List of 138 US & RoW Acquirers
Roll-up strategies, serial acquirers, consolidators and many more
Introduction
Some days ago I’ve published a tweet asking for help to find companies carrying out consolidation or roll-up strategies. The reaction has been overwhelming, with much more contributions than expected. The idea of this article is to first thank all the people that have contributed. I really appreciate all the inputs. At the end of this article you will find a list with the nicks of all these people together with the company they mentioned. Probably those are people knowledgeable in that specific company (or at least interested), so maybe it’s worthy to follow/contact them in case you are also interested. The second objective is to update the initial list (composed of 38 companies) with all those contributions (101 new companies!!).
Besides I took some time to include few additional data (only for the US companies) just to have a rough idea about the performance and valuation of those companies during the last years. Please, be aware that the data provided have the intention to give just a very superficial overview. It is not intended those data to be interpreted as any kind of assessment of these companies’ quality or expectations. My idea is to use this list as a fishing ground for future deep dives and prepare write-ups of the most interesting companies.
US Public Companies List
Before providing the list, let me advise you to read the caveats that are at the end of this paragraph for a better interpretation of the data. Being said that, here is the list (below you will find the Excel file):
This list is composed of 77 companies. The initial idea was to include just those companies carrying out roll-up or consolidation strategies, but finally, due to the many answers received, I decided to include all those companies in which acquisitions play a relevant role. In that sense you will find of course roll-up strategies and consolidators (e.g. ONEW, CWH, EVI, ADUS or LHCG), but also financial holdings (e.g. BRK.A or MKL), serial acquirers (e.g. IAC), large distributors or manufacturers (e.g. SHW, MLI or CAT) and many others.
As a consequence of this diversity and the sample’s limited size, any conclusion made only using these data might be misleading. However, it is interesting to observe that most of the names within the list have generated positive total return during the 5Y and 10Y periods. As it can be observed, in the case of companies with 10Y data, most of them (94%) have generated positive return and many of them (71%) are above S&P500 total return. Should we move to the 5Y period, those percentages reduce to 86% with positive return and 56% with total return above the S&P500, but still rather satisfactory levels. I am absolutely conscious about the many shortcomings of this list in order to make any conclusion (e.g. survivorship bias, people possibly providing winner names, lack of comprehensive data, small sample size) but this is at least an encouraging starting point.
It is also curious to observe the multiples. Again, those multiples might be misleading due to the different sectors and business models mixed within the sample, but it seems rather clear that in general terms those are companies that are generally trading at higher levels compared with the market. After eliminating some extreme values, those companies that have generated total return above S&P500 on a 5Y and 10Y periods have an average P/E ratio during the last 5 years of 35x and 37x, respectively, and well above the 26.5x average for the S&P500.
My initial feeling is that there are probably many companies following acquisition strategies that died trying, but those successful companies (and the investors able to find them) will probably outperform the market (and probably by a ton). Besides, it is important not to be discouraged just for the first impression provided by their multiples (indeed the blind use of screeners is usually a wrong strategy). These are probably companies that trade with higher multiples on an ongoing basis. It is much more relevant to deep dive on the quality aspects of the company and in any case to compare with the historical levels of the company itself and not against the market.
Being said that let me finally highlight the most relevant caveats:
As already mentioned, the list includes many different sectors and business models, and these might make multiples comparisons or statistics misleading.
Data are from Seeking Alpha and TIKR, so there could be inconsistencies due to potential differences in calculation methods.
The column “Sector/Activity” intends just to provide a broad brushstroke (it is the result of checking superficially more than 100 hundred companies in 3 days!).
“ND” stands for “no data” and the main reason for some missing data is negative earnings: for the calculation of P/E or EV/EBITDA ratios, in case of negative earnings during the analyzed period, the data is not provided (as negative multiples distort the calculation).
The 5Y period for multiples and returns usually refers to a period of 5 years (logically), but it some cases (specified within the list) it refers to the period since the IPO or the SPAC deal (when this is shorter).
The list has been ordered from highest to lowest 5Y total return (and the RoW list below in alphabetical order by country).
Since the onset of the pandemic the extreme movements within the market have increased and last years multiples could be a little bit distorted (compared with historical levels).
All in all this is just to make clear that these data need to be taken with a grain of salt and only be used as starting point for further analysis.
Rest of the World (RoW) Public Companies List
Apart from US companies, I have received many contributions referring to other countries (with special emphasis on Canada and Sweden), so here you have the list:
I have not included any data within this list, but I have been able to verify that most of these companies provide documentation in English and many of them are carrying out really interesting strategies.
Contributors
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, apart from updating the list, my intention was to thank all the people that generously contributed. Below you will find the links to their Twitter accounts together with the company they mentioned. Let me insist that in case you are interested in any specific company, maybe it’s worthy to follow/contact them and, please, let me know if I missed someone in order to edit the article and include them.
US Public Companies (in alphabetical order)
Atkore Inc ATKR US @forthealpha
Albertsons Companies Inc ACI US @cesarbracho54
A-Mark Precious Metals Inc AMRK US @kingdomcapadv
APi Group Corp APG US @NoGutsNoGlory57
Arko Corp ARKO US @RossParman
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. AJG US @AnonTikka
Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. BECN US @NectarBubby
Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRK.A US @DeskCalc
Brightview Holdings Inc BV US @CalgaryLeveen
Broadcom Inc AVGO US @GS_CapSF
Builders FirstSource, Inc BLDR US @deanm0riarty @cesarbracho54
Camping World CWH US @OOInsight @cesarbracho54
Carriage Services, Inc. CSV US @Goldridge_Cap
Caterpillar Inc. CAT US @hao6044
Choice Hotels International Inc CHH US @cesarbracho54
Comfort Systems USA, Inc. FIX US @Goldridge_Cap
Community Health Systems CYH US @TheSchorner
Concrete Pumping Holdings, Inc. BBCP US @talbottzink
Consensus Cloud Solutions, Inc. CCSI US @GlogauGordon
Crawford United Corp CRAWA US @cavanhaleonardo
CSW Industrials Inc CSWI US @amato77
DigitalBridge Group Inc DBRG US @99Swans
Driven Brands Holdings Inc DRVN US @hardtoleecap
Franchise Group Inc FRG US @jester_investor @noternexto
Friedman Industries Inc FRD US @TheSchorner
Global Payments GPN US @sagiv131
Hirequest Inc HQI US @forthealpha
IAC Inc IAC US @GlogauGordon
Iron Mountain Incorporated IRM US @99Swans
J2 Global/Ziff Davis, Inc. ZD US @GlogauGordon
Jackson Financial Inc JXN US @TheSchorner
Markel Corporation MKL US @DeskCalc
Mirion Technologies Inc MIR US @mxschumacher
Mueller Industries, Inc. MLI US @GrowthyValue
P10 Inc PX US @west4thstreet
Pool Corporation POOL US @hao6044
RCI Hospitality Holdings Inc RICK US @ValueHunter7 @jester_investor
Roper Technologies ROP US @USD_with_Sense
Salesforce Inc CRM US @GS_CapSF
Service Corporation Internationa SCI US @Goldridge_Cap
Sherwin-Williams SHW US @IHaveNoCapital
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. TMO US @CJ0pp3l
Waste Connections Inc WCN US @hao6044
XPO Logistics XPO US @NadimEA3
Yellow Corp YELL US @TheSchorner @BrianJBennett5
RoW Public Companies (in alphabetical order)
Aallon Group Oyj HEL:AALLON Finland @PaidWait
AddLife AB STO:ALIF-B Sweden @alvarogomezolea
Addtech AB STO: ADDT-B Sweden @alvarogomezolea
Atlas Engineered Products Ltd CVE: AEP Canada @JGGCDN
Australian Family Lawyers ASX:AFL Australia @mokapucap
Boyd Group Services Inc TSE:BYD Canada @CharbinMarc
CK Hutchison Holdings CKHUY HK @Zehnture
Colliers International Group Inc CIGI Canada @CharbinMarc
Converge Technology Solutions Corp TSE:CTS Canada @CharbinMarc @JGGCDN @noternexto
dentalcorp Holdings Ltd TSE: DNTL Canada @Goldridge_Cap @ak416_ak
Ecit AS FRA: 3CZ Norway @alvarogomezolea
Embracer Group AB STO: EMBRAC-B Sweden @brunoonto
Fasadgruppen Group AB STO: FG Sweden @alvarogomezolea @SwissInv
FirstService Corp FSV Canada @marketeuphoria
GFL Environmental Inc TSE:GFL Canada @evanhellmuth
Green Landscaping STO: GREEN Sweden @alvarogomezolea
Halma plc LON: HLMA UK @GreenShirts92
Indutrade AB STO: INDT Sweden @alvarogomezolea
Itochu ITOCY Japan @Zehnture
Judges Scientific PLC LON: JDG UK @aleal_66
Kelly Partners Group Holdings Ltd ASX: KPG Australia @mokapucap
Lagercrantz Group AB STO: LAGR-B Sweden @alvarogomezolea
Lifco AB STO: LIFCO-B Sweden @alvarogomezolea @MarmotaValue
Marubeni MARUY Japan @Zehnture
Mitsubishi Corp MSBHF Japan @Zehnture
Mitsui & Co Ltd MITSY Japan @Zehnture
Neighbourly Pharmacy Inc TSE: NBLY Canada @Goldridge_Cap
Nibe Industrier AB STO: NIBE-B Sweden @alvarogomezolea
Park Lawn Corp TSE:PLC Canada @CharbinMarc @Goldridge_Cap
Pluribus Technologies Corp CVE: PLRB Canada @Goldridge_Cap
RediShred Capital Corp CVE: KUT Canada @Petedran
Relais Group Oyj HEL: RELAIS Finland @PaidWait
SDI Group PLC LON: SDI UK @aleal_66
Sdiptech AB STO: SDIP-PREF Sweden @alvarogomezolea
Seafire AB STO: SEAF Sweden @alvarogomezolea
Solwers Oyj HEL: SOLWERS Finland @PaidWait
Stillfront Group STO: SF Sweden @brunoonto
StorageVault Canada Inc TSE:SVI Canada @CharbinMarc
Sumitomo Corporation SSUMY Japan @Zehnture
Sygnity SA WSE: SGN Poland @CJ0pp3l
Teqnion AB STO: TEQ Sweden @alvarogomezolea @_Minduim_ @MarmotaValue
TerraVest Industries Inc TSE: TVK Canada @CJ0pp3l
Topicus.com Inc CVE: TOI Canada @CJ0pp3l @JGGCDN @_Minduim_ @Chee490
Vitec Software Group AB (publ) STO: VIT-B Sweden @aleal_66
Man, this is a hella lot of sharing. Thanks!