Published: Aug. 22, 2024
The Dutch takeover market has grown slightly over the past six months. In the first half of 2024, the number of sales transactions increased by 2% and the average sales price of an SME business rose to 4.8 times the gross profit.
This is one of the results of the Takeover Barometer, the periodical research of the takeover platforms Brookz and Dealsuite on figures and trends in the Dutch takeover market. The survey was conducted among 289 Dutch merger & acquisition advisory firms focusing on businesses with revenues between 0.5 and 50 million euros.
After a difficult first quarter, the Dutch takeover market picked up steam particularly in the second quarter of 2024. Stimulated by falling interest rates, on balance this led to an increase in the number of businesses sold. Compared to H2-2023, the number of sales transactions increased by 2% over the past six months.
It was noticeable that in particular more businesses with a smaller deal value were sold (deal value <5 mln euro). The share of transactions of businesses with a deal value > 5 mln euro decreased from 42% to 35%. Average sales prices increased slightly over the past six months: on average, 4.8 times the gross profit was paid for an SME business, an increase of over 1%.
At the end of 2023 the Netherlands had almost 2.5 million entrepreneurs and on average about 20,000 entrepreneurs are added each month (CBS). In addition, the dynamics in the Dutch business landscape - starting, quitting, mergers & acquisitions - have changed over the past 10 years. Whereas in the 1990s an entrepreneur stayed with his business for about 30 years, this Barometer study shows that anno 2024 a quarter of businesses sold are younger than 10 years.
More than half of all advisers surveyed (54%) report that businesses are currently coming to market (significantly) faster than they were 10 years ago. Only 14% of businesses remain owned by the same owner for more than 20 years.
According to Floyd Plettenberg, CEO of Dealsuite, these figures are confirmation of a trend that has been spotted at Brookz and Dealsuite for some time. Plettenberg: "The new generation of entrepreneurs is no longer buffeting along, possibly to pass it on to their children later. If they can sell their business well after a number of years they choose to do so. That is a sign of success. Moreover, businesses today are more likely to need a different kind of management. The seller will then start something new, invest or hire himself out as a self-employed person'.
In parallel with the growing acquisition market, the pipeline at advisory firms is also well filled and the outlook for the second half of 2024 is predominantly positive. At more than four in 10 advisory firms, the number of assignments in their portfolio has increased by at least 10%. In addition, a majority of advisers surveyed (81%) are optimistic about the outlook for the next 6 months with a 7.2 rating for H2-2024.
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