Views From the Market
Stikeman Elliott
Stikeman Elliott provides creative Canadian legal services to clients around the world.
In this series of 15-minute podcasts on private equity and midmarket M&A, with a focus on Canada, a wide range of industry participants discuss the deal market trends that they’ve been seeing. The host and originator of the series is Mario Nigro, M&A partner at Stikeman Elliott in Toronto.
Read more about Mario Nigro: https://bit.ly/3IkJsPJ
🔗 To stay connected and receive the latest updates, subscribe to our podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts
🔗 Follow Stikeman Elliott on LinkedIn for more insights
🔗 For more information and resources, visit stikeman.com/viewsfromthemarket
In this series of 15-minute podcasts on private equity and midmarket M&A, with a focus on Canada, a wide range of industry participants discuss the deal market trends that they’ve been seeing. The host and originator of the series is Mario Nigro, M&A partner at Stikeman Elliott in Toronto.
Read more about Mario Nigro: https://bit.ly/3IkJsPJ
🔗 To stay connected and receive the latest updates, subscribe to our podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts
🔗 Follow Stikeman Elliott on LinkedIn for more insights
🔗 For more information and resources, visit stikeman.com/viewsfromthemarket
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 22, 2021 • 22min
Episode 17 - The Life of a CEO in a Small to Medium-Sized Business: A View From the Trenches
Mario Nigro’s guest Steve Divitkos is a CEO who successfully transformed and sold a midmarket IT business. Steve’s current project is his “In The Trenches” blog and podcast, which focuses on real-life challenges facing leaders of small and medium-sized businesses. He shares some of his ideas on CEO success along with his views about the current state of the market.
Sep 16, 2021 • 23min
Episode 16 - The Factors Shaping Midmarket M&A in Canada: A Banker’s Perspective
In this edition of the podcast, Robert Hickey of RBC discusses the dynamics of pandemic-era midmarket M&A. While Canada’s long-term private equity growth has continued, producing an abundance of available capital and attractive valuations, some midmarket deals are running up against capacity issues among buyer due diligence teams and professional services providers. Another development that Robert and the RBC team are seeing is that border controls are shifting the buyer pool significantly toward Canadian entities. Generally, however, the market is strong and promises to remain so for the immediate future.
Sep 8, 2021 • 19min
Episode 15 – In for the Duration: Today’s Midmarket from the Perspective of a Long-term PE Investor
Andrea Nickel of Celina Capital joins Mario Nigro to discuss Celina’s experiences during the pandemic. Founded in 2017, Celina is a long-term midmarket value investor that partners with management teams, generating results in the form of cash flow rather than quick exits. Business in the first half of 2021 has been brisk, as the pandemic continues to spur seller activity across all sectors. While interest rates are a wild card, Andrea believes that the market is likely to remain robust for the foreseeable future.
Sep 1, 2021 • 19min
Episode 14 - Canada’s Midmarket: Accelerating Growth as Available Capital Increases
This podcast features Stephen Jakob, co-founder of Osprey Capital Partners, advisors to families and shareholders selling mid-sized businesses. Over the past 20 years, growing private equity activity has substantially increased available capital in Canada’s midmarket. According to Stephen, the pandemic has only exacerbated this trend, as numerous search funds, unfunded sponsors and U.S. funds join the hunt for Canadian acquisitions, with bidding wars now commonplace for even relatively small businesses.
Aug 25, 2021 • 18min
Episode 13 - Financial Diligence: A View from the Front Lines
Damian Peluso of KPMG joins Mario Nigro to discuss how financial due diligence has been affected by the pandemic. Some of the changes are practical, such as fewer face-to-face meetings and an inability to work on-site. Others are more substantive, as advisors develop new approaches to disentangle COVID-related issues from those that reflect longer-term strengths and weaknesses in the seller’s business. Looking forward, Damiano sees continuing strength in the M&A market over the next 12 months.
Aug 19, 2021 • 21min
Episode 12 - Private Equity and the North American Distribution Sector
Our guest on this podcast is Jay Greyson of Tampa-based Supply Chain Equity Partners (SCEP), the only North American PE firm that invests exclusively in the supply chain/distribution sector. Jay discusses how pandemic-related disruptions, baby-boomer retirements and impending capital gains tax changes in the U.S. are bringing many companies to market. Canada is a significant part of SCEP’s portfolio and the firm continues to pursue opportunities north of the border.
Aug 11, 2021 • 16min
Episode 11 - Canada’s Growing Midmarket Tech Sector: Insights and Outlook
Shivalika Handa, a corporate finance advisor and leader of PwC Canada’s technology transactions group, joins Mario Nigro in this podcast. From a technology M&A perspective, the pandemic sharply accelerated a longer-term trend of international investor interest in Canada’s tech sector, including the country’s fintech, healthcare and AI clusters. Shivalika notes that this improved access to foreign capital has lessened pressures to relocate to the U.S., with the result that Canadian tech companies are growing in place, producing more midmarket players and new M&A opportunities.
Jul 29, 2021 • 20min
Episode 10 - Pandemic Selling: An Investment Banker’s Perspective on Canadian Midmarket M&A
In this episode, Mario Nigro speaks with CIBC’s Christian Davis about the trends he’s seeing in Canadian midmarket M&A. The remarkable sell-side strength of the pandemic era appears to be based on a combination of long-term and pandemic-specific factors. In Christian’s view, activity is likely to remain robust over the medium term, with rising inflation being one “red flag” that he and his team are watching closely.
Jul 22, 2021 • 20min
Episode 9 - PE Investing in Residential Real Estate Development
Sasha Cucuz joins us to discuss private equity in the real estate context. His company, Toronto-based Greybrook, makes private equity investments in residential real estate development projects in Southern Ontario and across North America. Greybrook is actively involved in managing the projects in collaboration with developers. Sasha provides his insight into the direction of the residential real estate market and discusses new opportunities, notably in the area of healthy building interiors, that have emerged during the pandemic.
Jul 14, 2021 • 21min
Episode 8 - Bridging the Small Business “Tech Gap”: A Unique Investment Approach
Our guest in this podcast is Dr. Afsheen Afshar, founder of New York-based Pilot Wave Holdings. Focusing on smaller midmarket companies, Pilot Wave invests not only capital but also AI and other advanced technology expertise into its portfolio businesses. As an MD/PhD from Stanford University, Afsheen spent a number of years leading the data science divisions of top U.S. financial firms before moving into his current role. His recent experience includes Pilot Wave’s first deal in Canada, which he and Mario Nigro discuss before turning to the overall state and direction of the deal market.
