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Mergers and Acquisitions

Planning for your future

As a business owner, you’ve invested a lot into your company and want to make sure that it can endure whatever changes may come. This includes having a plan for your company’s future when you’re prepared to step away.

Even if you’ve never given serious thought to selling your company, it doesn’t hurt to think about the potential benefits that a sale might provide, both for you and the business. Some of the many benefits include:

  • Achieving financial stability – Reap the rewards of the hard work you’ve put into building your business. Selling will allow you to diversify your assets today and achieve financial stability for the future.
  • Capitalizing on timing – There may not be a motivated buyer if you defer selling your business to a later date.
  • Solving succession concerns – Selling your business can help solve potential succession planning issues.
  • Providing new opportunities – Integrating your business into a new company can provide more opportunities for your employees, and for you.
  • Realizing growth potential – Selling to a larger firm can provide the additional capital your business needs to get to the next level.
  • Reduce personal stress – Being a business owner comes with a wide range of challenges. Selling means you may be able to continue working in the business while handing off day-to-day stresses, such as managing cash flows, to someone else.
  • If a sale of your business is something you are considering, we believe we can be an attractive partner in this process.

Our philosophy

Our goal is to be a leading provider of customs brokerage and trade compliance services, and to strengthen our freight forwarding platform. We’ve experienced tremendous growth over the past several years, both organically and through acquisitions. Livingston has completed ten acquisitions since 2010, which has allowed us to accomplish the following:

  • Strengthen our footprint along the U.S./Canada border.
  • Expand our presence in the U.S. air/ocean and southern border customs brokerage and freight forwarding markets.
  • Add new capabilities, such as global trade management and barge forwarding.

To continue on this accelerated growth trajectory, we plan on partnering with like-minded, reputable, and client-focused businesses. Our approach is to leverage the best practices and maintain the relationships that companies have cultivated with their clients, employees, and communities.

We also believe that great companies are built with great people. By joining forces with top performing companies, we benefit from the skills, expertise, and experiences our new employees bring to the table. In fact, several members of our current leadership team joined the Livingston family through previous transactions.

Selling your company to Livingston

The following are just a few of the reasons why you should consider Livingston when thinking of selling your business:

  • Fair valuation – Our strong ownership group and financial backing ensure we’re in a position to offer a fair price for your business.
  • Employee growth – Your employees will benefit from new career and personal growth opportunities.
  • Continuity – We value and maintain the relationships you and your team have cultivated.
  • Added resources – Your clients will benefit from improved service offerings and our client-first focus.
  • New opportunities – Our global footprint will enable your business to reach new markets.

Determining your company’s value

Because we believe every business is unique, we don’t use simple, pre-defined valuation metrics to determine your company’s value.
Instead, we consider each business individually, and evaluate the following factors when determining a fair offer:

  • Size (employees, revenue, earnings)
  • Financial trends
  • Geographic scale
  • Product and service capabilities
  • Customer diversity and tenure
  • Industry exposure/diversity
  • Depth of management team

Acquisition process

Our experience in buying and integrating companies into the larger Livingston family has allowed us to develop an efficient, streamlined acquisition process. Every company is different, and the process can vary depending on your business, but typically, the process takes three to six months, taking into account adjustments that need to be made based on the size and scale of the organization we are partnering with.

Completed acquisitions

Livingston has completed the following acquisitions since 2010:

Let’s talk

If you’re interested in exploring the possible sale of your company, we would be pleased to continue discussions and learn more about the business you’ve built and how it would fit with Livingston’s culture. To learn more, contact us at [email protected].