LA JOLLA — When Phil Currie was 10 years old, he found a 5-pound brick of lead in the street near his house.

Recognizing that local plumbers were consumers of lead, young Currie grabbed the brick and rode his bike into town to solicit bids from area plumbers.

The first shop offered $1.50.

"I think I can get more," Currie told the owner, "but I'll let you know how it goes."

The next shop offered $2.50 and Currie sold the lead.

That initial toe-dip into capitalism convinced Currie he should take a full plunge into the business world. First he was a banker, then a turnaround specialist, and for the last decade, the middle man in mergers and acquisitions.

As managing partner of La Jolla-based Shoreline Partners, Currie, 61, arranges the sale of private companies with annual revenues of $5 million to $100 million. But, it is the Shoreline's ventures outside the core market that has gained the firm the most recognition.

Shoreline negotiated and structured the sale of two companies to WD-40 Co. (Nasdaq: WDFC), a San Diego-based maker and distributor of industrial cleaning products, which increased the firm's assets from $91.9 million in fiscal 1999 to $214.9 million last year.

Shoreline also negotiated one of the more controversial deals in San Diego banking, facilitating the sale of Borrego Springs Bank (OTCBB: BRGO) to the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, operators of a casino in East County. State banking regulators have since blocked sales of small banks to non-banking entities.

Currie markets Shoreline as the M&A team for companies that desire the insight of former business executives, as opposed to MBA grads working for big Wall Street investment banks. And it's an angle customers appreciate.

"It's very comforting, because having that background gives them a broader view of the total dynamic of the business that you're acquiring or trying to acquire," said Garry Ridge, president and chief executive of WD-40. "They're looking at it from a total business standpoint."

Plus, Currie's pitch is enticing.

"The value of a business is not what it is to the owner as a stand alone," Currie said. "The value of a business is what it is in the hands of a buyer who brings, in addition to the money, markets, people, technology, distribution and capital. When you look at a business, any business, and (you ask) what could we do with this business if you had unlimited money, you get a different picture."

Currie gained his insight to M&A as the principal of Livingston Management, a turnaround firm he established in 1973.

For the next 16 years, Currie brought struggling firms into the black by attacking their size. If the companies were too small, he acquired products and business units from other firms for no money down, promising only future royalty payments. If the companies were too big, he spun-off unnecessary baggage, cut expenses, or sold inventory -- instantly creating cash flow.

"The main reason companies under perform is because they're the wrong size," he said. "They're either the wrong size for the balance sheet, they were the wrong size for their market, or they were the wrong size for the capacity of their people."

Nearly every service Shoreline provides is completed in-house. From a small office in the UTC area of La Jolla, Currie, his business partner Timothy Malott, and a team of six principals, associates and researchers, search the country looking for buyers and sellers.

Once contact is made and negotiations begin, both parties are brought to Shoreline's office. This is partly to protect the integrity of the discussions and partly to give Shoreline home field advantage.

Lately, there's been more research done at Shoreline than all night negotiations or deal signing. Since 9/11, businesses have jammed on the brakes on M&A activity. Most choose to focus more on the bottom line and not selling the firm or acquiring new assets, which almost always come with new expenses.

But that hesitation can't go on forever, Currie said.

"I think there's been pent up demand," he said. "I think that 9/11 caused a lot of business owners to pause and I think also that the leading corporations of America, whose entrepreneurial growth comes from acquisitions, needs to continue and they are now back in the market and business owners recognize this."

Phillip L. Currie is Managing Partner of Shoreline Partners LLC, a San Diego-based, middle market investment banking firm that handles sales of privately held companies with $10 to $200 million in revenue and acquisitions for public companies. Currie can be reached at 858/587-9800 or via Email.