The Potomac Company announced today the sale of Freitas Controle de Pragas, a Sao Paulo, Brasil-based pest control company to private investors. The Potomac Company initiated the transaction and advised the sellers.

Interested in learning more about valuation and mergers & acquisitions in the pest control industry? Click here to subscribe to the Potomac Pest Control Weekly (PPCW). The Potomac Pest Control Weekly is written the most prominent business appraiser and mergers & acquisitions specialists in the pest control industry and is packed with tutorials, case studies, and interviews with industry insiders.

Related Reading:
Rollins Acquires HomeTeam Pest Defense for $137 Million
The Rollins / HomeTeam Purchase Agreement
Copesan Announces the Addition of Two New Partners
Copesan Initiates Disengagement With J.C. Ehrlich/Rentokil and Presto-X
Losing $75K in 7 Seconds: Purchase Price Allocation 101
The Texas Pest Control Association Announced 2008 Election Results
Killing You Softly, Part 1 – Your Pricing
ISS Expanding Into Pest Control in Mexico
Paul Giannamore to Address the Texas Pest Control Association Convention
Sunair: Exterminating Value?
Potomac Introduces the Potomac Pest Control Weekly
Paul Giannamore to Speak at PCT M&A Seminar
Orkin / Western Acquires JRG Pest Control

Last month our business valuation department was engaged by a pest control client, Kevin, owner of XYZ Pest Control, to advise him on setting up a stock gifting program. His goals are to gift stock annually to his children over the next 10 years or so, taking advantage of the Federal Annual Gift Tax exemption as a vehicle for saving for their college education. When we reviewed the financial and operational documents on XYZ, we realized that Kevin had made a few acquisitions over the last few years. XYZ’s most recent was the acquisition of a competitor - the purchase of the assets of an S corporation for $1,050,000. Upon digging into the numbers a little deeper, we realized something quite peculiarly, though not particularly surprising. The buyer and seller had allocated a very large portion of the purchase price, $480,000 to be exact, to a non-competition agreement. In this article, you are going to learn why this alarmed us and what you can do to avoid tax mistakes while doing deals.
(more…)

While low pricing may make you very competitive in your local market today, it’s going to clobber you when it comes time to sell your business.

Customer pricing is a very important consideration in the acquisition of a pest control company, and very little is said about it until it’s way too late to do anything. Are you a PCO who is focused on growing sales at all cost? Better listen up now, or start saving a bigger chunk of your paycheck for retirement… you’ll need it. (more…)

According to an October 2007 study performed on behalf of the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), the pest control industry has continued to grow at six percent over the last three years and added about 6.5 million new professional pest control customers.

For further information on the study click here.

The Potomac Company is premier global investment bank focused on the pest control industry. To subscribe to The Potomac Company’s weekly article series on Pest Control mergers and acquisitions, please click here.

Copenhagen, 11 November 2007 – ISS is expanding its operations in Mexico with the acquisition of the pest control business Martex S.A. de C.V. (more…)