Practice

LBO Case: Should you acquire MécaPro?

You are a PE analyst. Your partner asks you to evaluate an industrial deal in 8 steps — from normalized EBITDA to the investment recommendation.

PE / LBOIntermediateCalculation

Monday morning, 8am. Your partner walks into the office:

"We received a teaser on MécaPro, automotive subcontractor. The seller is asking €210M. See if it holds up. I have a meeting with bankers at 2pm."

Here is the teaser information:

  • Revenue: €280M
  • Reported EBITDA: €35M
  • But the footnote states: includes €5M of non-recurring R&D tax credit and €2M of asset disposals
  • Banks are willing to lend 4x adjusted EBITDA
  • Senior debt rate: 5%
  • Management believes they can grow EBITDA by 8%/year
  • Exit horizon: 5 years
  • Your fund targets a minimum IRR of 25%
Given
Reported EBITDA35 M€
Non-recurring R&D credit5 M€
Asset disposals2 M€
Asking price (EV)210 M€
Bank leverage4 x adj. EBITDA
Debt rate5 %
EBITDA growth/year8 %
Fund target IRR25 %
Question 1/8

Step 1 — Normalization. What is the normalized EBITDA? (Reported EBITDA contains non-recurring items a buyer cannot count on.)

Your answerEnter a number in M€
M€
0/8