The Management Presentation – Usually

Leads to an Outlier Result for the Seller

Involving your management team in the Management Presentation (“MP”) round is a critical decision facing any owner looking to sell their business. The bidders need to hear from the team.

Acompetitive sell-side process requires a significant time commitment of the management team over a nine-month timeframe. The owner of the firm should ensure their direct reports understand their role in building confidence in the overall business model. The lack of senior management participation will most likely lead to a lower valuation. Too many times, a business owner thinks that going down the path of “trusting” only their intuition will lead to a great outcome in valuation and meeting the personal goals of the selling family or shareholder. That assumption generally is not correct.

For the Management Presentations, one suggestion is to involve key members of functional departments: operations, production, finance, supply chain and quality control. In addition, some owners prefer to have a family member or significant other attend the meetings and dinners with the various bidders. Owners and direct reports might have anxiety meeting with potential buyers, therefore, a friendly participant might help settle nerves.

During the Management Presentation, arrange the direct reports in order of speaking assignment to match the presentation. Remember, many of your team leaders are not public speakers, therefore, keep each page simple and pertinent to their department.

High-level bullet points, pictures and product samples are excellent content in presentations.

Another presentation strategy to consider for a firm producing a product, is to arrange the presentation and speakers to align with the actual production cycle. In this example, start with the sales department and explain how the firm obtained the business. Next, have the operations manager explain how they source the material and then how they work with the production manager to create the schedule. In this example, the direct reports can easily represent the process, to the bidders, without a formal PowerPoint presentation.

Achieving an “Outlier” valuation bid has a direct correlation to the Management Presentation. Your investment banker will work with you and the management team to prepare for optimal outstanding delivery. The M&A market continues to be bullish and there should continue to be opportunities to sell your business in 2024.

Forecast for 2023

The seasonal lull combined with overall low demand is pushing volumes below pre-pandemic levels at some of Europe’s major hubs, though some in the industry are hopeful that electronics product launches set to begin soon could drive some peak season rebound in the coming months nonetheless. Freightos Air Index data shows ex-Asia and transatlantic rates remain more than 40% lower than a year ago though China – North America rates have increased more than 25% since a month ago.

Air rates – Freightos Air index

• China – N. America weekly prices increased 14% to $4.59/kg

• China – N. Europe weekly prices increased 5% to $3.05/kg.

• N. Europe – N. America weekly prices increased 2% to $1.70/kg.