Views From the Market

Mike Karran of the Mintz Group speaks with Mario Nigro about Mintz’ global due diligence and investigations practice, particularly as it relates to vetting investment targets and their executives. Mike describes what Mintz’ investigations look for and gives examples of how the results can change the risk dynamics of a proposed transaction. As investors become more discerning and data-driven, investigative due diligence is increasingly seen as a standard practice in midmarket deals. Thank you for tuning in to Views from the Market. 🔗 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

Today’s guests are founders of Toronto-based Alpha40 Capital, a self-funded search fund that is emerging as a significant force in the lower midmarket. Mohsen Manzari and Ash Buckle discuss how they became interested in entrepreneurship, honed their skills in business school, and developed a successful search fund during and after the pandemic. Anyone interested in the search fund model will be interested in their “lessons learned” and thoughts about the future.

Our guest on today’s podcast is Vimal Kotecha, a senior transactional advisor at Richter LLP with special expertise in business valuations and disputes. In the wake of the deal euphoria of 2021-22, many acquired businesses are not tracking projections, leading to a rising tide of post-purchase price disputes. Join Vimal and Mario for a wide-ranging discussion of what’s triggering these disputes, what the solutions are, and how dispute risk can be minimized in future transactions.

In this episode, Mario Nigro speaks with Andy Love of Dallas-based Aspect Investors. Andy has been involved in the search space for about 25 years. Aspect, which he founded in 2012, has made over 200 investments, including more than 20 here in Canada. He and Mario discuss trends in the industry – both long-term and recent – and look ahead to what Andy sees as a period of continued growth over the next few years.

Mario’s guest for this podcast is Greg Duggan of Alcorn Partners. Alcorn’s investment strategy is aimed at profitable lower midmarket businesses – often family-owned enterprises – that are ready to take the next step toward professionalized management. Investments are long-term in the truest sense – up to 20 years or more – and portfolio companies can be in any industry in Canada or the U.S. As Greg notes, Alcorn’s long-term commitment is attractive to exiting founder-owners and avoids the common private equity mistake of selling too early, as well as being advantageous from a tax perspective.

In this episode, Mario speaks with Lars Hamkens and Jamie Pridham of Toronto-based Quadrivium Capital Partners. Quadrivium, an investment firm that works with executives and serial entrepreneurs in lower midmarket acquisitions, currently has a portfolio of 11 successful companies funded by groups of individual investors and generally held for the long term. The typical Quadrivium deal begins with an introduction to an entrepreneurial business operator for whom an appropriate opportunity is identified, often a situation with an exiting owner-operator. Looking ahead, Jamie and Lars are of the view that the lower midmarket is significantly insulated from macroeconomic forces and should continue to reward those who are willing to take the risks of entrepreneurship.

In this podcast, Bakari Akil of Graves Hall Capital shares his experiences in Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (“ETA”), a type of entrepreneurship that begins with the acquisition of an existing business using primarily third-party capital. While it is beginning to make its mark in Canada, ETA is mainly a U.S. phenomenon, thanks to the extraordinary availability of capital south of the border. In Bakari’s view, ETA is democratizing the deal space by providing a path to business ownership that almost anyone can follow. Thank you for tuning in to Views from the Market. 🔗 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, Mario Nigro speaks with Josh Axler of Flow Capital, a publicly-traded alternative finance firm that works with high-growth businesses in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Josh discusses Flow’s investment criteria, which include 25% year-over-year growth and $2.5 million recurring revenue (or $4 million non-recurring) and how it structures its involvement to be minimally dilutive and non-controlling. In the current environment, with some pullback from banks and VC firms, more high-growth lower midmarket companies are looking seriously at what Flow has to offer.

In this episode, Patricia Riopel and Enrico Magnani of Montréal-based Magnum Capital Partners share their unique journey through the search fund model, from the challenges of finding a business to acquire to their successful exit from Scribendi, an Ontario company that develops text-editing software. They also discuss their experiences as a married couple navigating this path, Patricia's perspective as the first woman to achieve a search fund exit in Canada, and their future plans to support the search community as investors.

Today’s podcast takes us to British Columbia, where Erica McGuinness has built a sell-side advisory practice with one of Western Canada’s leading firms, Sequeira Partners. Mario and Erica discuss Alberta and B.C.’s strong deal market, with emphasis on insurance M&A, where valuations are increasing as PE firms seek out brokerage consolidation possibilities. Other sectors with strong deal flow include engineering, environmental consulting and industrials.