{"id":3679,"date":"2019-01-01T14:18:43","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T19:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stevenslee.com\/sesesop\/?post_type=transaction&p=3679"},"modified":"2026-07-20T17:19:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T21:19:52","slug":"rettew","status":"publish","type":"transaction","link":"https:\/\/www.stevenslee.com\/sesesop\/outcome\/rettew\/","title":{"rendered":"RETTEW"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\r\n

RETTEW<\/h1>\r\n
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Celebrating Half a Century and 100 Percent Employee Ownership<\/h2>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header><\/div>\r\n<\/header>\r\n

Overview<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n
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Founded in 1969, RETTEW is an industry-leading engineering consulting firm headquartered in Lancaster, PA. With more than 350 professionals located in 11 offices throughout the country, RETTEW provides nearly 600 services \u2013 engineering, environmental, surveying, planning, safety and related technical services \u2013 to a wide range of industries. The company implemented and grew its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) over the last seven years, and until recently, the ESOP owned 30 percent of the company and 25 shareholders owned the remainder.<\/p>\r\n

Situation<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n

The founding shareholder of RETTEW Associates, Inc. (\u201cRAI\u201d) owned a very large block of shares, and an ESOP owned approximately 30 percent of the company\u2019s stock. The board and management struggled with the most efficient mechanism to buy out the founder.<\/p>\r\n

In addition, an affiliated company \u2014 RETTEW Field Services, Inc. (\u201cRFS\u201d) \u2014 was owned by similar shareholders, but the ESOP did not have an ownership stake in RFS. The board and management wanted to determine whether it made sense to bring RFS under the RETTEW umbrella.<\/p>\r\n

Solution<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n

Professionals from SES ESOP Strategies and Griffin Financial Group \u2013 an affiliated company of SES and a FINRA-licensed investment bank \u2013 modeled various options to buy out the founder, including:<\/p>\r\n