East Texas · Texas
Carthage business brokers and M&A advisors
If you own a profitable company in Carthage, MDR & Associates can act as your M&A advisors and sell it through a private, competitive process. Carthage is the Panola County seat in deep East Texas, about 20 miles west of the Louisiana line where U.S. 59 and U.S. 79 cross, and our advisors drive out to see you at the company or somewhere out of view.
Built on the gas field: what that means for buyers
Carthage farmers once grew cotton, corn, sweet potatoes, oats and sugarcane. Then, during the Great Depression, a gas field was discovered nearby. It proved to be the largest in the United States and was developed after World War II, and the town grew from about 1,300 people to 5,000. The 2020 census counted 6,569. Panola College opened here in 1947 as Panola County Junior College, ETMC Carthage runs a Level IV trauma center, and the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame, home of the Tex Ritter Museum, opened in 1998.
If your company serves gas production, through fabrication, equipment supply or field service, expect one question above the rest in a sale: how steady are earnings through the price cycle? Buyers discount revenue that swings, so we recast several years of results to show normal earnings and separate repeat work from one-time jobs. A shop that fabricates or machines parts will hear the questions our manufacturing page covers.
Carthage at a glance
- CountyPanola County
- RegionEast Texas
- Companies we sell$3M–$100M
- Typical transaction3–9 months
- Fee if we do not closeNone
A county-seat sale that stays confidential
Buyers see only a blind profile at first. Before they learn your name they sign an NDA and complete a financial profile that shows they can fund the deal. We go to our own database of qualified individual buyers, capital groups and private equity groups before any anonymous marketplace ad is placed. Multiple letters of intent are negotiated at once, and we present each offer to you in person so you can accept, reject or counter. In a town where the courthouse, the college and the gas companies share the same customers and employees, that order of events protects the business while it is for sale.
How we come to Panola County
Advisors travel to Carthage for the first meeting, which is free and confidential. Once we have gone through three years of financials, we give an opinion of value framed as a range. Most engagements take three to nine months from signing to funds wired. See the rest of our East Texas coverage, or read how the success fee works.
What we sell in and around Carthage
Industry decides the buyer, the multiple and the diligence. These are the four sectors we work in most.
Manufacturing
Equipment, real estate, backlog and customer concentration decide what a manufacturer is worth.
How buyers value itHome Services
Plumbing, HVAC, roofing, landscaping and other home service companies — where repeat customers, crews and technicians decide the price.
How buyers value itDistribution & Wholesale
Inventory, working capital and supplier agreements decide what a distributor is worth.
How buyers value itBusiness Services
Recurring revenue and owner dependence separate a two-times business from a six-times business.
How buyers value itStraight answers
Questions Carthage owners ask before they sell
Answered in full by the advisors who run the sales. Every Texas-wide answer.
The process
How a Carthage sale runs
Ten steps in four stages, typically three to nine months. Click any step to see it in full.
- Prepare
- Go to market
- Negotiate
- Close
We also work with owners near Carthage
Questions owners in Carthage ask
Does a company tied to Panola County natural gas sell for less?
Not necessarily. Buyers look at earnings across the cycle, customer concentration and the condition of equipment. A company with long customer relationships and records that reconcile can draw strong interest even when production swings. We present those facts clearly, and competition among several buyers limits how far any one can discount for risk.
Would buyers across the Louisiana line be interested in a Carthage company?
They can be. Carthage is about 20 miles from Louisiana, and a company that serves customers on both sides of the line may appeal to strategic buyers from either state. We reach buyers through our own database first, and we do not limit the search to one side of a state line.
Talk to an advisor about your Carthage company
Four fields, a reply the same business day, and nothing shared with anyone. If you would rather talk, call (855) 637-2776.