As the owner of a business, you face a slew of tough decisions nearly every day. One question you may have asked yourself is whether you should sell your company. Several factors can influence your decision to sell, some of which you may not have even thought about. Here you will find a comprehensive list of possible reasons to help you decide if and when selling your business is right for you.  

It's at a High Point

Over time, most businesses face different cycles of highs and lows, and potential buyers prefer to acquire companies that are thriving and have a positive future outlook. When your company is performing well, and profits are high, you can opt to sell to get the maximum value in a sale. You may not be ready to retire or move on, but if you sell at the right time, you can make the most money possible and pave the way for a more secure financial future. This can also help you avoid selling at a later date for less value, which would mean less money for your retirement. 

If you are far from being ready to retire, there are ways to structure a deal to stay on with the company, working for the new owner and helping them grow the business. This can help you start the transition to your full exit. And in this case, if the business declines or an economic recession occurs, you do not face the risk of losing value because you got out at the right time.

There are strategies available for business owners who are in need of additional capital to grow their business. The partial sale transaction has gained popularity over the last couple of years. When business owners find themselves with limited operating liquidity, they are unable to create the type of growth they desire. A partial sale can bring additional resources into the business that can set into motion long-term growth strategies, increase operational stability and recruit new hires. If you are looking to downsize your company, you can invest that money into different opportunities that may offer you a higher return on your investment.

A partial sale of your business gives you the opportunity to remain involved in the business that you have spent decades building. Following a partial sale, many business owners serve as advisors, senior executives, board members, etc., to assist the buyer with their transition period to new ownership. Smart buyers are open to customizing the role and involvement of the seller once the deal has closed in order that the seller remains with the business for months and years to come.

At the American Advertising Awards, Benchmark International's marketing team won another ADDY® award for their "Virtual Black Box" in the Microsite category. A microsite is any web page or series of pages that are a part of a larger website but intended to feature specialized information. 

Financial Planning & Advisory Sector

In 2022, the market size of the financial planning & advisory industry is $59.2 billion. It is expected to increase 4% this year. Between 2017 and 2022, the market has grown 4.5% per year on average. The size of the market has increased faster in the U.S. than the overall economy. 

Industry profit declined in 2020 due to declining assets under management and lower return on assets but increased in 2021 as the economy began to recover. As macroeconomic conditions continue to improve through 2026 gradually, industry operators are expected to benefit from rising equity values and rising interest rates. 

High competition is a challenge in the industry, while the population's median age represents an opportunity. This is because the rising median age of the U.S. population is approaching retirement age, which increases the demand for retirement planning, capital preservation, and estate planning.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increased adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and other entrepreneurial software. In 2020, many companies accelerated their plans to begin using these systems, and the market for them remains hot, particularly for Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models. COVID forced most businesses to digitize their offerings in real-time as consumers began turning to online shopping and employees started working remotely—both trends that are expected to continue into the future.

So if you are a business owner considering selling your company, the good news is that right now, it's a seller's M&A market. By October of 2021, total M&A deal activity reached $4.4 trillion, which is an increase of 92% compared to a year ago and is the strongest opening period for M&A since 1980. In addition, merger activity resulted in deals totaling $1.52 trillion in the three months prior to September 27, 2021. That's up 38% from the same quarter in 2020—and more than any other quarter on record.

In a seller's market, demand is high for assets that are in limited supply, giving sellers more pricing and negotiating power. This demand can be attributed to a recovering economy, high cash balances, big government spending, new SPAC buyers, and low-interest rates. Plus, investors are flush with cash and ready to spend it on acquisitions that can help create growth or add capabilities. When market conditions shift, buyers have the upper hand in deal negotiations. And this could happen when the U.S. Federal Reserve increases interest rates in the next year or so.

Short answer – We don’t know. The M&A market has never interacted with this much inflation before. Inflation is now at a 40-year high. In 1982, there was no M&A market. The birth of the market is most often traced to KKR’s 1988 takeover of RJR Nabisco, as made famous in the 1989 book “Barbarians at the Gate” and the 1993 movie of the same name. Whether that is the actual date of birth or not can be argued. Still, at the time it was commonly thought that the cash for the $25 billion price tag was unattainable because, as the book says, there was a belief that there was not anywhere near that much excess cash floating around for doing deals in the entire world.

Benchmark International is pleased to announce the acquisition of Plymouth-based GMD by Bristol-based Leviathan.

GMD provides precision engineered component and design solutions for projects within the marine, defence, food processing, energy and pharmaceutical sectors. Some of its major clients include the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and major defence and engineering group, Babcock.

Based in Bristol, Leviathan is a subcontract engineering group which focuses on high value and growth sectors where various services can be shared to address larger, more technical projects for its premium customers.

GMD is expected to be the first of several acquisitions for Leviathan as it works to become a wider, integrated engineering group. Leviathan has said its expansion plans will focus on “premium value and growth sectors”. By acquiring a broader array of engineering services, the group can begin to focus on bigger and “more technical” projects.

Post-acquisition, GMD’s founding Samson family, who established the business over 25 years ago, will remain within the firm.

The Labor Shortage Persists

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted companies of all sizes, but small businesses have certainly been hit the hardest. First, there were total shutdowns, followed by financing problems due to slowed business, and now it is labor shortages that are the latest issue as the world works towards recovery. 

The slew of workers leaving the workforce altogether is fueling a growing labor shortage in what seems to be every industry. Demand is up, and supply is down. Businesses are facing concerns with not having enough people to get the job done—especially in sectors such as healthcare and technology. These spaces are seeing attrition rates of 3.6% and 4.5% higher, respectively, than last year. Research even shows that 36% of workers who quit their jobs did so without another job lined up.

And the labor shortage is an issue that is happening on a global scale, from the US to Canada to Europe. According to the US Census Bureau, many businesses struggle to retain and attract employees, and 49% of business owners say the labor shortage is affecting their business. And a Canadian study reported that 30% of Canadian business owners say the top motivating factor for pursuing an acquisition is gaining access to new talent. That number is up from 20% before the pandemic. Additionally, a recent Eurostat survey found that, in the third quarter of 2021, a worker shortage was hampering production at 83% of industrial companies in Hungary, 50% in Poland, and 44% in the Czech Republic.

Benchmark International is pleased to announce the acquisition of Pembrokeshire-based Preseli Lodges by holiday park and resort developer, Actually Group.

Preseli Lodges manufactures bespoke luxury lodges and garden rooms, serving clients such as holiday parks and resorts.

Following the sale, Kevin Morgan, founder and director of Preseli, will remain with the business as commercial director and the company will continue to manufacture from its Pembrokeshire base. The business will be rebranded as Actually Lodges, a subsidiary of the Actually Group.

As part of expansion plans a further 20 jobs are being created this quarter with additional manufacturing premises being acquired.

The good news is that experts agree that 2022 will be in the clear from a recession for the US economy. But the next few years may tell a different story. 

An economic downturn could arrive as early as 2023. Federal Reserve policy is expected to change, which will result in more business cycles that many companies will not be ready to face. Even if the country is lucky enough to dodge a recession in 2023, we can expect the economic decline to be more detrimental in 2024 or 2025. The Fed will eventually start easing up on stimulus initiatives and raising interest rates at the same time that inflation is on the rise. It usually takes the economy about a year to react to the Fed’s actions, putting us on track for a safe 2022, but with the following years feeling the impacts.

First off, I’m using the term “post-covid” gingerly, since, as I am writing this article, we are going through a surge of the Omicron variant. This article is intended to shed light on deal structures that we saw in 2021 and compare them to pre-covid years, as well as surmise future structures.

2021 Was a Record Year

In 2021, dealmakers worldwide announced $5.6 trillion in M&A transactions (that’s 30% higher than the previous record), and the U.S. reported $2.9 trillion in transactions (that’s 40% higher than the previous record). While 2021 may have been a record-breaking year for middle-market M&A activity, 2022 should be an excellent year for sellers. 

Last year several factors drove deal activity to new heights:

• Pent-up activity from the previous slow year because of the COVID-19 pandemic
• A wealth of capital seeking investment opportunities
• Potential tax changes this year
• Strong economic growth
• Continued low-interest rates

Benchmark International is pleased to announce the acquisition of Stirling-based The Leadership Factory by London-based Tack TMI.

The Leadership Factory conducts leadership, management, and organisational development programmes with services aimed at increasing clients’ existing management capacity, enhancing leadership, developing structural efficiency, and engaging employees.

Tack TMI is a training provider that focuses on learning in sales excellence, customer experience, leadership and management development, personal development, change and innovation, and safety culture. The company was acquired in 2016 by GI Group, Italy’s largest multinational staffing company. As part of GI Group, TMI Tack operates across over 55 countries and in 37 separate languages.

The acquisition further enhances Tack TMI’s UK coverage and strengthens the leadership development and executive coaching capability within its global learning offering.

Dr Andy Kelly, managing director at The Leadership Factory, said this about working with Benchmark International: “Worked with Andrew Roberts to sell our consulting business. Great service, great communications, great result! Andrew is a pleasure to work with and takes the emotions out of the process.”

In dollar value alone, the oil & gas sector is the world’s largest industry, employing a massive workforce of around 4 million people globally. The major oil companies account for a significant percentage of a country’s national GDP. The world’s largest producers of oil are the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Russia.

In 2021, the oil & gas sector recovered well, with oil prices climbing to their highest levels in six years. Total revenues for the oil & gas drilling sector in 2021 came to approximately $2.1 trillion. The global oil & gas market is forecast to reach $7425.02 billion in 2025. That’s a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6%. This growth is primarily due to companies shifting their operations during recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Low-interest rates positively impacted the oil & gas industry in most developed countries. 

The global oil & gas exploration and production sector account for a large chunk of the global economy. The growth of this sector is expected to increase in the future, with OPEC crude oil production averaging 34.15 million b/d in 2022.

Benchmark International has successfully brokered the sale of Wilnat, Inc. (doing business as KGM) to St. Louis-based private equity firm Compass Group Equity Partners. Tim and Nancy Wood, the sellers of KGM, engaged Benchmark International in June with a mandate to close by year-end with a buyer that would be precisely the right fit for their plans going forward. “Benchmark International put us in the position by mid-October of having met with four potential partners over the course of a week, each offering essentially the same deal value and structure. We had the luxury of picking the group we thought would be the best partner going forward for our family, our employees, and our business partners,” stated KGM CEO Tim Wood.

These meetings followed a uniquely short 15-day marketing campaign in which over 400 potential acquirers were approached. “In today’s market, with some good preparation and an amazing one-of-a-kind opportunity like KGM, we can really make things happen quickly,” stated Benchmark International Managing Director Clinton Johnston.