Minneapolis-based firm aims to consolidate small-biz brokerages

A former TCF Financial executive is leading what aims to be a national effort to consolidate the fragmented small business-brokerage industry through a membership model that is designed to lead to acquisitions.

Brian Slipka, who left this year as head of TCF Technology Finance to become CEO of Sunbelt Business Advisors, a multistate brokerage, said the new Business Broker Investment Corp. (BBIC) has raised $2.2 million for development and acquisition and that five brokerages have signed membership agreements to be BBIC contributors.

The BBIC is designed to be "an affiliation of business brokerages that benefits its members by defragmenting the business brokerage industry and leveraging its collective resources."

"They become member affiliates, get customer-relationship management and other training," Slipka said. "You remain independent, but you are expressing a commitment to sell when you are ready. You can keep your local brand. These agreements will allow the brokerages to benefit from BBIC's strategic solutions and systems and allow the business brokerages to increase their enterprise value."

Minneapolis-based Sunbelt Business Advisors is part of the Sunbelt Network, which said it is the largest organization of business brokers and Main Street merger-and-acquisition professionals.

Sunbelt President Chris Jones will continue to serve as day-to-day leader of Sunbelt as Slipka focuses on adding and integrating business brokers.

Big Wall Street and regional investment banks seek to advise on deals of $50 million and up. Most small-business sales range from several hundred thousand dollars to a few million.

Neal St. Anthony

JPMorgan Chase, entering the Twin Cities with several retail offices, has awarded $400,000 to the Center for Economic Inclusion. The Center will use the money to work with large employers and minority-owned suppliers to drive revenue, employment and wealth generation.

"Minnesota's minority-owned businesses generate over $5.2 billion in annual revenue and grew at 3.5 times the rate of all Minnesota businesses in 2017, said CEO Tawanna Black of the Center for Economic Inclusion. "Strategic-spending decisions by Minnesota's largest employers will fuel our economy and accelerate progress to close our racial and economic disparities."

The Center's strategy is modeled after the Itasca Project's Business Bridge partnership, where 15 large corporations commit to buy local to spur economic growth and measure change over time.

Over a six-year period, the Business Bridge moved nearly $3 billion in annual procurement spending to Minnesota-based suppliers, creating a transformational impact on the state's economy.

The Center, with a budget of $3 million, is a business-backed nonprofit dedicated to inclusive growth to expand regional prosperity.

Neal St. Anthony

Private-equity firm Norwest Equity Partners (NEP) has added a veteran from a private-equity investment house in New York.

Sundip Murthy has joined NEP from the smaller Snow Phipps. Murthy was a partner and head of Snow Phipps' consumer investments.

He spent 20 years in private equity including at 3i Group and the Carlyle Group. Murthy started his career at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

NEP, which has raised $7 billion-plus in capital for multiple funds since 1961, typically invests $30 million to $250 million in companies, or acquires them outright for up to $500 million.

It operates portfolio companies in agriculture, consumer, industrial, energy, tech and business services. Snow Phipps has invested $2.8 billion in more than two dozen companies since 2005.