fuck poorly integrated rollup sell-side mandates. all my homies HATE unintegrated rollups
It is a certain type of hell to try to sell a portco that is just the combination of like 10 different companies that haven't been properly integrated.
PE funds, if you want to snap up small add-ons for 5x and sell it for 15x times FOR THE LOVE OF GOD INTEGRATE THAT SHIT. SAME ERP SYSTEM. SAME HR SYSTEM. ONE EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT TEAM AT THE TOP.
it's bad enough trying to get this data for book / model prep, but I can't even fathom how much the company will be destroyed by a buyer's due diligence
just another day in the mid market
Tell me you’re selling an audax portco without telling me you’re selling an audax portco
I'm sure the beautiful deck you build will present it very nicely as a seamless consolidated company, it will draw massive interest from the next group looking to perpetuate the roll-up, due diligence will be hell on earth for every single party involved but still not entirely deter the high interest, despite learning all the shortcomings of the unintegrated business the next sponsor will make mediocre attempts to rectify while continuing to add via acquisition because that's where the value creation lies, the problem will be exacerbated for 4-7 years until they're ready to sell, and the cycle repeats. Somewhere there is a freshman in college who thinks finance is interesting that has no idea that in 5 years his life will be destroyed for 8 months.
As long as the industry or segment in which the roll-up is taking place remains in vogue, there will be someone willing to write a bigger check and try to get their chunk of return out of it. Once it becomes less of an arms race, valuation will be more informed by integration.
buyer diligence request: "can we get [insert basic data request here]"
seller (aka my clown ass): "ok BuT iT wonT bE Pro FoRma For AcquIsiTIoNs"
I have seen so many shitty platforms that make zero sense with almost no synergy. It is actually nuts to me that anyone buys these. It's like you bought a bunch of 3/10 companies, didn't improve anything, and just glued them together to end up with some kind of C-tier Voltron made of dogshit.
It's a big reason I am not really comfortable raising a fund to a degree. Feels like you are forced into these deals at a certain size because you HAVE to deploy even when there is nothing worth buying…
Feels like you would be better off being patient and waiting for something beautiful worth allocating into. But I get the dynamics, need to deploy and keep racking up fees.