An owner considering the sale of their business typically has two broad categories of potential acquirer: strategic purchasers and private equity firms (“PE”). To maximise competitive tension and to achieve the highest possible sale price, it is typically advisable to reach out to both strategic purchasers and private equity as part o... Read More
When a business owner is preparing their company for potential sale, a key piece of data that they will need to identify is their business’ historical earnings, particularly EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation & Amortisation). Acquirers tend to focus on EBITDA because it is seen (perhaps mistakenly) as a proxy for ca... Read More
A key question for the prospective seller of any business is what their company might be worth. One way of attempting to assess that likely value is by researching the valuation multiples previously paid for comparable companies. This process is often referred to as precedent transaction analysis. (If you would like a detailed introductio... Read More
Earn-outs are a common feature of many private company sale transactions. An earn-out is a mechanism that provides for a portion of the agreed purchase price for a business to be payable contingent on certain future conditions being met. For example, an acquirer might agree to purchase a company for $60.0m but only pay $40.0m in cash up-f... Read More
In any business sale transaction, valuation is always a key consideration. Central to understanding company valuation is having a firm grasp of the concept of a valuation multiple, which is an extremely common valuation tool, particularly for private companies. A valuation multiple is simply a ratio that expresses the value of a company a... Read More