Prairie Capital Advisors, Inc., a leading corporate finance advisory and investment banking firm, acted as financial advisor to Santanna Energy Services in the sale of the company to an employee stock ownership plan.
Santanna Energy Services, provides retail energy products to residential and small commercial customers in the Midwest. For nearly 29 years, Santanna has delivered premium service and competitive prices. Santanna was founded in 1988, and was one of the pioneers in small industrial and commercial retail energy service in the state of Illinois. Santanna’s business strategy of nearly 3 decades, has been based upon methodical organic growth. Starting in 2002, Santanna began service to residential gas consumers in Illinois, and from 2010 to 2012, Santanna expanded its retail energy products into Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. In late 2012, Santanna diversified its energy products to include retail power in addition to natural gas. Santanna currently serves more than 100,000 natural gas and electric customers in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, and will enter the Pennsylvania market in early 2017.
Prairie worked closely with the management team, board of directors and sellers, providing advisory expertise and managing the preparatory, due diligence and negotiation phases of the transaction as well as structuring the financing of the transaction. President and CEO Wayne Gatlin stated, “We are delighted to transition Santanna to an employee stock ownership company! Our employees have done an outstanding job in representing Santanna and now can take even more pride in their work as owners of the company. Michael McGinley and his team had the knowledge and expertise needed to make the sale of our company to an ESOP seamless.”
About Prairie Capital Advisors
Prairie is an employee owned company that offers investment banking, ESOP advisory and valuation services to support the growth and ownership transition strategies of middle-market companies. Headquartered in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cedar Rapids and Louisville, the company is a leading advisor to closely-held companies nationwide. For more information, visit www.prairiecap.com.
