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BuySell Consortium

The Consortium Brief

A monthly briefing on the Canadian lower mid market, written by the person running the files. Blind deal flow, what buyers are actually paying, and what is getting to Closing.

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Issue No. 01  ·  Companion Report

What Your Business Is Worth, and Why Everyone Gives You a Different Number

A valuation-grade reading of the 2026 Canadian lower mid market.

Every intermediary in this market will quote you a multiple. Almost none of them will tell you the earnings basis, the period it covers, the size of the sample behind it, or whether the figure is enterprise value or equity value. Without those six disclosures, the number is decoration. It is also the number owners plan their retirement around.

This report is written to be checked. Published market data is cited so you can go and read it yourself. Everything drawn from our own files is described honestly, including what the sample is and what it is not.

  • The market frameWhere Canadian lower mid market pricing, financing and buyer mix actually sat through 2026, sourced and footnoted.
  • The six disclosuresWhat has to accompany a multiple before it means anything, and what changes when each one is missing.
  • Why the same business gets quoted 4x and 6.5xThe specific adjustments, definitions and assumptions that move a valuation without anyone lying.
  • Headline price versus what lands in your accountWorking capital peg, escrow, holdback, earnout at risk and tax, and what each one typically takes off the top.
  • What buyers are asking for right nowDrawn from the mandates we are running now, across the sectors we are active in. Qualitative, current, and labelled as such.
  • The readiness questionsWhat we look at before agreeing to take a business to market, in the order we look at it.

Delivered as a PDF to the email address you register. Requesting the report also registers you for the monthly brief. Nothing is shared with any third party, and no deal information is circulated without the seller’s written authority.

Request the report

A short form. A partner reads every submission.

    BuySell Consortium, 18 King St. E, Suite 1400, Toronto, ON M5C 1C4. We use your details to send the report and the monthly brief, and to match you against mandates that fit your criteria. We do not sell or share your information.

    For Buyers

    Registered buyers hear about mandates first

    By the time a business reaches a listing platform, the process has already been decided for you. You are one of several hundred registrants, the price has been set by whoever that platform’s audience happened to be that month, and the information is calibrated to the widest possible reader, which means it tells you very little.

    The transactions that close on the best terms rarely get that far. When we take on a sell-side mandate, the first thing we do is open the buyer file and ask who has already told us what they are looking for. Sector, size, geography, capital position, timeline. Those buyers get a call before anything is written down.

    Register your acquisition criteria

    For Owners

    Considering a sale in the next 24 months

    Signed LOIs fail for two reasons more often than any other, and neither of them is price. The first is that an owner negotiates hard for months, signs, and then realises they have sold the thing that has told them who they are for thirty years. The second is a working capital peg that nobody defined at the front of the deal, which arrives four weeks later as a price reduction after the price was agreed.

    Both are process problems. Both are avoidable, and both are cheaper to deal with before a buyer is at the table than after.

    Ask for a confidential readiness review

    Who writes it

    Partner-led, valuation-grade, sector-agnostic

    BuySell Consortium advises owners and acquirers on the sale and purchase of established private companies in Canada. Every engagement is run by a partner. Charles Saleh holds the CPA, ABV, ASA and CEIV designations, so the valuation work behind every recommendation is held to a professional standard.

    We work across sectors. An owner is better served by someone who can tell them how their business compares to the alternatives a buyer is weighing than by someone who only ever sees one industry.

    600+Business valuations completed*
    $6B+In transactions advised*
    NDAEvery opportunity blind until an NDA is in place
    PartnerOn every file, start to Closing

    * Career totals of the firm’s principal.

    Confidentiality. Opportunities described in The Consortium Brief are blind. No business name, address, or identifying detail is circulated without the seller’s written authority, and no opportunity is featured unless the engagement letter permits broad teaser circulation.

    Consent. The Consortium Brief is sent only to contacts who have consented or with whom BuySell Consortium has an existing business relationship, in accordance with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation. Every message carries a working unsubscribe link and our mailing address.

    Not advice. The Consortium Brief and its companion reports are general market commentary. They are not a valuation, a fairness opinion, or investment, legal or tax advice, and no reader should act on them without engaging us or another qualified advisor on the facts of their own business.