Mid-tier business broker Mergers & Acquisitions has broadened its exposure to international markets through a tie-up with European corporate advisory firm, Translink Corporate Finance.
Mid-tier business broker Mergers & Acquisitions has broadened its exposure to international markets through a tie-up with European corporate advisory firm, Translink Corporate Finance.
The deal gives Mergers & Acquisitions access to Translink’s network of 200 investment bankers working out of 30 countries, as the West Perth advisory firm adjusts to post-boom conditions in Australia.
Managing director Ross Goldstein said the partnership with Translink was based on a fee-sharing agreement for any transactions the international broker referred to it, and any business Mergers & Acquisitions sent on to Translink’s international offices.
Mergers & Acquisitions is dominant in Perth’s mid-tier business broking sector, with a focus on the sale of businesses valued at between $10 million and $200 million.
This deal is a good match for Translink, which specialises in cross-border transactions valued at between $15 million and $400 million.
The agreement builds on Mergers & Acquisition’s national network of offices, and Mr Goldstein said it had already delivered leads out of Germany and Japan.
He said activity was still strong in the mid-tier market, albeit across a broader range of business sectors, and the international appetite for Australian businesses was stronger than ever.
“We are still the land of milk and honey, even if people who live here don’t appreciate that,” Mr Goldstein told Business News.
“If you were living in Spain, Portugal, Ireland or Greece or Italy you would think this was a magnificent place to invest in.
“We are very broad and we don’t focus on any particular industry, but oil and gas has been fairly prominent recently and prior to that anything to do with mining services.”
Mergers & Acquisitions is currently working on heads of agreements for a major food-manufacturing group and an agri-chemical operation.
Tomkins Turner Corporate Advisory opened its doors just two years ago but managing director Todd Grover said there were a lot of opportunities, especially in the mid market segment.
Mr Grover, who formerly worked at Mergers & Acquisitions, said several international groups keen to reach out to Australia had approached Tomkins Turner.
“We are trying to make sure we find one that fits with the Tomkins Turner culture and ethos so it will work,” he said.
Tomkins Turner was the adviser on Swedish steel fabricator SSAB’s recent acquisition of a 51 per cent stake in Perth operation G&G Mining Fabrication.
And Mr Grover said it was negotiating to acquire a division of a large multinational, which if successful would transform the Perth buyer into the biggest software business of its type in the Asia Pacific.
“We are working with an agribusiness, a fifth-generation farming family, which is building an integrated model between cattle stations and feed production,” he said.
“That whole agribusiness is quite topical at the moment and we will be looking to go to the market in the next few weeks to raise some money for this.”
