Preparing for Potential Merger & Acquisition Activity

Despite fluctuating market conditions, there is never a wrong time to begin preparing for an eventual sale. The preparation stage is key to executing a successful sale process. In fact, value planning can lead to an optimal sale price for your business.

Merger and acquisition activity is important to consider, regardless of the size or industry of your organization. Buyers are looking for management teams who know what they’re doing and have defendable growth projections, and these are two things you can always focus on.

Important Mergers and Acquisitions Items to Consider

Divesting or acquiring a business may seem like a monumental task. The key to a successful transaction could be summed up in one word — information. There will always be an element of risk involved in transactions; however, starting the process with certain questions and an understanding of topics will act as a roadmap that can lead to an informed decision of what is best for your organization when performing accounting for acquisitions.

Adjusted EBITDA
Middle market deal prices are often traded based on adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA is a term used in transactions to identify unusual and non-recurring events that have impacted EBITDA. For example, the seller may have certain discretionary expenses, relatives on the payroll, non-recurring incentive income or accounting policy differences during the periods being analyzed.

Additionally, current accounting policy elections could impact the analysis of historical EBITDA should the new owner require, or desire, policy changes after purchase. One example could be whether the new owner will elect FIFO vs. LIFO as an inventory method. If the desired inventory method of the buyer is different than what the seller is currently using, adjustments should be made in calculating adjusted EBITDA so that the buyer can make an informed decision.

Working Capital
Sellers and buyers often become fixated on adjusted EBITDA when considering due diligence in mergers and acquisitions. However, it remains equally important to understand other financial health indicators of the entity, such as working capital. Inventory and floorplan are some of the most significant items on a balance sheet. Analyzing inventory levels by product line and completing a turnover analysis allows the buyer to detect slow-moving items. Additionally, reviewing for aged inventory can identify future borrowing base issues or the potential of distressed contribution margin on the aged inventory. Understanding the inventory mix you are acquiring will help you identify issues that could present themselves post-acquisition. Furthermore, identifying adjustments to working capital may help reduce the possibility of money changing hands after the transaction has closed.

Profitability by Segment
When evaluating a potential acquisition or sale, an important metric that should be analyzed is profitability by revenue segment. Appropriate segregation of costs provides buyers and sellers insight into the profitability drivers of the entity. These costs are not often easy to identify retroactively, so it’s important an effort be made ahead of the potential sale to provide more detailed insights into what makes the entity profitable. Furthermore, any insight a seller may be able to provide regarding historical profitability trends reduces the risk of a potential issue stalling the deal.

Family Business Considerations
When your business is family-owned, there are additional complexities to consider. Family-owned businesses account for roughly 70% of global GDP, but many family businesses struggle with long-term survival for future generations. These struggles can be due to a lack of sell-side readiness, unexpected emotional challenges and a difficulty maintaining culture throughout the transition. But one of the largest struggles can be a misalignment of goals — if you’re planning to transition to a family member, but that doesn’t work out down the line, you want to make sure you have alternative exit plans mapped out.

Wondering what your family business might be missing?

Capacity for Growth
Along with financial factors, it is important for a buyer to understand what the target company is capable of in the future and additional costs that may be necessary for planned growth. The target may be operating near or at capacity in the facility they are currently leasing. A buyer’s integration or growth plans could be significantly hindered by unforeseen capital expenditures not identified in the diligence phase.

Understand the Importance of Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions

Need acquisition accounting? When negotiating mergers or acquisitions, due diligence serves as an in-depth review of the target organization—both its operations and its people. Much of due diligence involves a review of the quality of the assets and earnings to be acquired, but it also includes a review of operations, technology and staff when accounting for acquisitions.

Scope
Want acquisition analysis accounting? The scope of the due diligence procedures depends on the structure of the proposed transaction. If it’s an asset purchase, you are obviously focused on the assets being acquired and staff to be hired. If it’s a stock purchase or merger, there is more due diligence required regarding organizational issues, since you are stepping into the seller’s shoes in such transactions. The review needs to include a review of organizational documents, as well as tax issues, such as the S corporation election.

In addition, since many acquisitions involve organizations not subject to a financial statement audit prepared under generally accepted audit standards, the strength of internal controls can vary widely. It is through the due diligence process that you identify potential risks and develop a list of issues to be addressed in the definitive agreement.

Due diligence might include a review or inspection of:

Financial information
Corporate information, including material contracts and agreements
Asset quality
Lending policies and procedures
Asset/liability management function
Operations
Deposits an analysis of deposit growth, core deposits and rates paid on deposits
Internal controls (the depth and effectiveness)
Litigation (anything in progress or pending)
Environmental issues
Employees and human resources (staff capabilities, compensation agreements)
Federal, state and local tax reporting
Regulatory compliance

Tax Considerations in Mergers and Acquisitions

When a business engages in a restructure, merger, sale or acquisition of another business, proper planning is vital to obtain the necessary information to fulfill various tax reporting requirements for the transaction. The type and extent of tax compliance that will be required depends on a variety of factors. For example, is the transaction taxable or tax-free? Is the transaction a sale of actual assets or a stock sale? The answer to these questions determines the next steps in the compliance and reporting process.

Information Gathering
It's not always apparent whether a particular transaction is taxable or tax-free. To obtain the comfort necessary for preparing or signing a tax return that will reflect the taxability of a transaction, the following items should be compiled for review:

Stock or asset purchase agreement
SEC filings, such as DEFM 14A, DEFM 14C, PREM 14A, PREM 14C and S-4
Board minutes
State incorporation, merger and dissolution filings
Organizational charts
Cap tables (i.e., shareholder ownership tables)
Investment Banker Fairness Opinion
Attorney tax opinions

Compliance Requirements
Once the nature of the transaction is apparent, the next step is to think about the compliance requirements associated with the transaction. Since businesses don't often engage in restructuring transactions, it can be difficult to keep abreast of these requirements. Maintaining a working knowledge of complex M&A rules, as well as the transaction reporting requirements, can be daunting and a time-consuming effort.

The Importance of Planning & Implementation in Mergers and Acquisitions

The merger, acquisition and divestiture process typically focuses on the transaction deal and negotiations involved. The implementation portion is often a second thought or prepared for after the fact. However, an implementation that includes a structured plan, defined process and comprehensive communication plan will impact more stakeholders and oftentimes be the measure of a successful deal. Planning and preparing for each of these three significant items and the ongoing management requires tools, experience and leadership.

Structured Plan
Need a merger and acquisition process flow chart? First, the importance of having a plan for what the organization's world looks like after the merger, acquisition or divestiture will lay the groundwork for the future vision. This plan can include a detailed business plan for the impact and expected result of the process and should provide an organizational chart or design. An unknown plan inhibits decision-making as leadership and teams are left with questions on scope changes or empowerment changes.

Defined Process
Secondly, it is essential to define a process that will address the gaps from the current state to the future. The structure of this process should include identifying resources and tools that will be utilized to facilitate the changes. The formality of the process is independent of the size of the organization and should be based on need or organizational complexity, including geographic span, number of functional areas and internal resources to manage. Creating a process that includes timelines, milestones, guidelines, status reporting, sub-group definitions and decision-making structures eliminates an environment flooded with uncertainty.

Communication Plan
Finally, a successful plan and process will be ineffective without the communication plan. A successful communication plan should start with a stakeholder analysis to identify the needs for each stakeholder cohort. After this analysis is complete, a robust plan can be created that outlines the timing, delivery mechanism and process for each communication from start to ongoing management of the new organization. A structured communication plan enables communications to be fluid and predictable throughout the transition while enabling the communications team or leadership to react to unforeseen needs without losing the structure.

Understanding What’s Happening in Your Industry

In addition to market trends, organizations must understand the impact of key industry factors. After all, mergers and acquisitions activity spans across all industries. Knowing how to plan for your specific industry and its unique issues will be critical as you prepare for sale.

The Need for a Trusted Advisor as You Prepare for Sale

Does your staff have the experience and capacity to avoid the stumbling blocks mentioned above? It is important to understand that engaging transaction advisors and due diligence providers can be as simple or extensive as the seller or buyer wishes. Involving your legal advisors early in the due diligence process allows them to better understand your needs and help you formulate an appropriate due diligence strategy for your change, private sale, or public acquisition. Whether it’s a fair high-level analysis of the entity in preparation for a potential account sale, a gross margin cost or price analysis of a professional seller’s new product offering, or detailed historical four-year and projected EBITDA and working capital analysis, your firm advisor can make sure you don’t overlook things that could cause surprises.

Eide Bailly’s team can help you best position your business in the market. Together, we’ll develop an action plan to make the most of areas unique to your business.

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