Articles

By Brandon Mack

The International Business Brokers Association (IBBA) and M&A Source have recently published their second quarter market research for 2017. The report is a statistical analysis of 293 respondents who answered a 25-question survey. This is the final part of a three-part series where I will examine the IBBA’s and M&A Source’s analysis of the market.

In the under $500K range, the median number of months between the engagement and close was six months this quarter. The most common industries in this range were personal services at 24% and restaurants at 22%. The median SDE multiple payed in this range was 2.0.

The largest industries in the $500K to $1M range are businesses services at 19%, personal services at 16%, restaurants at 13%, construction at 10%, and consumers goods at 10%. The most common SDE multiple payed was 2.5.

The most deals per industry in the $1M to $2M range are as follows: manufacturing at 20%, consumer goods at 12%, personal services at 12%, business services at 12%, distribution at 8%, and healthcare at 8%. 25% of the business this quarter in the $1M to $2M range were sold at an SDE multiple of 3.25.

In the $2M to $5M price range, 16% of the businesses sold took between 18 and 24 months to sell, but 19% only took 6 months. 24% of the business sold in this range were in the manufacturing industry. Construction made up 14%, business services made up 10%, consumer goods made up 10%, and personal services made up 10%.