray family of brands in metro Atlanta and north Georgia, including Coolray (founded 1966), Mr. Plumber, Atlanta Water Works, and BriteBox Electrical.

What is the difference between a business broker and an M&A advisor in Georgia?

A Georgia business broker typically serves Main Street deals under $5M in enterprise value, operates through listing-style marketing on platforms like BizBuySell, and represents seller-side only with a 5% to 12% success fee. A Georgia real estate license issued by the Georgia Real Estate Commission is required when the deal includes a real property interest. An M&A advisor serves lower middle market deals in the $1M to $50M EBITDA range, runs targeted institutional-buyer outreach, and operates under the federal Section 15(b)(13) M&A broker exemption while remaining subject to Georgia’s broker-dealer registration regime under O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30. The advisor’s buyer pool is institutional (PE platforms, family offices, search funds, strategic acquirers); the broker’s buyer pool is local owner-operators and first-time business buyers.

Can I sell my Georgia business without paying a sell-side fee?

Yes, in some cases. The CT Acquisitions model is buyer-paid. The buyer pays our fee at close and the seller pays nothing. There is no engagement letter, no retainer, no exclusivity period, and no obligation to engage. The model is not a fit for every seller (sellers in the $20M+ EBITDA range running formal competitive auctions often still benefit from traditional sell-side representation), but for founders open to a buyer-network-led process, the seller-side economics are zero.

How long does a Georgia M&A process take from start to close?

A traditional Georgia sell-side auction typically runs 9 to 14 months end to end. A buyer-network-led curated process runs 4 to 7 months end to end (30 to 60 days to LOI, then 60 to 120 days to close). Variations depend on diligence complexity, regulatory approvals, and third-party financing.

What is an LOI?

A Letter of Intent captures the key economic terms of a proposed transaction before confirmatory diligence and definitive documentation. Typical contents: purchase price, deal structure (asset vs. stock), working capital target, cash and debt-free assumptions, rollover equity, earnouts, employment terms, exclusivity period (60 to 90 days typical), and conditions to close. Economic terms are generally non-binding; exclusivity and confidentiality are binding. Strong LOIs leave less room for retrading at close.

What is a Quality of Earnings (QoE) report?

A Quality of Earnings (QoE) report is a third-party financial diligence document, typically produced by an accounting firm specializing in transaction services, that normalizes target EBITDA and validates revenue and cost mechanics. QoEs adjust for owner add-backs, one-time items, customer or vendor concentration, and working capital trends. Buyers nearly always require a QoE for LMM transactions. Sell-side QoEs (commissioned by the seller before market) typically cost $30K to $100K.

Do M&A advisors in Georgia need a FINRA license?

Not under the federal Section 15(b)(13) exemption. Exchange Act Section 15(b)(13), effective March 29, 2023, exempts M&A brokers from FINRA broker-dealer registration when facilitating ownership transfers of eligible privately held companies (prior-year EBITDA below $25M or revenue below $250M), subject to no-fund-custody and no-public-offering conditions. Georgia, unlike Florida and Texas, does not have a state-level M&A broker exemption, so the advisor’s activity must also be structured to avoid triggering Georgia broker-dealer registration under O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30. Advisors operating outside the federal exemption (for example, on transactions above the $25M EBITDA / $250M revenue thresholds with securities-related steps) often hold FINRA Series 79 or 82 licenses.

What multiples do Georgia lower middle market businesses sell for?

Multiples vary widely by industry, size, profitability, recurring revenue mix, customer concentration, and growth profile. Per the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets 2025 report and GF Data Q4 2024 benchmarks: residential home services platforms in the $2M to $5M EBITDA range cluster at 5x to 8x EBITDA; healthcare services and specialty pharmacy at 6x to 12x EBITDA; B2B services and distribution at 5x to 9x EBITDA; specialty construction and engineering at 4.8x to 7.5x EBITDA; payments and fintech-adjacent software (a Georgia specialty given Transaction Alley) at 8x to 14x EBITDA where recurring revenue and net retention are strong. Add-on tuck-ins below $1M EBITDA cluster at 3x to 5x EBITDA. Platform-quality businesses with $5M+ EBITDA, recurring revenue, and clean financials command the upper end.

How does a buy-side M&A engagement work?

The buyer engages the advisor under an engagement letter defining mandate scope (industry, geography, deal size, exclusivity), retainer structure (monthly or quarterly), and success fee per closed transaction on a modified Lehman scale. The advisor sources qualified targets, screens for fit, introduces, and supports through LOI and close. Mandate periods are typically 12 to 24 months with renewal options. Proprietary outbound sourcing commands higher fees than auction-style bid management.

Should I take rollover equity in the sale of my Georgia business?

Rollover equity is a retained minority stake in the post-close entity, typically 10% to 30%. PE platforms commonly require it for seller alignment and capital efficiency. Rollover is highly value-accretive if the platform resells at a higher multiple in 5 to 7 years (historical PE pattern), value-destructive if the platform stumbles. Decision depends on the seller’s risk tolerance, liquidity needs, and post-close operating commitment.

How confidential is a Georgia M&A process?

Confidentiality is structurally manageable but not absolute. Traditional broad-auction processes touch 60 to 200+ potential buyers, each of whom is under NDA but each of whom is also a potential leak point (employees, advisors, competitive intelligence). Curated buyer-network processes touch 5 to 25 parties and leak materially less. Internally, deal teams are typically limited to the founder, the CFO or trusted financial lead, and outside counsel until the LOI is signed. Customer-facing employees, vendors, and lenders are typically not informed until very late in the process or until after close.

Should I relocate out of Georgia before selling my business?

This is a tax-planning question, not an M&A advisor question. Relocating to a no-income-tax state (Florida, Tennessee, Texas) before a planned exit can eliminate state-level capital gains exposure for Georgia sellers, but the Georgia Department of Revenue scrutinizes “pre-arranged sale” and convenience-of-the-taxpayer relocations. A move executed after an LOI is signed often fails to escape Georgia tax. Engage qualified state and federal tax counsel at least 12 to 24 months before a planned transaction.

Is hiring a Georgia-based M&A advisor better than a national firm?

Not necessarily. Geographic location matters less than buyer-pool fit, industry expertise, and process quality. A Georgia-based advisor with deep Atlanta sponsor relationships may be the right choice for a metro Atlanta seller in a sponsor-active vertical. A national-firm advisor with deep healthcare services platform relationships may be the right choice for a Georgia healthcare services seller. The right framing is buyer access, not advisor location.

Want to Hire an M&A Advisor in Georgia?

The decision to engage an M&A advisor is rarely urgent until it is. Most Georgia founders and acquirers benefit from at least one exploratory conversation 12 to 24 months before a planned transaction, even if the transaction is hypothetical at that stage. The 30-minute conversation costs nothing and clarifies the realistic buyer pool, the likely multiple range, and the structural decisions (rollover, tax positioning, transaction timing, Georgia-versus-no-income-tax-state residency) that need to be in motion before the formal process begins.

For buy-side acquirers in Georgia. If you are a PE platform building add-on density, a family office sourcing direct acquisitions, a search fund operator targeting a Georgia acquisition, or a strategic acquirer with a defined platform thesis, we scope buy-side mandates on a retainer-plus-success-fee basis. Mandate scoping calls are confidential and free.

For sell-side founders in Georgia. If you are a Georgia founder of a $1M to $50M EBITDA business considering an exit in the next 6 to 36 months, the buyer-paid model costs you nothing to explore. There is no engagement letter, no retainer, no exclusivity period, and no obligation to engage. A 30-minute confidential call gives you a specific read on the realistic buyer pool for your business and a starting-point view of likely multiple range.

Sources and References

Regulatory and statutory sources.

• Georgia Uniform Securities Act of 2008, O.C.G.A. § 10-5-1 et seq.; broker-dealer registration at O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30. law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-10/chapter-5
• GA Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 590-4 (590-4-1 General, 590-4-2 Exemptions, 590-4-4 Investment Advisers, 590-4-5 Broker-Dealers and Agents). rules.sos.ga.gov/gac/590-4-2 and 590-4-5
• Georgia Secretary of State, Office of the Commissioner of Securities. sos.ga.gov
• Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Section 15(b)(13), Federal M&A Broker Registration Exemption (effective March 29, 2023). Codified via Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (H.R. 2617).
• SEC Division of Trading and Markets, M&A broker exemption guidance. sec.gov/divisions/marketreg
• NASAA Model Rule Exempting Certain Merger and Acquisition Brokers from Registration (amended May 6, 2024). nasaa.org Model Rule (May 2024)
• GA Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 520-1 (Georgia Real Estate Commission). Business brokerage that includes a real property interest requires GA real estate licensure.
• HB 111 (2025-2026 session) Georgia individual and corporate income tax rate reduction to 5.19% with glidepath toward 4.99%. legis.ga.gov HB 111

Market data and benchmarks.

• IBBA Market Pulse Q4 2025. International Business Brokers Association and M&A Source. ibba.org/resource-center/industry-research
• Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Report 2025. Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. bschool.pepperdine.edu/pcmsurvey
• GF Data Q4 2024 Valuation Report. GF Data Resources LLC. gfdata.com
• Capstone Partners Industry M&A Coverage 2025. capstonepartners.com/insights
• S&P Global Market Intelligence PE Add-On Reporting H1 2025. spglobal.com/marketintelligence
• ACG Atlanta M&A South conference. acg.org/atlanta/M&A South
• Select Georgia Fortune 500 list. selectgeorgia.com

Georgia-active platform primary sources.

• Wrench Group corporate site. wrenchgroup.com
• Leonard Green & Partners Wrench Group investment announcement. leonardgreen.com/wrench-group
• Coolray (Wrench Group anchor brand in metro Atlanta). coolray.com
• Georgia Association of Business Brokers, real-estate-license framework. gabb.org

Industry and trade press.

• PE Hub, PrivSource, Bloomberg, S&P Global Market Intelligence, BusinessWire, PR Newswire, GlobeNewswire.
• ACHR News, Contracting Business, HVACR Business, Plumbing & Mechanical, phcppros.

Disclaimer

This page is informational only. Nothing on this page constitutes investment advice, legal advice, tax advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any business or security. CT Strategic Partners LLC (operating as CT Acquisitions) is not a registered broker-dealer and is not a registered investment adviser. CT Acquisitions operates under the federal M&A broker registration exemption provided by Section 15(b)(13) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Georgia has not codified a state-level M&A broker exemption; CT Acquisitions structures Georgia engagements so that activity falls within the federal exemption and does not trigger Georgia broker-dealer registration under O.C.G.A. § 10-5-30. CT Acquisitions does not hold client funds or securities and does not engage in public-offering activity.

Mention of any sponsor, platform, or transaction in this article reflects publicly disclosed activity only. Inclusion does not imply any current or prior advisory relationship between CT Strategic Partners LLC and the named entity, nor any endorsement of the named entity by CT Strategic Partners LLC. References to “publicly active acquirers in Georgia” describe disclosure activity in the public record, not mandate relationships. Any business sale, acquisition, or related transaction decision should be made with the assistance of qualified M&A counsel, tax advisors, and where applicable, registered investment-banking or licensed brokerage representation. Where a Georgia transaction includes any interest in real property, a Georgia real estate license issued by the Georgia Real Estate Commission may be required for the brokerage activity associated with the real property interest.

Statutory references reflect the law as of May 17, 2026. Statutes, regulations, exemption thresholds, and the Georgia individual and corporate income tax rate (currently 5.19% under HB 111 with a legislated glidepath toward 4.99% subject to revenue triggers) may change. This page will be updated periodically.