The Boomers are Retiring: Opportunities for Business Buyers
It turns out the average retirement age for Australians is the highest it's been since the 1970s. With apparently 20% of new employment since 2019 being people aged 55 and above!
Category: Sector Insight
Top CEO reflects on his biggest mistakes
The co-founder and CEO of Koda Capital, Paul Heath, spoke on the ’15 Minutes with the BOSS podcast’ about the biggest mistakes he’s made in his career. He spoke often of change, and the impact that change can have on the people in your organisation.
Empty offices – no movement in rents!
John Kehoe wrote a piece in the AFR on April 24th about how the “public service ‘ghost’ offices should rile taxpayers.” Seems like a fair point, if employees are now predominantly working from home (WFH), with 57% of public servants in 2023 doing just that, why are governments and others not reducing or renegotiating floor space and rentals?
M&A Outlook 2024
2023 saw a decline in the overall headline deal value both globally and locally, no doubt driven by the rising interest rate environment and concern about an economic slow-down.
WFH and the paradigm shift
Long hours and a heavy workload seem to be the norm in professional service firms, that may not change anytime soon, but what does appear to be changing is that increased flexibility toward staff is now becoming the norm.
M&A Market Snapshot: First half of 2023
The global M&A Market in the first half of 2023 saw deal values drift lower especially in Q2, while the number of announced completed deals saw near record highs. So, deal volume was up whilst overall transaction values are down.
Some Promising Growth Sectors
With all the talk of interest rates and a possible slow-down, we thought it was about time we looked at where the potential for exciting growth is happening. If you regularly read our content, you will know how we love research and the insights it can unlock. We also think it’s the basis for sound decision-making and frequently utilise it in our strategy work with clients.
Gen Z: How will they change your business?
In just a couple of years, Generation Z will make up around a quarter of the workforce. This will have a significant impact on our working lives, and business owners will need to enter their world to understand what they want and how they communicate.
Rapid, unexpected disruption!
New AI phenomenon ChatGPT has the potential to be a big disruptor. For business owners, it highlights just how the best laid plans can come undone, and there is no perfect time to sell.
How to Sell a Business Lesson #5: Does the Size of my Business Matter to Buyers?
Following on from “How to go about Finding the Right Buyer for my Business” we turn to the subject of size! Does it matter?
Size is one part of a buyer’s criteria; the short answer is that it depends on what they are looking for.
How to Sell a Business Lesson #4: How to find a needle in a haystack?
Having established that the odds are not great; that the potential buyer that knocks on a seller’s door is the most strategic acquirer for the business (Lesson #1). And that in any event, getting in the ring with a large corporate, without a clear strategy and some input is not optimal (Lesson #2). The question then becomes, if there are many more sellers than buyers in the Australian market in the next decade (Lesson #3), how do you find genuine strategic interest?
Current M&A Market Insights in Australia
The market is fluid and is moving constantly, never more so than now. The big end of town appears busy with deals galore, to quote James Thomson in the AFR on August 26th “M&A is back in a big way.”
How to Sell a Business Lesson #3: How big is the market for my business?
We established in lesson #2 that if a business is approached by a potential buyer (Gorilla) that the interest must be qualified and handled efficiently leading to an early indicative offer in writing, based upon the provision of adequate but limited information. We also determined that such a buyer, having knocked on your door is likely to have knocked on quite a few other doors, and is probably running a broader process.
How to Sell a Business Lesson #2: What to do when a 500-pound gorilla knocks on your door?
We established in my last blog that selling your business is likely to involve a major mismatch in terms of the scale and size of the likely buyer and that getting in the ring with them by yourself and without a clear strategy might not work out so well.
How to Sell a Business Lesson #1: Don’t get in the ring with a 500-pound gorilla!
The shareholders of established private companies in Australia, many of whom will be seeking an exit in the next ten years, ought to be aware of certain realities around deal doing and the market, I am going to unpack some of these over the next series of posts, which I hope people might find helpful.