We have a construction management related company that we thought we could sell fairly quickly. It has stable and substantial earnings (above $1 million) and typically, in my opinion, any company in any industry with stable and substantial earnings can get a deal done.
Now, I’ll have to use the qualifier “eventually” to that opinion.
Many of the buyers we talked to are in the construction business and they have seen the industry take an absolute beating, and they haven’t quite forgotten that. We have received pretty dang low offers in the 2x and 3x earnings range (that is 2 and 3x EBITDA). We’ve also had offers of, “Yeah, we’ll take the business and we’ll allow the owner to get his cash and AR out”.
We haven’t given up, and it does look like the situation is changing as the economy continues to improve and the housing market slowly comes back. The offers are definitely coming up, and it looks like we should be able to get a deal done.
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