Selling Your Canadian Business: White Papers
Executive Summary
Canadian business owners preparing to sell face a landscape that has fundamentally changed. The certainties that underpinned decades of cross-border trade have given way to tariffs, retaliatory measures and ongoing negotiations. Interest rates, while lower than their recent peaks, remain elevated by historical standards. And the tax environment, though more favourable than initially proposed, continues to evolve.
For owners of businesses in the $5 million to $50 million revenue range — the lower middle market that forms the backbone of the Canadian economy — these external forces are not abstract policy debates. They directly affect valuations, buyer appetite and the strategic decisions that will determine whether an exit succeeds or fails.
This white paper provides a comprehensive framework for understanding what sophisticated buyers evaluate when assessing acquisition targets. The analytical frameworks used by institutional investors — from pension funds like CPP Investments and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to private equity firms and strategic acquirers — have cascaded down to inform buyer expectations across all market segments.