Calgary · Western Canada · the Middle East

I’ve sat in every seat: board, audit chair, CEO, CFO, and operations, down to the project report.

I build the company, or I get it ready to list or to sell.

Tell me what’s keeping you up. I’ll tell you straight whether I can help.

Say hi Or call +1 403 473 8547

Not ready to talk? Read what a buyer asks first →

Arthur Madden, CPA · CMA · MBA · ICD.D

Founder and CFO of Cavell Energy: public in 1996, sold in 2004 for $148M. Founder and CFO of Adamant; VP Finance and CFO of Crown Point. Eleven years on Painted Pony’s board, nine as audit committee chair. Founded AJM in 2019.

What you tell us about a sale, a successor or a shareholder disagreement is kept confidential.

Where it hurts

Where it hurts, and what I do about it.

“Everything still runs through me.”

I write down everything that depends on you: the customers, the pricing, the approvals, the bank. I hand each one to someone in your company and put the reporting in place to show it holds. Then you test it by stepping back. What you end up with is a business that runs well without depending on you, and is sale-ready whether or not it ever sells.

If you stepped away for a month, what would stop?

“I want to sell in a few years, and I don’t know what a buyer will ask.”

I ask the questions a buyer will ask, before he does. You get the list, where the answer lives today and where it doesn’t, and time to fix what’s missing. Then you go to your broker or banker with the answers in hand.

What would a buyer ask you first?

“My shareholders don’t agree.”

I put every shareholder in front of the same facts. I act for the company, or all shareholders jointly, never for one side, so your lawyer or family advisor has something solid to work from.

Are you arguing about the same numbers?

“The bank is asking questions I can’t answer.”

I sit on your side of the table, find what the lender is really worried about, get the business ready to answer it, and stay in the room.

When the bank calls, who holds the numbers?

“We’re busy, but I don’t know where the money goes.”

As your interim or part-time CFO, I connect the project plan to the money: what each job really costs, the cash it needs and when, what’s tied up in equipment, how much rides on your biggest customers. Then I change the process so you and your managers see it every month and make decisions with it.

Do you know what the last job cost before you bid the next one?

“We just bought the company.”

I sit as an independent director or audit chair with a career in the CFO’s seat, reporting to your board from the first meeting.

Who on your new board will ask the hard question?

Taking the business into the Middle East? → Michael Cooper

One story

The bank said no.

We took Cavell public in 1996. Two years later, prices collapsed and our wells disappointed. Debt ran eight to ten times cash flow, production fell by more than half, and our bank wouldn’t lend. A bank that knew me lent us $14 million.

Then we changed one thing: we lived within cash flow. Every capital decision went to the board with the cash behind it. When we had to cut, five people left, and not the ones who knew the wells.

By 2003 debt was down to about 1.2 times cash flow, and Cavell nominated me for Canada’s CFO of the Year. In 2004 we sold the company to Paramount Energy Trust for about $148 million.

What does your banker know about you that you didn’t tell him?

Track record

Where else I’ve been in the room.

On the board. Nine years as Painted Pony’s audit chair, from a start-up to a TSX listing. The board agreed on direction; I kept watching the two things the statements don’t show until they’re expensive: safety and field performance.
When growth outruns the systems. Adamant: from a start-up, with over $30 million raised in the first year, to $85 million in annual revenue.
When the operation is overseas. Crown Point: bank financing in Argentina under currency and export controls. Before that, the cost systems and financing network for a well-completions operation in Siberia.
When the regulator has stopped trading. As CEO and CFO of a public company under a cease trade order, I got the financial statements issued and won shareholder approval to sell the assets.
In the field, today. I run a mining services company. It delivers exploration programs from Quebec to the Yukon, and it was profitable in its first full year.

I plan two to three years out. I always have.

The firm

Three principals. The people who show up are the people who do the work.

Arthur Madden, CPA · CMA · MBA · ICD.D

Michael Cooper — Middle East operations, negotiation and contracts. Middle East →

Michael Yeung — Debt and financing. Michael Yeung’s practice is his own and is engaged and billed separately.

About the three of us →

If you advise owners on transition: the client stays yours. We don’t broker and we don’t compete for your mandate. We tell you what we’ve scoped and when we’re done. Your client gets a business that runs well without depending on them, and you keep the relationship and the mandate.

Arthur leads every Western Canada file. We never act for both sides of the same transaction. If a conflict could arise, we say so in writing before we start. When shareholders don’t agree, we act for the company, or all shareholders jointly, never for one side.

Say hi

Which one sounds like you?

Tell me in a line.

I’ll call you back within one business day, and if I’m not the right person, I’ll say so and tell you who is.

The first month. I sit with you and the people who run the jobs. I write down what depends on you and nobody else. I list the questions a buyer or a lender will ask, where the answer lives today, and where it doesn’t. You get that in writing. Then you decide what to fix first, with me or without me.

Where I stop. I’m not a broker, and I don’t do valuations; for an opinion on value, I’ll send you to a Chartered Business Valuator. I don’t give legal or tax advice. I work alongside your accountant, lawyer, lender and advisors, and they see what I write down when you say so. I never act for both sides. The scope goes in writing before anything starts.

References from boards and lenders I’ve worked with, on request.

amadden@ajmsolutions.ca +1 403 473 8547

Send us a note

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