Jaime Romero: AxialMarket’s Deal Update

The industrials space represented 32% of all opportunities, with 818 companies coming to market through November 2011, ranging in company size from $0 to more than $430 million in revenue, according to AxialMarket data.

Opportunities represent companies across each US region, and are broken down by industry, revenue, and EBITDA. Investment banks, business brokers, and M&A advisory firms use AxialMarket to research prospective buyers and lenders, and deliver opportunities through AxialMarket’s network. Through their transaction profiles, financial buyers and corporate acquirers are able to express interest in a deal; since January 2011, over 1,500 profiles have executed more than 7,000 pursuits.

We Found:

– 54% of all Industrials Opportunities fell under the Capital Goods sector.

– Construction & Engineering was the most active subsector YTD, accounting for 16% of all Industrials Opportunities.

– There was a shortage of Industrial Conglomerates Opportunities and a surplus of Construction & Engineering Opportunities.

– Opportunities were the most abundant in the US South region (the South Atlantic in particular) with 34% of Industrial Opportunities, which accounted for more than twice the amount of Opportunities in the Northeast.

– The Opportunity with the highest Pursuit Rate, 42.9%, was a firm focused on specialized logistics with revenue of $23.6M.

– The Transportation sector accounted for the highest average revenue per Opportunity at $16M, buoyed by both Railroads and Trucking at $28.5M and $20.4M, respectively.

– The Commercial & Professional Services sector averaged less than $9M in revenue per Opportunity, yet it has included the most profitable companies, with a sector-wide average EBITDA margin of almost 14%, 1.2 percentage points higher than that of Capital Goods and four percentage points higher than that of Transportation.

Jaime Romero is a VP with AxialMarket; he blogs here. Visit axialmarket.com to download the full Industrials M&A activity report or request an invitation to join the network.