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$2.00/JANUARY 14 - 20, 2013
Vol. 34, No. 2
Flurry of dealmaking wraps up busy year Fourth quarter was huge; expectations remain high for ‘13 By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com
Hastened by the expectation that capital gains taxes would increase in 2013, buyers and sellers of companies raced to get deals done before year-end, and the advisers who
helped them beat the clock set records doing it. And, though the flurry of activity has waned for now, many of those advisers expect 2013 to be another busy year. The fourth quarter was a record quarter — and in many cases, 2012,
a record year — for deal volume and revenues for a number of investment banking, private equity and law firms in Northeast Ohio. “We were sprinting all out for three straight months,” said Brian Powers, managing director of investment banking firm League Park Advisors.
League Park, which recently moved to downtown Cleveland from Beachwood and is entering its fourth year in business, closed a record four deals in the final quarter of last year and a record eight deals for the year. Cleveland-based Western Reserve Partners LLC also enjoyed a record year and a record fourth quarter, closing eight transactions in the final
months of 2012, including four on the very last day of the year, Dec. 31. Deals data underscore the appetite for M&A advisory services. Quarterly U.S. and Ohio deal volume reached its highest point in the fourth quarter of 2012 since at least the first quarter of 2008, according to figures from Thomson Reuters. See BANKERS Page 21
Westin behind schedule Legal problems of financier Zai impact Crowne Plaza redo By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
The $70 million conversion of the former Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Cleveland to a INSIDE: Westin is behind its A portrait of original schedule, the projected in part because of renovation. the legal entanglePage 20 ments of A. Eddy Zai, disgraced founder of the Cleveland International Fund. Construction workers recently started slicing brick walls from parts of the hotel, but its opening as a Westin has been delayed to early 2014. See WESTIN Page 20 MCKINLEY WILEY
MesoCoat Inc. CEO Andrew Sherman stands in the 11,000-square-foot Euclid plant that is expected to be running by mid-February. By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com
The many challenges of small business
ndrew Sherman’s pipe dream is one step closer to becoming a reality. MesoCoat Inc. is almost finished setting up a $6.3 million plant intended to show the oil and gas industry there’s a faster, cheaper way to protect pipes from corrosion. The 11,000-square-foot Euclid plant should be up and running by mid-February, which will allow MesoCoat to start testing its metal cladding process on 40-foot-long pieces of pipe, said Mr. Sherman, MesoCoat’s CEO. So far, the company has tested the process only on 6-foot pieces at its research center in Eastlake.
Finding a work-and-life balance can be difficult for many small business owners, such as Nicki Artese, right, of Artese Communications. PAGES 13-17
CLAD TO MEET YOU A
See MESOCOAT Page 9
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MesoCoat’s metal cladding plant in Euclid is first step in growth plan
INSIDE
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NEWSPAPER
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Opening Speaker: Former Shell Oil president & Founder, Citizens for Affordable
Tuesday, Feb. 5
Energy. Details on page 22