Baran Rosen,
Whitestone Communications
Do: Broadly market your properties to all types of buyers, not just the usual suspects.
Don't: Expect pre-recession valuation levels. Deals in the nine to 10 times EBITA range will be exceedingly rare.
Now is the right time for media companies that have been considering selling properties to put them on the market, said Baran Rosen, president of Whitestone Communications, a media advisory company.
"This is the best M&A environment the industry has had since the economy went south; all the key factors have lined up." he said.
Most notable, interest rates are low and banks are loosening their guidelines for lending. "During the recession, banks were only loaning three times EBITDA, now it's up to five times," Rosen said. "This gives sellers great leverage and enables buyers to make offers in the seven or eight times EBITDA range."
Excerpted from
mediabusiness.com.
Copyright March 2005.
