This is the Program Archive for the Toronto Business Transitions Forum.
Introduction by Robert Duffy, Vice President, Growth & Transition Capital Ontario and Atlantic, BDC Capital
What trends will impact the biggest transaction of your life? How does the current economic trend impact business owners that are thinking of transitioning in the coming years? How will financial markets, interest rates and/or the Canadian dollar impact deal terms and multiples? This macro view of the economy and the M&A environment will put things into perspective so that you can plan for a successful transition.
Why should exit-readiness be a part of your business plan? Why prepare your company for sale, even if you have no plans to sell?
The answer is simple: A sellable company usually operates better, in addition to being more valuable – so even if you don’t sell, exit-readiness will make your business stronger.
There are a number of preparatory steps you should be taking as a business owner to ensure you are “exit ready,” after-all, the process of selling or transitioning a business is complicated and uncertain.
Sometimes exits can happen sooner than expected and sometimes they need to be accelerated based on what is happening in the market. You may be presented with an inbound opportunity to sell some or all of your business, or unexpected personal and/or external factors could force your hand. This session will help you assess both your personal and corporate exit readiness; including areas of transition that provide the most opportunity and risk.
You’re contemplating ways to turn years of hard work into cash, but what are your options? Should you look to your senior management team as potential investors, assuming they are interested and able to invest in your business? Should you look outside your firm for strategic buyers? Could Private Equity, Family Offices or other entities provide liquidity opportunities? In this session a panel of experts will help you learn what distinguishes different classes of buyers, depending on your size of business, and what other options you have to generate capital. The panel will discuss various liquidity options including:
There are many reasons to look outside the ranks of your firm or family to find a potential suitor for your business. Depending on the size and type of business you operate and your own personal circumstances – marketing your company to strategic, financial or other buyers, including private equity, might be your most lucrative exit strategy.
That said, the values and terms discussed in any potential offer for your business will vary significantly depending on the type of potential third-party buyers approached; and even moreso, by how potential buyers are approached.
The panel will elaborate on best practices that will help you optimize and strategize a 3rd party transition – with the goal of ultimately finding and securing a buyer at a fair price. Through an interactive discussion you’ll learn:
For many business owners, a management buyout is the best transition option available. While a transition within the senior ranks of your business may be the best option, there are risks and potential missteps to avoid. The panel will identify opportunities that could impact your successful MBO, as well as diverse ways to finance the transaction. They will cover:
Transitioning a business can be a complicated process – especially when family is involved. What impact will bringing in the younger generation have on family dynamics, emotions and lifestyle? The discussion will help bring order to chaos by providing tools and perspectives so you can successfully navigate your family business transition. Examples of real life situations will be highlighted to illustrate what other business owners and their families have done to effectively prepare for the biggest transaction of their lives.
Join Jeff Noble in “Fireside Chat” with Robert Bedard, Founder of BMP Metals, as they discuss the intergenerational transition of BMP.
Join Bruce Harbinson in a discussion with Pierre Morrissette, Founder and Executive Chairman, Pelmorex Corp (Formerly Pelmorex Media Inc.), owner of The Weather Network.
Pelmorex, TWN’s parent company is the dominant weather player in Spain, which is the company’s fastest growing market. In a recent Ipsos Reid survey of the most influential brands in Canada, The Weather Network ranked 12th overall and 1st amongst Canadian-owned companies. In partnership with all authorized government agencies, TWN operates Canada’s emergency altering system, Alert Ready, and recently announced that its alerts will now also be sent to mobile phones in designated areas.
This discussion will not only explore how Pelmorex became such a trusted global leader, but Pierre will also share his insights on multi-generational family enterprise transition planning and the value of bringing outside talent into a family business.
Bring your burning transition questions to our exhibit area. This is your opportunity to meet and obtain advice from Canada’s leading and most reputable experts on the subject of exit-strategy.
When you sell or transition your business you may face a significant tax bill. If you’re not careful, you could find yourself with less than half of the sale price in your pocket. Fortunately, with the right preparation and enough time to implement, there are many opportunities to reduce tax significantly. We will look at how to structure your company well in advance of a potential sale or recapitalization and review new Canadian and US tax changes which could impact all private businesses in Canada.
The sale or transition of a business involves many moving parts. Whether you’re conducting a management buyout or running a process to find a third-party buyer, you’ll inevitably require support from tax and legal experts as well as investment bankers and other M&A professionals to close the deal successfully.
After attending this session, you will understand the benefits of having an exit team, what skill sets to look for and how to select the best advisors for your business transition. This session will also examine advisor fees and compensation.
When is the right time to start thinking about your post transition plan? Not having a plan is a major cause of remorse among business owners who have exited. What impact will a transaction have on your family, your emotions, your lifestyle and your legacy? In this session you will hear a panel of experts and owners share the their post transition experiences.
This discussion will also address transition from wealth creator to wealth manager.
While the idea of providing unfettered access to your confidential business information may sound scary, it is standard operating procedure once a letter of intent is signed. This panel discussion will highlight key areas of tension and risk for sellers. You’ll learn ways to maintain control of the sale process without impeding success.
You will hear first-hand stories that outline what owners and advisors have experienced during the transition journey. Buyers and their advisors will be on the lookout for red flags and trouble spots, this is your opportunity to learn about common “deal breakers” so that you and your advisors can prepare and maintain momentum during your transaction.
Some key areas to focus on include:
Hear from a panel of business owners who have gone through a transition and now have the opportunity to reflect on the deal in the rear view mirror. How has the transition affected their personal and professional lives? What would they change if they were to do it all again, if anything? Would they negotiate differently, work with different strategic advisors or would they second guess their decision to exit? Panelists will help build and broaden your frame of reference by sharing their own war stories and tales from the trenches.
“Meet The Experts”
Bring your burning transition questions to our exhibit area. This is your opportunity to meet and obtain advice from Canada’s leading and most reputable experts on the subject of exit-strategy.
*The conference has been approved for the following continuing education credits:
Ontario lawyers may consider including this course as a CPD learning activity in your mandatory annual Continuing Professional Development Plan as required by the Law Society of Ontario. This program contains 3 hours and 25 minutes of Professionalism Content.
FEA designates may earn 7 hours of CE for the entire conference.
CPAs may include this content as verifiable CPD credits.
Introduction of Conference Chair: Michele Cooper, Managing Director, BDC Capital
The decisions you make today will ultimately impact your business in the future. What are the current economic conditions and market trends that business owners need to consider when thinking about transition? How will interest rates and/or the Canadian dollar impact deal terms and multiples? This macro view of the economy and the M&A environment will put things into perspective so that you can plan for the biggest transaction of your life.
Performance, leadership, and culture are the building blocks of all successful businesses. Understanding how strength in these areas drive the value and potential salability of your business value is critical. As a business owner, you need to focus on “growth” in all three areas to ensure you have the right team in place, even if you have no plans to sell.
Eligible for 1 hour of CPD Ontario Law Society credit.
There are different types of buyers: strategic, private equity, management and family among them. Understanding your potential buyer universe will help clarify your objectives for selling and what you want success to look like. In learning about the different classes of buyers and capitalization options, you will quickly see that it isn’t a one size fits all game. It’s about the best fit for your type and size of business. In this session, you will hear from different buyers and what influences their purchasing decisions. This session will help attendees prioritize which of the following breakouts to attend (A1, A2, A3)
There are many reasons involved in looking outside the ranks of your firm or family to find a potential suitor for your business. Depending on the size and type of business that you operate and your own personal circumstances, positioning your company to strategic, financial or other types of buyers including private equity, might be your most lucrative exit strategy. This session will dive into the mechanisms of selling your business to a third party for the best price and terms.
Through an interactive discussion you’ll learn:
When considering a Management Buyout (MBO), how do you equip your management team to become a credible bidder for the business? How is your leadership team positioned to perform? Have you effectively replaced yourself with the right skill sets and integrated your best people into the company’s operations, so they are prepared to become owners? Is the team aware of the risks and opportunities involved?
This session will cover:
If intergenerational transition is right for your business how are you professionalizing a family owned and operated firm? How are you supporting this shift in leadership? How do you put the right governance in place? Professionalizing your family business is perhaps one of the most complicated change-over options emotionally. Building capacity in the next generation needs to begin early on, and you may also need to consider outside, non-family executives.
In this session presenters will share their unique tools and perspectives so that you can successfully plan for your own family business transition.
Bring your burning transition questions to our group of experts. This is your opportunity to meet and obtain advice from Canada’s leading and most reputable experts on the subject of exit-strategy.
You’ve Built An Amazing Business…
Now What?
Maybe it’s time to take a step back and let others step up?
Or maybe you’re considering bringing in an investor and ramping up?
Or perhaps you’re even thinking of selling your business in the next few years?
Regardless of what you envision for your next chapter, there are four factors that will lead to a happy and lucrative exit from the day-to-day operations of your business. Skip one of the four things and you may regret it, like the 75% of owners who say they absolutely wished they approached their exit a better way.
This session will help you define the second half of your business (and your life). Based on more than 200 in-depth interviews conducted for his podcast Built to Sell Radio (ranked by Forbes as one of their top 5 podcast for business owners), you’ll discover:
In this fireside chat, you will hear from business owner about critical moments in their succession — in the transition of leadership and ownership.
Eligible for 50 minutes of CPD Ontario Law Society credits.
In order to attract a wide range of financial and/or strategic buyers, you must identify the areas of risk within your business well in advance. Potential buyers and their advisors will be on the lookout for red flags and trouble spots once an offer is on the table; this is your chance to learn about “deal breakers” that luck within your business so that you and your advisors can prepare. Common challenges that will be discussed include:
Eligible for 50 minutes of CPD Ontario Law Society credits.
The successful sale of a business involves many moving parts, making it the largest and possibly most complicated transaction of your life. You can’t do this alone, you will need a team of professionals to help you successfully sell your company. The right team will get you the best price, terms and most importantly, ensure that the transaction closes.
After attending this session, you will understand what the ideal exit team looks like and how to select the best advisors for your business. You’ll also learn what your exit team will cost and how they’ll be paid.
Long-term thinking about your business is an enormous endeavor, the process of a sale can throw that thinking into chaos. One of the most important elements that gets lost is what happens after the deal is signed. Having a post-transition plan to help manage the impact this monumental change will have on your family, your emotions and your lifestyle.
This session will feature a case study of a transition and what internal and external steps were taken to handle the change from wealth creator to wealth manager.
In this Fireside Chat you will hear from a business owner about their recent transaction. Join Conor Snape, from BDC, as he sits down with Lennard Kipp to discuss the recent acquisition and leadership transition of All Canadian Display Company. Lennard will share some of the best practices used in the due diligence process, how to structure a transaction to better align the buyer and seller, the importance of understanding the culture of a company and optimizing capital structures for a smoother transition
Eligible for 45 minutes of CPD Ontario Law Society credits.
Hear from a panel of business owners and experts who have gone through transition with their businesses and now have the opportunity to reflect on the process in the rear view mirror. The panel will share insights on what they wish they had known at the beginning of their transition journey and key learnings they have taken into their next endeavours. What would they change if they were to do it all again, if anything? Panelists will help build and broaden your frame of reference by sharing their own war stories and tales from the trenches.
Bring your burning transition questions to our group of experts. This is your opportunity to meet and obtain advice from Canada’s leading and most reputable experts on the subject of exit-strategy.
