Best Post-Transaction Performance Award Application Window is Open

Best Post-Transaction Performance Award Application Window is Open

Introduction and Context

The Best Post-Transaction Performance Award recognizes those firms that deliver superior positive business impacts through their acquisitions. It is the third of three annual awards in our Excellence in Acquisitive Growth Awards series. 

With industry consolidation continuing at a transformational pace of over 450 transactions a year, we created the Awards series for two very specific reasons. First, to recognize those acquirers that are improving the industry through acquisitions. And second, to provide a forum to share M&A best practices so that collectively the industry achieves better outcomes in terms of client satisfaction, employee engagement, and value for investors.

Performance Defined

Last year, in a first for the industry, the Best Post-Transaction Performance Award established a simple, objective, universal benchmark to assess the post-transaction performance of an acquisition. We developed this benchmark, the Acquisition Performance Indicator (API), in two ways. First, through discussions with industry acquirers and investors. Second, by leveraging our experience in advising on over 240 AE and environmental firm transactions. 

The API takes a holistic view of any acquisition. Rather than focusing solely on financial indicators, it assesses performance in the areas of revenue, profit, backlog, and voluntary turnover in the 12 months following the closing of the transaction.

The revenue and profit elements indicate top- and bottom-line improvements, speaking to return on investment. The backlog element is an indicator of sales and marketing improvements. The voluntary turnover element reflects post-transaction improvements in employee engagement and connectivity. 

2023 Award Recipients

Size matters. It takes longer for a battleship to change course than it is for a dinghy. The same can be said for acquisitions. The larger the acquisition, the longer it takes to see meaningful improvement. Recognizing this variability, we established three size categories of award recipients. The first is for acquired firms with over $50 million in revenue, the second for acquisitions between $10 million and $50 million in revenue, and the third for acquisitions of less than $10 million in revenue.

Last year’s Award recipients in each of these size categories were, respectively, TRC Companies (Windsor, CT) (ENR #16), Salas O’Brien (Santa Ana, CA) (ENR #54), and Englobe (Montreal, Canada).

Lessons Learned

Last year’s Award revealed for the first time just how good the best industry acquirers are at improving business performance through acquisitions. Here are four of the biggest takeaways from last year’s applicants:

• On average, acquirers are doubling the profits of their acquisitions a year after completing the transaction. 
• Acquirers have seen the backlogs attributable to their acquisitions grow, on average, 44% within a year of the transaction.
• On average, acquirers have been realizing a 33% increase in revenues attributable to their acquisitions one year after completing transactions. 
• Acquirers have been seeing voluntary turnover rates decline by almost one-fifth a year into their transactions. 

2024 Award Eligibility and Application

Eligibility for the award is limited to firms that have made an acquisition of an AE or environmental consulting firm between January 1, 2018, and August 1, 2023.

We’ve designed the application process to be simple, fast (it should take no more than 30 minutes of your time), and confidential. It requires no proprietary financial information. All applicants will receive a benchmarking report comparing their acquisition performance to those in their chosen size category.

So, if you believe that an acquisition you’ve made deserves recognition by the industry, then we invite you to begin the application process by clicking the button below.

The window for applications is open until Friday, September 13. 

Awards Ceremony and Recognition of Recipients

This year’s Awards will be presented at the Texas and the South M&A and Business Symposium at the Post Oak Hotel at Uptown Houston, October 16-18. Awards will be presented to the acquirers that report the highest APIs in each of the three size categories. 

In addition to the Awards and the accompanying industry recognition, Morrissey Goodale will make a $1,000 donation to an AE industry-related 501(c)(3) organization chosen by each recipient. We will also feature each award recipient in an upcoming edition of Word on the Street.

If you have any questions about whether your firm is eligible to apply for the award or about the application process itself, please contact our awards department at [email protected].