BDO Said Retail CFO’s Expect More M/A Activity This Year

Retail CFOs expect strategic buyers to be more active than financial buyers. A survey by accounting firm BDO USA LLP checked in with 100 retail chief financial officers and found that 59 percent of them expect M&A activity in the retail sector to increase this year. Further, 16 percent of those surveyed said “M&A is the growth tactic they are most heavily focused on for 2015.” Most of the merger activity, according to 73 percent of the respondents, is expected to occur in the U.S. Natalie Kotlyar, a BDO partner who heads the Northeast retail and consumer products industry group, said in a telephone interview, “It is very difficult, and challenging, to grow the company simply by organic growth in today’s marketplace. They are turning to M&A to take more market share.” Kotlyar said acquisition targets are either to complement what a company already has, increase geographic presence in another location or country, or add a category different from what the company already is in. In the apparel and retail space, that could mean an apparel firm acquiring a successful footwear brand that already has a successful following — a move that’s easier than trying to develop a new line and then having to

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