How to find financial information about a US company

[Ibsen]

Hello,
I wonder whether anyone can help out.

Background:
my company is in the process of buying equipment for a large(r) sum --about 10 million USD, from a privately held company registered in MA. Registered 8 years ago, 95 employees. No financial reports on the home page, nothing on google.
Today I heard rumors that said company has not been paying their bills lately

Can anyone direct me to sites where I can get information about their financial status?

I can pm the name of the company if that helps.

Irina.

[Slimprofits]

Re: How to find financial information about a US company

I'm in Mass. If you'd like we could work out a fee and I'll go dumpster diving.

http://www.library.pitt.edu/guides/b...ivateCompanies

Finding financial information on private companies

Unlike public companies, private companies are not required to file financial reports with the SEC. Finding financial information on private companies is difficult, and at times, impossible. These are some steps for finding what financial information does exist on private companies.

• Mergent Online* provides some private company financials, though the amount of information is limited compared to what is available for public companies. Not all private companies are included in Mergent Online.

• Some private companies do publish annual reports for internal or promotional use. You might be able to obtain such a report by contacting the company or the company may include this material on their website. There are, however, no regulations or guidelines for such reports. The amount of financial information will be minimal if it exists at all. Also, one must think critically about the information that is presented.

• Company Profiles sources will usually provide annual sales and employee figures. This may be the extent of the financial information that you will find.

• Search for articles about the company. Someone may have written about the company and included some financial details. Also, you can develop some impressions about a company's financial condition by reading about their activities.

• Although out of the realm of most libraries' resources, it is worth mentioning that there are businesses which research companies and sell credit reports or other similar reports which include financial information. These can be obtained through a subscription service or bought individually. They can, however, be expensive, and the amount of information provided can vary greatly depending upon the publisher of the report and the cost. Dun & Bradstreet is just one example of a company which provides such reports.

[c1ue]

Re: How to find financial information about a US company

Privately held companies are just that, private.

What I would suggest is two-fold:

1) Ask the company directly, in writing, about the rumors you've heard
2) Make sure your contracts reflect some form of protection should the company go out of business or start acting strangely. Some type of escrow deposit, for example.

If you're only buying equipment this should be less of an issue, but I'm assuming that you also have support and maintenance concerns.

[Sharky]

Re: How to find financial information about a US company

One source for credit info on private companies is Dun & Bradstreet. However, companies can misrepresent themselves to D&B, so they should only be used as one data point.

You may also be able to get a credit report on the company as well as its principles from one of the big credit agencies. If you're buying expensive equipment from them, you have every right to ask for credit reports before you place an order. The company can always refuse, but then you can also refuse to place the order.

You could also ask the company for a bank reference -- if they provide one, call and ask things like whether they've had any bounced checks, and what their average balance has been over the last 6 months (most banks will provide such numbers only to an order of magnitude, such as "at least six figures").

Of course references to other customers are also useful. Did they deliver on time? Any billing anomalies, etc, etc?

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: How to find financial information about a US company

If you're only buying equipment this should be less of an issue, but I'm assuming that you also have support and maintenance concerns.

Those of us who sometimes buy giant machines see it differently. The deal usually requires between 30% and 50% up front payment, and most of the rest before shipment.

In this deal it would be easy to spend four or five million dollars and get nothing in return but a sad story and title to a pile of scrap metal.

Great caution is fully warranted.

At my company we often do two million dollar repair jobs on machines worth $20 million, which produce a half million dollars a day sellable output for their owners.

Even though we've been in business 90 years and are a leader in our industry our customers routinely demand full audited current financial statements with our bids, and often send engineers to our shop to stay full time, 24/7 with their big machines. We've had 4 Canadian engineers in our shop the last two weeks doing nothing but watching us work on their big machine, witnessing that the work stays on schedule and we don't damage their machine, and making sure every little detail is to their preference.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: How to find financial information about a US company

Hello,
I wonder whether anyone can help out.

Background:
my company is in the process of buying equipment for a large(r) sum --about 10 million USD, from a privately held company registered in MA. Registered 8 years ago, 95 employees. No financial reports on the home page, nothing on google.
Today I heard rumors that said company has not been paying their bills lately

Can anyone direct me to sites where I can get information about their financial status?

I can pm the name of the company if that helps.

Irina.

Sounds like you aren't experts in this sort of machine and don't have a long-standing relationship with the vendor. Do yourself a favor and pay $50,000 or more to a solid consultant who is.

Someone who's bought many of these things; who has spent 30 years or more operating or manufacturing these machines for global companies. Someone who knows all the major players in that industry and who knows these things inside and out.

Listen to that person's advice about buying from this vendor. Have that person create the technical specification and monitor the build on-site, in-person. Have your financial people perform the same sort of detailed due diligence as if they were buying a little ten million dollar company. Unless, of course, losing five million dollars is no big deal to you.