It’s May. And this time of the year tends to be a bit quiet on the industry news front. The industry seems like it’s taking a minute to catch a breath after the FIT Show. Almost feels like half time during a frantic football match. Even the regular May dip in site traffic has kicked in.
So what better, as we plateau a little, than to start exploring the possibility of further industry buyouts that could shake things up a bit!
A quiet spell
There’s no denying it, there has been a bit of a lull on the merger and acquisitions front in recent months. There doesn’t seem to have been the frantic scurrying from the larger companies looking to snap up innovative startups.
This could be for a couple of reasons. The economy in general is looking consistently gloomier as the quarters roll on. Perhaps the bigger players are taking a step back and looking at the landscape with a bit more of a cautious view.
Then there is the EU Referendum approaching. Are businesses holding back on big spending decisions until we know the outcome of the vote? If we vote to leave, the upheaval will be massive. Companies may not want to open their wallets until the dust has settled and we all know the lay of the new land.
Could it be that all the available opportunities have been taken already, and there’s nothing all that attractive on the table?
Always chance for more
Maybe the current crop of deals have now been done, and fresh M&A opportunities may be a little further down the road now. But that doesn’t mean to say all bets are off. There remains some very innovative and forward thinking businesses in our sector that I am sure some of the bigger groups would love to have in their wider portfolios.
Will there be any more buyouts this year? Possibly. I would put a fiver on there being two fairly noteworthy announcements before the end of the year. I don’t know any specific information at this point, I’m simply going on the number we have had in previous years and how few we’ve had so far.
There will always be the chance for more mergers this year. There are many areas of the UK glazing sector that remain attractive, with the aluminium, timber and composite window and door markets looking particularly bullish right now. Companies with the cash to splash may look at these areas of the industry as a way in to diversifying their own portfolios and make entrances into areas of a market they previously haven’t entered.
But, and there always is a but, if there are going to be any further acquisitions this year in our sector, it is going to be after June 23rd. The EU Referendum and it’s potential impacts could be massive depending on if we vote to leave or not. We’d be taking a huge step into the unknown, and uncertainty is the enemy of all business and all economies. No company in the glazing sector here is going to take a multi-million pound gamble just before the most important vote in decades.
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