Queensland 2014M&A Roundup

Introduction 4

Summary of transactions 5

Sector focus 6Business services 8

Consumer 9

Technology, media & telecommunications 10

Leisure 11

Industrials & chemicals 12

Pharma, medical & biotech 13

Geographic spread 14

IPO update 16

Succession planning research 17

About Pitcher Partners 18

Contents

IntroductionPitcher Partners are pleased to present the findings of our research on Queensland Merger & Acquisition (“M&A”) activity over the calendar year 2014. 

Successfully executed acquisitions can be an excellent strategy to enhance shareholder value through accelerating access to geographies, products, technologies, people, and also through consolidating industries.  Acquisitions obviously also require sellers, and divestments for most private vendors are a once in a lifetime opportunity to secure their families’ future. Succession planning is also a key research focus of Pitcher Partners – refer to page 17.

This report is focused on:• Acquisitions – Queensland based success stories executing domestic and international acquisitions (e.g. Corporate

Travel Management, G8 Education, and Retail Food Group); and • Divestments – Queensland based companies selling out to onshore and offshore corporates, or to private equity

acquirers (e.g. Endeavour College of Natural Health, Schultz Toomey O’Brien Lawyers and Wotif ).

The report contains M&A analysis by sector of interest for investors, interstate and cross border deal flows, identifies a number of private equity transactions, and also provides an update on Pitcher Partners’ Queensland IPO Study on the 10 years to the end of 2012.

Typically, bulge bracket deals like QIC’s $6.7 billion sale of Queensland Motorways, and Retire Australia’s $616.7 million divestment to NZ based Infratil gain the market headlines. However, these deals can be broadly noted as the exception in the Queensland market, with M&A in the sunshine state typified by “Middle Market” deals broadly classified as those between $10 million and $250 million. 

Middle Market deals accounted for 89 (53%) of the 169 transactions which had disclosed values, and $5.0 billion (34%) of the total $14.3 billion in transaction values. Those transactions below $10 million (which are often difficult to obtain information on, but are critical to the M&A flow), represented a further 44% of these deals but only $298.6 million (2%) of value.

We hope you find this report valuable.

Warwick FacePartner In Charge – Corporate Financewface@pitcherpartners.com.au

4

4

44%40%

5%

8%<1% 2% <1%

AU$0m - AU$10m AU$10m - AU$50m

AU$50m - AU$150m AU$150m - AU$250m

AU$250m - AU$500m AU$500m - AU$1,000m

AU$1,000m+

Queensland had a total of

9IPOs in 2014

The 2014 hot sector was:

Business serviceswith

32 transactions and

$1,300m in total transaction value

Introduction Summary of transactions

53% of all M&A (with values) involved transactions in the middle market.

The most active acquirer of 2014 was:

G8 Educationwho purchased

231childcare centres.

Figure 1: Queensland M&A deal volume 2014(deals with disclosed values)

Middle Market

5

41%of the total number of deals

and

of total transaction value

There were a total of

announced transac tions in 2014

246$14.3

billion

Transaction values totalled

61%

The most active acquirers were those located in other

Australian states which accounted for

Financial services Transportation Real estate Construction

• Largely dominated by Bank of Queensland’s $210.0 million acquisition of Investec’s specialist finance and leasing businesses.

• Consolidation continued in the insurance broking sector with seven divestments including Ausure and Blue Broking.

• Dominated by two major transactions being:

- Archer Capital’s $239.0 million purchase of LCR Group from CHAMP; and

- Archer Capital’s $237.0 million purchase of Aero-Care from Next Capital.

• Dominated by National Storage who executed eight deals totalling $178.6 million.

• Dominated by Seymour Whyte’s acquisition of Rob Carr for $41.1 million.

From a seasonality perspective the usual January lull in deal numbers applied, and April was the high point in value with QIC’s divestment of Queensland Motorways.

Over recent years the largest sector for transactions and investment has been Energy, mining & utilities (“EM&U”). During 2014 this was again significant in relation to the number of deals with 32 completed. However the overall deal value has been overtaken by Business services; Technology, media & telecommunications (“TMT”); Industrials & chemicals; and Pharma, medical & biotech. It is however worth noting that in the EM&U sector, APA Group’s yet to be completed $6.01 billion bid for the Queensland Curtis LNG Pipeline (QCLNG) was announced, which if completed, would have moved this sector to second highest by overall deal value. The decline in commodity prices and demand for Australian minerals has seen active acquisition of smaller resource companies in the sector by larger competitors, both domestic and foreign.

For the balance of sectors we note as follows:

Set out on the following pages is detailed analysis and commentary on each of the following sectors:

Sector focus

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

0

10

20

30

40

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May Jun Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Deal

valu

e AU

$m

Num

ber o

f dea

lsNumber of deals Deal value AU $m

86% of Queensland M&A deal value fell within the six sectors identified.

6

4

Business services

Leisure

Consumer

Industrials & chemicals

TMT

Pharma, medical & biotech

5

Figure 2: Queensland M&A 2014

6

6

Sector focus

Avg. value (AU$m)

35m

Avg. value (AU$m)

29m

Avg. value (AU$m)

83m

Avg. value (AU$m)

13m

% of deal No.

11%No. of deals

27 Value (AU$m)

770m

No. of deals

17% of deal No.

7%Value (AU$m)

263m

No. of deals

15% of deal No.

6%

Value (AU$m)

579m

No. of deals

8% of deal No.

4%Value (AU$m)

67m

No. of deals

35 % of deal No.

14%Value (AU$m)

1,300m

No. of deals

23% of deal No.

9%Value (AU$m)

573m

No. of deals

20% of deal No.

8%

Value (AU$m)

966m

No. of deals

3% of deal No.

1%Value (AU$m)

40m

No. of deals

32% of deal No.

13%Value (AU$m)

832mAvg. value (AU$m)

33m

Avg. value (AU$m)

65m

Avg. value (AU$m)

50m*

Avg. value (AU$m)

21m

No. of deals

28% of deal No.

11%Value (AU$m)

970m

No. of deals

22% of deal No.

9%

Value (AU$m)

7,730m

No. of deals

16% of deal No.

7%Value (AU$m)

257m

Energy, mining & utilities

TMT

Industrials & chemicals

Real estate

Business services

Leisure

Pharma, medical & biotech

Agriculture

Consumer

Financial services

Transportation

Construction

Avg. value (AU$m)

45m

Avg. value (AU$m)

32m

Avg. value (AU$m)

74m

Avg. value (AU$m)

20m

*Excludes $6.7bn divestment of Queensland motorways.

Figure 2: Queensland M&A 2014

7

Middle Market

G8 Education has a comprehensive

methodology in identifying profitable centres to acquire. Centres are managed through a number of key operational metrics and performance indicators designed to ensure optimal centre performance in line with the overall group.

No. of deals

35 % of deal No.

14%

Value (AU$m)

1,300mAvg. value (AU$m)

45m

Childcare M&A was dominant within Queensland’s services sector with 12 different transactions totalling $661.0 million (51% of Business services transactions). The largest of these deals was perennial acquirer G8 Education’s $229.6 million acquisition of Sterling Early Education which included 91 centres. G8 Education executed a further six deals totalling $279.4 million for the acquisition of a further 140 centres. Affinity Education, newly listed late in 2013, executed four acquisitions totalling $152.0 million for an increase of 94 centres.

The Registered Training Organisation (“RTO”) space saw eight transactions totalling $343.6 million. This included the large scale divestments of Queensland businesses Ingeus Limited for $223.5 million to US listed Providence Service Corp, and Endeavour College of Natural Health’s $84.0 million cash sale to listed Victorian company Vocation, which itself has now disclosed material trading and liquidity issues. A Queensland RTO on the buy side was ASX listed Site Group International, who executed three purchases (both domestic and international) totalling $17.0 million.

The balance of the services sector was dominated by the acquisition of Queensland legal firms Schultz Toomey O’Brien for $19.0m by Victorian based Slater and Gordon, and Emanate Legal and Stephen Browne Personal Injury Lawyers for $36.0 million by Queensland’s Shine Lawyers. The remaining transactions were a mixture, but included private equity buyouts of Cater Care ($40.0 million) by CHAMP Ventures, and East Coast Traffic Control ($10.3 million) by Teaminvest.

Business services

Figure 3: Business services M&A Queensland 2014

G8 Education // Investor Presentation (November 2014)

6

9

20

0

-

$36.5m

$1,263.1m

-

- $1,000.0m $2,000.0m $3,000.0m $4,000.0m $5,000.0m $6,000.0m $7,000.0m $8,000.0m $9,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28

Not Disclosed

AU$0m -AU$10m

AU$10m -AU$250m

AU$250m+

Number of deals

13

4

3

$297.9m

$351.4m

$613.8m

- $2,000.0m $4,000.0m $6,000.0m $8,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

AU$10m -AU$50m

AU$50m -AU$150m

AU$150m -AU$250m

Number of deals

8

Figure 4: Consumer M&A Queensland 2014

ASX listed Greencross lead the consumer charge in 2014, continuing its roll-up of veterinary practices with five deals (totalling $7.5 million), and its consolidation of pet retail with the $205.7 million acquisition of City Farmers from Quadrant Private Equity (following on from its November 2013 $341.7 million merger / acquisition of Pet Barn). City Farmers was the largest Queensland Consumer M&A transaction.

Serial food service franchise acquirer Retail Food Group’s addiction to caffeine continued through three coffee related acquisitions being:

• Cafe2U Pty Limited which was acquired for $15.0 million;• Gloria Jean’s Gourmet Coffee Group for $179.9 million; and• Di Bella Coffee Group for $47.3 million.

These acquisitions complement its existing Michel’s, Donut King, Esquires Coffee, bb’s Café, Caffe Coffee and The Coffee Guy businesses.

M&A activity in the retail car sector also continued with ASX listed AP Eagers acquiring Craig Black Group for $35.0 million, and Ian Boettcher Group for $15.0 million.

The private shareholders of SurfStitch reacquired 51% of the business pre-float from Billabong for $35.0 million, acquired UK rival Surfdome.com.au for $45.0 million from Quicksilver, and then executed an IPO in November 2014 – refer page 16.

Consumer

Middle Market

In terms of network scale

and penetration, the company’s 1H15 activities represent a revolution for shareholders and franchisees, providing immediate access to international markets and increased supply chain capability.

Avg. value (AU$m)

35m

% of deal No.

11%No. of deals

27

Value (AU$m)

770m

Colin Archer // Retail Food Group Chairman (ASX Announcement 25 February 2015)

5

9

13

0

-

$32.7m

$737.2m

-

- $1,000.0m $2,000.0m $3,000.0m $4,000.0m $5,000.0m $6,000.0m $7,000.0m $8,000.0m $9,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28

Not Disclosed

AU$0m -AU$10m

AU$10m -AU$250m

AU$250m+

Number of deals

10

1

2

$283.8m

$67.8m

$385.6m

- $2,000.0m $4,000.0m $6,000.0m $8,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

AU$10m -AU$50m

AU$50m -AU$150m

AU$150m -AU$250m

Number of deals

9

13

10

3

2

-

$37.0m

$43.8m

$889.2m

- $1,000.0m $2,000.0m $3,000.0m $4,000.0m $5,000.0m $6,000.0m $7,000.0m $8,000.0m $9,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28

Not Disclosed

AU$0m -AU$10m

AU$10m -AU$250m

AU$250m+

Number of deals

3 $43.8m

- $2,000.0m $4,000.0m $6,000.0m $8,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

AU$10m -AU$50m

AU$50m -AU$150m

AU$150m -AU$250m

Number of deals

The Directors believe that the

significant premium and overall terms and conditions of Expedia’s cash offer presents an excellent opportunity which delivers compelling value to WTF shareholders.

Avg. value (AU$m)

65m

No. of deals

28% of deal No.

11%

Value (AU$m)

970m

Technology, media & telecommunications

Whilst 28 deals were closed in the Technology, media and telecommunications sector totalling $970.0 million, these were dominated by two significant transactions:

• Wotif.com’s acquisition by US listed Expedia Inc. for $584.2 million; and

• Global Payments Inc’s acquisition of Ezi Holdings for $305.0 million.

Consistent with the above divestments, 71% of transactions within this industry involved a Queensland target being acquired by a company from another Australian state (39%), or an international company (32%). 

Ten of the deals had values of less than $10 million (another 13 were announced without values, with most appearing to be small in size) indicating that Queensland’s tech companies continue to provide a cost effective alternative in filling acquirers technology gaps. Such “capability acquisitions” often represent a cheaper, quicker and less risky alterative to in-house innovations and R&D.

On the buy-side, Queensland listed Data#3 re-entered the acquisition market executing two transactions being Business Aspect Group and Discovery Technology totalling $13.5 million.

Middle MarketFigure 5: Technology, media and telecommunications M&A Queensland 2014

Wotif.com Scheme Booklet //September 2014

10

10

Figure 6: Leisure M&A Queensland 2014

LeisureQueensland based travel players Flight Centre and Corporate Travel Management have continued their international journeys in 2014. Flight Centre executed two acquisitions being UK based Top Deck Tours for $41.6 million and also Travelplan for $2.1 million. Whilst growth story Corporate Travel Management executed four acquisitions being:

• Chambers Travel Group (UK) for $115.8 million;• Diplomat Travel Service (US) for $11.2 million;• Avia International Travel (US) for $4.4 million; and• USTravel for $8.7 million.

Sunsuper entered the leisure industry with its $168.0 million acquisition of Discovery Holiday Parks from private equity funds, Next Capital, Allegro and Macquarie, being Queensland’s largest transaction in the leisure sector.

Gyms and fitness represented another area of material Queensland M&A with Goodlife continuing its acquisition strategy buying eight sites from Fitness First for $32.5 million, and also the Victorian based sites from Genesis Fitness Clubs for $5.3 million. 

There were four deals in the casino sector with Aquis Reef executing three acquisitions totalling $52.3 million, and also Jupiters in Townsville being sold by Echo Entertainment to Colonial Leisure for $70.0 million.

4

Wotif.com Scheme Booklet //September 2014

CTM’s Acquisition Strategy has remained

consistent across all acquisitions: Strong discipline in selection criteria...alignment... focus on financial and people due diligence for cultural match, robust transition process... focus on EPS accretive acquisitions.

No. of deals

23% of deal No.

9%

Value (AU$m)

573mAvg. value (AU$m)

32m

Corporate Travel Management // Managing Director’s AGM address 29 October 2014

Middle Market

5

7

11

0

-

$40.0m

$532.5m

-

- $1,000.0m $2,000.0m $3,000.0m $4,000.0m $5,000.0m $6,000.0m $7,000.0m $8,000.0m $9,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28

Not Disclosed

AU$0m -AU$10m

AU$10m -AU$250m

AU$250m+

Number of deals

8

2

1

$178.7m

$185.8m

$168.0m

- $2,000.0m $4,000.0m $6,000.0m $8,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

AU$10m -AU$50m

AU$50m -AU$150m

AU$150m -AU$250m

Number of deals

11

Avg. value (AU$m)

50m*

No. of deals

22% of deal No.

9%

Value (AU$m)

7,730m*Excludes $6.7bn divestment of Queensland motorways.

The DMS business will provide us with a

key suite of services that complement our current offering, are timely in the current market and importantly are very niche to a number of sectors.

Tony Caruso //Mastermyne Managing Director (ASX Announcement 26 September 2014)

Industrials & chemicals This sector was dominated by QIC’s $6.7 billion divestment of Queensland Motorways, one of Queensland’s and Australia’s largest transactions in 2014.  Also of significant quantum was Transpacific Industries $890.8 million divestment of its New Zealand operations to Beijing Capital Group Co. Ltd.

Divestments in the building products sector were prevalent including GWA’s exits of DUX Hotwater (and Warapave) to Noritz Corporation of Japan for $46.0 million, and Brivis Climate Systems to Japan based Rinnai for $49.2 million. On the buy side Perth based Kresta  snapped up Queensland’s Franklyn Blinds for $10.0 million.

Maui Capital backed Diversified Mining Services also divested the entire businesses in parts, first COALTRAMs for $13.0m to Robin Levison lead PPK Group, and the balance to Mackay based Mastermyne Group for $20.6 million.

Figure 7: Industrials & chemicals M&A 2014

5

Middle Market

10

5

5

2

-

$19.1m

$147.2m

$7,563.8m

- $1,000.0m $2,000.0m $3,000.0m $4,000.0m $5,000.0m $6,000.0m $7,000.0m $8,000.0m $9,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28

Not Disclosed

AU$0m -AU$10m

AU$10m -AU$250m

AU$250m+

Number of deals

5 $147.2m

- $2,000.0m $4,000.0m $6,000.0m $8,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

AU$10m -AU$50m

AU$50m -AU$150m

AU$150m -AU$250m

Number of deals

12

12

By bringing together ROQ and Icon, Quadrant will look

to better serve the 25 per cent of cancer patients who require both radiation and chemotherapy. The combined company is also expected to be an aggressive bidder in tenders for the outsourcing of public medical care to private providers.

Pharma, medical & biotech M&A in this overall sector was dominated (64%) by Retire Australia’s $616.7 million divestment to NZ based fund manager Infratil.

Archer Growth successfully divested its Queensland head quartered Cura Day Hospitals business for $200.0 million via MBO with backing from UK based Intermediate Capital Group PLC. Archer co-founded the business in 2008, and funded its growth to achieve eleven day hospital facilities across Australia.

Private equity investment in the Queensland medical related sector continued during 2014 with Quadrant Private Equity’s $40.0 million investment in ICON Cancer Care, and ICON’s subsequent acquisition of Radiation Oncology Queensland. 

The Pharmacy sector also received interest with Discount Drug Stores’ $26.7 million sale to Central Healthcare, and Quadrant’s announced but yet to be completed investment in EPIC (formerly APHS).

On the Biotech side there was one material deal announced being Austmel’s $23.0 million sale to Getinge AB, a publicly-listed, Swedish based group of companies.

6

Tony Caruso //Mastermyne Managing Director (ASX Announcement 26 September 2014)

No. of deals

20% of deal No.

8%

Value (AU$m)

966mAvg. value (AU$m)

74m

Sydney Morning Herald //2 December 2014

Figure 8: Pharma, medical & biotech M&A 2014

7

7

5

1

-

$29.8m

$319.7m

$616.7m

- $1,000.0m $2,000.0m $3,000.0m $4,000.0m $5,000.0m $6,000.0m $7,000.0m $8,000.0m $9,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28

Not Disclosed

AU$0m -AU$10m

AU$10m -AU$250m

AU$250m+

Number of deals

4

1

$119.7m

$200.0m

- $2,000.0m $4,000.0m $6,000.0m $8,000.0m $10,000.0m

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

AU$10m -AU$50m

AU$50m -AU$150m

AU$150m -AU$250m

Number of deals

Middle Market

13

43 Deals involved both the buyer and seller being Queensland companies.

68Deals were where the seller was from Queensland and the buyer was from another Australian state.

45 Deals were where the seller was from Queensland and there was an international buyer.

Sell side transactionsAs shown below, volumes in Queensland M&A activity on the sell side was dominated by interstate companies with a total of 68 deals amounting to $7.2 billion. It should be mentioned however, that $6.7 billion of interstate acquisitions related to QIC’s divestment of Queensland Motorways. Without this transaction the other 67 interstate acquisitions totalled just over $450.0 million.

43 deals stayed within the state’s borders ($447.8m) and international acquirers were active with respect to both volume and deal value, accounting for 45 acquisitions totalling $3.7 billion.

Private equity funds continued their interest in Queensland based investees with eight transactions including activity from Archer Capital (LCR Group & Aero Care), TeamInvest (East Coast Traffic, Outdoor Furniture Specialists & Coastal Energy), CHAMP Ventures (Catercare), and also Quadrant (ICON Cancer Care).

8Deals were where the seller was from Queensland and the buyer was a Private Equity Fund.

Geographic spread14

14

Geographic spread

43Deals were involved both the buyer and seller being Queensland companies.

63Deals were where the buyer was from Queensland and the seller was from another Australian state.

19Deals were where the buyer was from Queensland and the seller was international.

Buy side transactionsConsistent with the sell side transactions, the volume of M&A in Queensland on the buy side was lead by transactions involving an inter-state target, accounting for 63 out of the 125 deals and totalling $1.8 billion in value. Strong inter-state involvement in Queensland M&A deals (both buy and sell side) resulted in them accounting for 131 (53%) of the total 246 Queensland transactions and totalling $9.0 billion (63%) of the total $14.3 billion announced deal value.

Only 19 deals occurred in which the Queensland company involved was on the buy side of an international target, compared to 45 sell side instances. One of the most notable of these was Cardno’s acquisition of US headquartered PPI Technology Services which accounted for $160.6 million out of the total $642.3 million international buy side deals.

15

Largest & smallest listing by offer 2014

Largest listing Mantra Group Limited

Offer size ($m) $239.1

Smallest listing Enverro Limited

Offer size ($m) $4.0

IPOs by Industry 2014

Energy, mining & utilities 2

Business services -

Consumer 2

TMT 2

Leisure 1

Financial services -

Industry & chemicals 1

Pharma, medical & biotech 1

Transportation -

Real estate -

Agriculture -

Construction -

Total 9

Largest & smallest listing by market capitalisation 2014

Largest listing Mantra Group Limited

Implied market capitalisation ($m) $449.0

Smallest listing Enverro Limited

Implied market capitalisation ($m) $7.5

Queensland IPO momentum experienced in late 2013 (e.g. National Storage’s $240.0 million float and Affinity Education’s $75.0 million float in December 2013) continued into 2014. Last calendar year saw nine Queensland-based IPOs, equal to 2013 but still below the heady years of 2004 - 2007 which averaged 16 per annum.

Overall, Australian IPO activity was fuelled by a succession of private equity backed investee floats including SG Fleet, Burson, Spotless, iSentia, Monash IVF, 3P Learning, Healthscope, Speedcast, APN Outdoor, Estia Health, Aconex, oOh!media and only one Queensland investee Mantra.

As stated in our previous Queensland IPO Study (November 2013) Queensland is a resource rich economy and this is reflected in the composition of companies listing on stock exchanges. With the Queensland economy transitioning from a mining investment / capex phase into a production phase, coupled with the downturn in the resources sector, Queensland IPO companies are now coming from non-traditional sectors.

Of the nine companies to float in 2014, seven of the nine were outside of the traditional Materials, Energy and Real Estate sectors.

In 2014, $573.2m of capital was raised, being a 72.9% increase from 2013. The largest IPO was private equity Mantra Group (largest Australian-based resort marketer and operator), which raised $239.1m. The smallest IPO was Enverro Limited (provides cloud-based applications for workforce mobilisation in the oil, gas, mining and construction industries), which raised an equivalent $4.0m.

5 3

2

6

3

7

5

3

6

12 8 2 9 9

-

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

-

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

ASX

All O

rdin

arie

s

No. o

f IPO

s

2nd Half

1st Half

Average listings per year

ASX All Ords Data

Figure 9: Last five years of IPO transactions

Total Listings

IPO update16

16

Many middle market companies do not properly plan their

succession processes, as business owners typically spend more time in their business than working on their business. Succession planning and business exit is not something best considered at the last minute. A structured and considered approach is key to maximising exit value and owner outcomes.

IPO updateIn conjunction with Swinburne University of Technology, Pitcher Partners undertook a four year study into succession planning, releasing our report Succession Reset: Family Business Succession in the 21st Century.

Succession Planning is one of the most important aspects of future proofing the capital value of your business. Many people think of retirement when you mention succession planning but it is really about building the future while you are there today.

Nowadays, there is more uncertainty and complexity surrounding succession planning. The skills required of the incumbent generation to transition their business effectively are greater than ever before. They must be able to make their business “succession ready” being both ready for transition or market sale, as a whole or in easily flexible parts. The need to understand, and to be able to impact the drivers of capital value and competitiveness in a business are critical in the succession process.

The eight guiding principles identified from our study on successful succession are:

Succession planning research

Warwick Face // Partner in Charge Corporate Finance

1. Succession is not retirement

2. Start with readiness – preparation is a must

3. Set your goals before the journey

4. Harmony is a must

5. Price is not first

6. Plan early, start earlier

7. Equality is not equal

8. Ask before you get lost – advisers are important

For further information or a copy of the study please contact us at: succession@pitcherpartners.com.au

17

About Pitcher PartnersPitcher Partners is a full service accounting and business advisory firm with a strong reputation for providing quality advice to privately-owned, corporate and public organisations.In Australia, Pitcher Partners has firms in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Newcastle. We collaboratively leverage from each other’s networks and draw on the skills and expertise of 1,000+ staff, in order to service our clients.Pitcher Partners is also an independent member of Baker Tilly International (BTI), the eighth largest network in the world by fee income. Our strong relationship with other BTI member firms, particularly in Asia Pacific, has allowed us to open many doors across borders for our clients.

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• Estate Planning• Family Office Management• Investment Advisory Services• Philanthropy Services• Retirement and Superannuation• Self Managed Super Funds

InduSTRy SPECIALISATIOnS

• Retail• Professional services• Health and aged care• Manufacturing• Not for profit• Property and construction• Government and the public sector• Agriculture• Food and beverage• Hospitality

$3.4bnWorldwide revenue 2013 (USD)

137Countries

27,000+Partners and staff globally

90Partners nationwide

1,000+People nationally

Pitcher Partners is a national association of independent firms.Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

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Firm locations

MELBOuRnE

+61 3 8610 5000 partners@pitcher.com.au

AdELAIdE

+61 8 8179 2800 partners@pitcher-sa.com.au

SydnEy

+61 2 9221 2099 partners@pitcher-nsw.com.au

BRISBAnE

+61 7 3222 8444 partners@pitcherpartners.com.au

PERTH

+61 8 9322 2022 partners@pitcher-wa.com.au

nEWCASTLE

+61 2 4911 2000 newcastle@pitcher.com.au

Pitcher Partners has the resources and depth of expertise of a major firm, but with a smaller firm feel. We give our clients the highest level of personal service and attention. That’s the difference.

Pitcher Partners is a national association of independent firms. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

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Ross WalkerManaging Partner

+61 7 3222 8406 rwalker@pitcherpartners.com.au

Get in touch...

Warwick FacePartner In Charge – Corporate Finance

+61 7 3222 8302wface@pitcherpartners.com.au