Making Sense of M&A: Introduction

By both number of transactions and total dollar volume of deal, 2021 was the largest year of M&A in recent history with over 2.5 trillion of activity in the US alone.

HVAC/R certainly was a massive part of this with Mergers and Acquisitions at the OEM, manufacturer, wholesaler, and contactor levels. There is no reason to believe this was an anomaly as 2022 has already had a flurry of deals. Leaning on my previous experience as an M&A Consultant, I aim to help HARDI members in this new era as a buyer, seller, competitor, vendor, or customer.

Why is this important to explore?

• M&A is a very complex topic that can be seen as intimidating.  By providing very clear definitions and context, I hope to simplify this subject as much as possible.  

• If you have any thoughts of entering this space as a buyer, seller, or both, but don’t know where to begin, this series can act as a basic toolkit, or a useful checklist to augment those already active in M&A.  

• A very commonly cited statistic is that between 70%-90% of M&A transactions fail. Though the definition of “failure” is somewhat nebulous, a reality is that more often that not, the transactions are not executed as planned.  An outside perspective can enhance the chances of success of a deal, or provide a view on passing as sometimes the best deal is not making a deal.

• Even if M&A is completely out of scope for your business, it still is useful to understand how this changing landscape could affect how you operate.  

What the series will cover:

• How to prepare as a buyer

• How to prepare as a seller

• Contractor M&A: How to protect your market share

• How to compete for acquisitions

• How to increase valuations

• Legal and regulatory concerns

• M&A Alternatives

• How do Investors evaluate wholesalers

• How to execute Day 1 and integrate

• What can go wrong 

• Any other topics members feel are important!

My point of view is not to encourage or discourage M&A activity.  Rather I aim to help members make sense of what this can mean for our channel and your business.  In simple language, this series will help answer the questions of the day and hopefully aid in the continued success of our industry.