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.”
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.
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.
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.
According to the recent Dealmakers report the global trend in M&A is down, by number of deals -15% and by value -18%. This is driven by the “fears of recession, rising interest rates and geopolitical uncertainties.”
There’s always something!
I’m sure everyone has felt it – that gentle squeeze on our purses and wallets. Whether it is at the supermarket or the petrol pump, the café or the corner store, inflation seems to be hitting our hip-pocket nerve once more.
Congratulations to Alistair Hood and his fellow shareholders on the successful sale of their business Ashton Manufacturing to Reilly Best. Ashtons are the leading casket manufacturer in Australia.
Congratulations to Stuart Edgely and his team at Emerald on the successful sale of their Alarm division to Red Smoke Alarms. The merged entities have now re-branded as K.P.S Australia Pty Ltd. We wish the buyer and the vendors well, confident there is strong alignment and a good-fit and that this deal made sense for everyone.
Following the gradual recovery in global M&A markets through 2024, the outlook for 2025 suggests solid grounds for optimism. According to Goldman Sachs' Investment Banking Outlook, the recent reductions of interest rates and improved market conditions as well as the greater certainty resulting from the determination of the US election is expected to support increased deal activity, particularly in the middle market segment.