Views From the Market Stikeman Elliott

Our guest on this episode is Robert Bezede of Norton McMullen Corporate Finance, specialists in selling Ontario-based private businesses. Robert notes that activity in the lower midmarket is insulated from the current market headwinds because aging owners are highly motivated to sell. In addition, the pool of prospective buyers has grown, with more financial groups, high net worth individuals, search funders, and family businesses involved than previously, along with increasing involvement from the major banks. Robert also discusses his very successful YouTube channel, “FinanceKid”, which has over 30,000 subscribers.

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.

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.