There is never a wrong time to begin preparing for an eventual sale. The preparation stage is key to executing a successful sale process. In fact, value planning can lead to an optimal sale price for your business.
Our team can help you best position your business in the market. Together we’ll develop an action plan to help you make the most of areas of opportunity unique to your business. Our goal is your success.
Learn more about our mergers and acquisitions team.
The US mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market sustained tremendous momentum from the past several years with valuation levels and bank lending near record highs throughout 2019 and heading into 2020. Overall deal activity was highlighted by continued aggressive valuations from both strategic and financial buyers, with ample capital to deploy for pursuing acquisitions.
But disruptions related to COVID-19 led to a quick slowdown in the M&A market near the end of Q1 2020 which continued through Q2 2020, both in terms of overall dollar value and number of transactions closed. Significant uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 caused many financial and strategic buyers to pause existing deals, both to evaluate the cash flow situation within their own operations but also to assess any changes in the performance and financial well-being of acquisition targets.
On the lending side, which impacts M&A because many buyers require financing to complete transactions, banks largely paused in lending activity to analyze their current loan portfolios and renegotiate terms for existing clients. Nonetheless, an estimated 1,270 deals still occurred in Q2 of 2020 in the United States.
During Q3 2020, we began to see buying and bank lending activity resume for M&A as the economy opened, and companies better understand how to conduct business in this current marketplace. Economists continue to closely monitor the risk for new waves of COVID-19 and their potential impact, but for now, buyers are regaining high levels of interest in pursuing acquisitions to increase offerings/capabilities and opportunistically grow market share in this environment. We anticipate 2021 could bring a wave of acquisitions that will raise activity back to pre-COVID levels or even higher.
The Eide Bailly quality of earnings team was great to work with – the first engagement that we worked on together was very complex from an accounting perspective and we would not have been able to complete the sale of the business without their support… they went above and beyond the traditional role of a transaction services provider to ensure that we achieved the desired outcome.
Eide Bailly has been our company’s CPA advisors for many years and we engaged Eide Bailly to provide a sell side QOE which was exactly what we needed to present the business to potential investors. The QOE that Eide Bailly prepared was detailed, accurate and presented our business for the current and future operations to get the best valuation possible. We would recommend using the Eide Bailly team for any seller and the quality and accuracy of the QOE will be a great investment and will result in achieving the highest value possible for the business.
Eide Bailly has been our company’s CPA advisors for many years and we engaged Eide Bailly to provide a sell side QOE which was exactly what we needed to present the business to potential investors. The QOE that Eide Bailly prepared was detailed, accurate and presented our business for the current and future operations to get the best valuation possible. We would recommend using the Eide Bailly team for any seller and the quality and accuracy of the QOE will be a great investment and will result in achieving the highest value possible for the business.
Mergers and acquisitions activity spans across all industries. Knowing how to plan for your specific industry and its unique issues will be critical as you prepare for sale.
Eide Bailly’s transaction advisors have experience across multiple industries. Here are a few of the trends we’ve found.
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