Posts Tagged ‘family business’
Acadian Maple sold
The Chronicle Herald is reporting that Authentic Seacoast has acquired Acadian Maple Products from the Allaway family.
Acadian Maple is a Halifax-based supplier of maple products, including its popular-with-bus-tours Tantallon retail location.
Authentic Seacoast is a Guysborough-based collection of businesses owned by Glynn Williams. Williams is well reported as the Toronto businessman who fell in love with Guysborough and has been active in building food & beverage businesses in the town. http://authenticseacoast.com/meet-glynn/
Edible Matters restaurant deal
https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/business/local-restaurant-edible-matters-gobbled-up-248996/
The Chronicle Herald is reporting that the Hammond Plains restaurant/bar Edible Matters has been sold. The Webber family sold to the Doherty family, which owns the Old Triangle bars throughout the Maritimes.
Business succession in NL
https://soundcloud.com/vocm/sept-1st-greg-london-dan-jennings-of-bdo-valuing-your
On a recent VOCM radio show in NL (hosted by BDO partner Nancy Snedden), tax colleague Greg London and I talk in-depth about the challenges of business succession in NL. We covered a wide variety of topics, such as demographics, taxes, the buyer landscape and more.
More insurance broker consolidation
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1558403-long-standing-independent-brokerages-merge
The Chronicle Herald is reporting that Antigonish Insurance and AA Munro Insurance (both Antigonish, NS-based insurance brokers) are merging.
This continues the consolidation trend in the P&C insurance brokerage industry.
Continuing high M&A levels in the SME space
The attached slides from one of our recent M&A presentations highlights the reasons for the continuing high levels of M&A activity in the small & medium-size business space:
- there is no shortage of capital available;
- historically low cost of capital (both debt & equity);
- lack of organic growth in the economy;
- baby boomer demographics (and the lessening of internal family business succession).
In our view, these key indicators point to elevated levels of M&A activity in the near- to mid-term.
Family Business Paradox – Do you want fair or equal?
http://www.bdo.ca/en/Library/Services/business-transition/pages/Family-Business-Paradox.aspx
Check out this BDO article on some of the challenges particularly unique to family businesses. I like this paragraph on “fair versus equal” — some folks actually think this is how the “pot” should be divided!
If a father loves his children equally should he not treat them exactly the same in all matters? Does that mean everyone who works in the business is paid the same or that all children receive equal shares in the family business? If fair means equal then all family members working in the family business would be paid equally regardless of their skills and market value. If fair means equal then each child would inherit the same amount of wealth or shares of the business in their parents’ wills.
If fair is not necessarily equal then children who are given or left shares of the family business could end up receiving a much higher proportion of the family wealth than their siblings. If fair is not equal some children would receive a higher payout based on their employment value rather than on their gender or birth order.