These slides provide further insight on the M&A deal trends for the consulting sector and what is happening globally, as well as what's hot or not for these consulting industry verticals: - IT services and solutions - Management consultancies - Media agencies - Human resources - Engineering

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Growing equity, realizing value
Why is 2016 the best year since 2007 to
sell your business?

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Equiteq is the leading M&A firm focused exclusively on the
consulting sector
What we do for our clients Global presence and consulting
industry credentials
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Equity value realization
Sale to a Strategic Buyer or
Financial Investor
Sell
50+
Deals
Value creation and sale preparation
Between 1 and 5 years ahead of
a desired transaction
Prepare
300+
Clients
Why we’re different
• Deep domain expertise in the Consulting sector
• Add value and engage at any stage in the exit destination
journey
• Unique blend of consulting, corporate finance and investment
banking skills
NEW YORK
LONDON
SINGAPORE
Established in 2004 Regular AMCF USA speaker
50 people across 3 continents Regular MCA UK speaker
Clients in 27+ countries
Widely published in industry
media
SYDNEY

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Global Consulting M&A Report 2016
• 9th consecutive year
• Over 100,000 downloads to date
• Compilation and analysis of all 2015 consulting deals
world-wide
• Compiled using:
– Proprietary news feeds
– M&A data subscription services
– Unique intelligence from our daily interaction with buyers and
sellers
– Equiteq commissioned independent research of global
consulting sector buyers
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Overall market trends

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Global deal activity increased by 9.4% in 2015. What next?!
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2015 deal
volumes
returned to
pre-crisis
levels

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Revenue multiples are at a post-crisis peak
Deal values
• 83% of deal volume is below $100m
• 35% acquisition values under $5m
• 70% under $40m
Deal multiples
• EBITDA 8.9x
• Revenue 0.9x
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Range of EBITDA multiples, 2015
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0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
0.0x 3.0x 4.0x 5.0x 6.0x 7.0x 8.0x 9.0x 10.0x 11.0x 12.0x 15.0x
ProportionofDeals
EBITDA Multiple
Frequency
Cumulative Deals Done
Ranges are on a ‘up-to’ basis i.e. bar chart with 4.0x means multiples between 3x – 4x. Last bar: 15-20x.

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83% of all consulting M&A are in developed western markets
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• North America: +4%
• Asia Pacific: -2%
• Europe: -2% (deal volumes up 6%)
• Africa, Middle East and South America: -1%

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2,418 targets were bought by 1,886 different buyers
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10 target countries by deal volume account for 83% of the total
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• 75% of deals completed by only 5 countries: US,UK, Australia, France and Canada
• 24% chance your European firm will have a foreign buyer
• 92% of US consulting firms have a domestic buyer
• 442 cross border deals completed in 2015

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Consulting market segment
overview

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9.4% growth largely the result of management consulting and
media consulting deals
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Management consulting has a 21% share of M&A market
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Management consulting
sector analysis covered in
webinar on 24 May.
See www.equiteq.com

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IT consulting deal volume is at a 9 year high
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IT consulting sector
analysis covered in
webinar on 10 May.
See www.equiteq.com

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Media consulting deal volumes grew by 12.6% with a record
high of 625 deals
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Media consulting sector
analysis covered in
webinar on 17 May.
See www.equiteq.com

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Engineering consulting deal volumes grew by 4.7% to 365
deals
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HR consulting deal volumes grew by 8% but with a revenue
multiple downturn
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Geographic overview

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North American deal volumes increased significantly by 20%
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European deal volume grew by 5.9% to 813 transactions
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Asia Pacific saw an overall decline of 4% despite growth in
Australia and China
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Africa and Middle East accounted for 2% of global deals and
saw a 22% decrease in deal activity.
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South America experienced a 16.9% decline, although Mexico
saw an increase
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So what does this mean for consulting firm sellers?
2016 consulting M&A outlook
• Q1 2016 deals show no slowdown
• Continued optimism in the market but with less
growth than recently
• Buyer demand continues to be positive
• More sellers are now in the market taking advantage
of the positive deal conditions
• As companies look for innovation ways to cope with
changing technological, economic, competitive and
regulatory environments professional services firms
will continue to be in demand
2016 high profile M&A hotspots
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Strategy
consulting
Compliance,
regulation and
governance
Big data/
Data
analytics
Cloud
consulting
Digital
marketing
Property/ Real
estate
advisory
Recruitment &
Interim
management
Owners with sale ready firms
are well positioned in 2016

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Is now the time to prepare for a future sale, or sell your
consulting firm?
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More resources
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