Today’s M&A Landscape: Emerging Trends and Tips

With mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on the rise, it’s increasingly important for businesses to understand best practices for a successful transaction. Below are some of the latest trends in this volatile M&A climate, as well as some tips for a successful transaction.

M&A as an Investment Strategy

The biggest trend is strong, widespread interest in buying companies as an investment — and a huge amount of money is waiting to be utilized solely for that purpose. Family offices and individuals with significant wealth are concerned about the stock market, and because interest rates are low, they aren’t buying bonds. Instead, they’re choosing to invest in companies. Because of the proliferation of high net-worth individuals interested in buying, we’re seeing increased private equity (PE) activity involving funds supported by multiple investors.

High Demand Creates Valuation Gap

Increased demand means purchase prices are at historic highs, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) multiples reaching over ten. High multiples mean two things: it’s a seller’s market, and purchase price inflation has led to increasingly large “air balls,” or differences between purchase price and asset valuation, which determines the amount of debt a buyer is willing to take on to buy a company.

The financing process grows more complex when the air ball is larger, as the lender must decide whether they’re willing to lend enough to bridge the gap. If the sum unsecured by collateral is too large, a bank may not approve that loan if the air ball hasn’t been accounted for elsewhere in the deal. For example, if a buyer purchases a company for $10 million and that company owns $7 million in collateral assets, there is a $3 million air ball in that transaction. The purchase price gives the appearance of $3 million in additional net worth, but in reality, the additional value isn’t there.

Helping clients understand and account for this valuation gap has been a common theme in recent deals.

Opportunity for Buyers and Sellers

While every company has its own reasons for wanting to be acquired, oftentimes they are out of funds, lack a succession plan for aging leadership or have hit their “ceiling” and don’t have enough capital to move to the next level on their own. Whatever the circumstance, once a business reaches the end of the road, ownership generally has three options: family succession, creating an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) for an employee buyout or an external buyout.

Buyers, on the other hand, usually match one of two molds. First, there are strategic buyers, typically in the same business or industry as the company they seek to acquire. Buying the company acts as a means of eliminating a competitor or expanding into new markets. Second, there are investment buyers, who are motivated by the potential for returns. These buyers believe in the company and feel that buying it will add key growth accelerators, such as strategy, technology or capital. While strategic buyers tend to be other companies, investment buyers are usually PE firms.

Strategies for a Successful Deal

Take your time
In many cases, issues surrounding M&A deals typically arise from moving too quickly. Sometimes a deal requires a quick turnaround, but it’s critical to carefully consider each element of the transaction. Signing the contract before securing financing, discussing financing with the other party before talking to your lender, or failing to assemble a team of key players early enough in the process can all make the transaction more complicated — or completely fall apart.

Be discreet
Buyers sometimes make the mistake of showing their hand too quickly. Ideally, you want to avoid indicating that you’re a motivated buyer. If the seller knows the buyer is desperate and willing to overpay, they may have more leverage in the deal agreement.

Perform due diligence
From a financial perspective, failing to “stress test” the deal to account for unforeseen losses or performance decline is a major problem and can lead to the deal collapsing or unexpected issues after closing. Completing a careful analysis and forecast can help ensure this deal works now, and later.

Consider the people involved
Getting the numbers and details right is critical to a successful deal, but it’s equally important to think about the impact of the merger on company culture, employee retention and client relationships. Failing to consider the potential people-driven risks involved in a deal can leave buyers with client attrition or unexpected holes in leadership teams. It’s crucial to build relationships with clients and employees and address cultural concerns proactively.

Find the right partner
With so many factors impacting M&A deals, the job of a lender goes beyond financing the transaction. Before we ever determine a financing structure, our focus is on serving as an advisor and ensuring our client has considered all the logistics, implications, and potential costs of the deal prior to entering a contract.

For part two in this series, click here. 

Tom Terry is chief lending officer at UMB Bank and has more than 30 years of experience in middle market lending and working capital and equipment loans. Tom is responsible for company-wide commercial and consumer credit underwriting and the credit quality of UMB’s loan portfolio through loan administration.