The Current State of the M&A Market, with Don Bravaldo, Bravaldo Capital Advisors
Don Bravaldo: When it costs more to buy a business, the M&A activity will slow, especially for larger transactions, which involve a lot more debt and banks being more cautious or less willing to lend into those markets. Thankfully, our marketplace of a couple hundred million or less. is characterized with a lot of private equity activity.
And many of those private equity groups are executing on what’s called a buy and build strategy where they’ll buy a platform company and then continue to add onto it by buying smaller businesses. Banks are much more willing to lend to that existing platform business, knowing that there’s another business that’s easy to tuck in.
So the financing is available, and whether a bank actually got interested in funding that or not, there’s been a rise in proliferation of non-bank lending and that’s really supported the M& A market, especially the lower M&A market, and corporations have remained active. It’s difficult to go before the board and justify a billion dollar M& A transaction in this environment.
Maybe by the end of the year those headline-type transactions will start to occur again, but it’s a lot easier to go before the board and get a $50 million or $100 million deal passed that’s strategic in nature.
Listen to Don’s full ProfitSense with Bill McDermott interview here.
Don Bravaldo, Bravaldo Capital Advisors
Don Bravaldo is the founder and President of Bravaldo Capital Advisors, a boutique investment banking firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, which he established in 2006. As a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with a strong background in finance and accounting, Don has developed a particular passion for mergers and acquisitions. His firm specializes in serving privately held and closely held companies, typically those with revenues between $10 million and $300 million, primarily located in the Southeastern United States.
Under Don’s leadership, Bravaldo Capital Advisors offers a comprehensive range of transaction and advisory services, including sell-side transactions, exit strategy planning, growth through acquisition, debt restructuring, and corporate recapitalization. The firm has developed extensive expertise across various industries, including industrials, information technology, healthcare, and general business services.
Don’s approach to investment banking emphasizes providing independent economic and financial advice, coupled with execution services. His firm’s engagements have a broad geographical scope, ranging from national to international. In addition to his role at Bravaldo Capital Advisors, Don serves as a Board Member for Pandea Global M&A, further extending his influence in the mergers and acquisitions field.
The “One Minute Interview” series is produced by John Ray and the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link.
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