Views From the Market

Liz MacRae, President and co-founder of Village Wellth, shares her journey in empowering entrepreneurial acquirers in Canada. The discussion highlights how Village Wellth aids first-time buyers by bridging the knowledge gap in business acquisitions. Liz dives into recent trends in the Canadian market, including the rise of family and female buyers, and the evolution of financing options. She emphasizes the importance of personal branding, networking, and specialized strategies for success in the competitive landscape of entrepreneurship through acquisition.

David Planques, Managing Director at Revival Capital and President of Bellwood Capital, specializes in the high-stakes world of Chief Restructuring Officers (CROs) for distressed businesses. In this engaging discussion, he delves into the critical role of CROs in revitalizing struggling companies, emphasizing quick decision-making and maintaining stakeholder trust. Planques shares insights on navigating corporate culture during turmoil and real-life success stories, illustrating the importance of empathy and innovative solutions in effective restructuring efforts.

Karl Sigerist, Managing Director of Shaughnessy Group, shares insights on post-pandemic challenges facing older owner-operators. He discusses the changing dynamics of business valuations, emphasizing the acceptance of lower prices amid rising costs. The conversation delves into the psychological hurdles linked to transitioning ownership and the importance of reinvestment. Sigerist also explores future opportunities in the lower middle market, highlighting the potential for consolidation and advances in technology for new owner-operators.

Jas Dhaliwal, Managing Director at Lark Street Capital, shares insights from his journey in private equity. He discusses the surge in midmarket M&A activity driven by retiring baby boomers. Jas points out that private equity interest is rising, especially in sectors like healthcare and professional services, as firms prepare for expected rate cuts. He also highlights emerging opportunities in automation and home services, predicting increasing acquisitions in these fragmented markets fueled by shifting demographics and market dynamics.

In this episode, Mario is joined by Scott Stirrett of Venture for Canada, a registered charitable organization that provides training to budding entrepreneurs. Scott and Mario discuss the growing demand for entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) training in Canada and the challenges that young entrepreneurs face, notably in accessing debt financing. While Scott is optimistic about the future of ETA in Canada, he believes that policy changes to increase access to debt financing are crucial for its growth, including adapting the Canada Small Business Financing Program to include key elements of the U.S. Small Business Administration 7(a) loan program. 🔗 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 edition of the podcast, Mario Nigro interviews Richter LLP’s Michael Black and Brett Miller about value creation services that can help midmarket businesses achieve their growth and transaction objectives. As Brett and Michael discuss, value creation can involve enhancing board design, optimizing processes, systems and technology and focusing the customer and product mix. Whether implemented internally or through an advisory firm like Richter, a value creation process involves long-term planning that prepares the business for expansion or sale, creating the information base to support target identification, due diligence, transaction execution, post-sale integration and succession planning. 🔗 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

Our guest on this podcast episode is Paul Langley of Capital West Partners, a Vancouver-based midmarket M&A advisory firm. As Paul relates, British Columbia’s diverse economy is dominated by midmarket businesses, accounting for 25% of all midmarket transactions in Canada. While it was somewhat isolated in the past, B.C. is now squarely on the radar of U.S. and eastern Canadian buyers – one reason Paul considers the outlook for 2024 and beyond to be very positive. 🔗 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

Mario’s guest for this podcast is Jill Chua, Managing Director at Raymond James Canada. Jill and Mario discuss midmarket M&A, with a focus on growth equity, one of Jill’s specialties. Growth equity is a niche area of investment that targets companies that have outgrown the venture capital stage but are not ready for traditional private equity. Growth equity firms provide capital and partnership to help these companies scale faster and achieve higher valuations. One key benefit for the founders is that they can often take some secondary proceeds from the cash infusion, while also retaining some ownership, freeing them to be less risk-averse than when a larger proportion of their wealth was tied up in the business. 🔗 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

Mario is joined by Brent Timmerman and Jody Law, Co-CEOs of Pacific West Mechanical Limited, and Mike McIsaac, CEO and Managing Director at Baker Tilly Corporate Finance in Vancouver. They discuss how Brent and Jody, as search fund operators, found and acquired Pacific West, a plumbing and HVAC service and maintenance company in Vancouver, with the help of Mike and his team, who acted as the sell-side advisors for the previous owners. The guests share their insights and experiences on various aspects of the deal, particularly on the process by which each side determined that this transaction was the right fit for them. Both sides agree that relationship building, based on candid discussions of issues and concerns, is one of the keys to closing a deal.

Robert Bezede, Corporate Finance specialist, discusses the strength of the lower midmarket due to motivated aging owners, increased buyer pool including financial groups and banks. He also talks about his successful YouTube channel 'FinanceKid' with 30,000 subscribers.