The Redcap&Truss Deal Brief – September 2026

Insights for owners of privately held businesses in Western Canada

Thank you for all of your great feedback on our inaugural edition of our Deal Brief Newsletter.   This newsletter is intended for owners and entrepreneurs of manufacturing, oilfield services, and industrial businesses in Western Canada (but hopefully also appeal to a wider audience).   Our Deal Brief focuses on one goal: helping owners create value in their business.  It’s intended to be short, insightful and we want to introduce news, topics and ideas that you may not otherwise have been exposed to, particularly as it relates to selling a business.  We hope you enjoy it.

The Western Canadian M&A Lens

What buyers, sellers and investors are doing across Western Canada.

The last 30 days looked like a market where strategic buyers, not financial sponsors, are setting the pace — and they’re buying capability rather than scale. In oilfield and energy services, Calgary’s Ensign Energy Services closed its US$65 million purchase of Citadel Drilling on August 13, adding rigs rather than building them, while North Vancouver-based Kintera picked up Calgary’s Terralogix Solutions (reclamation and remediation) and Calgary’s Elevate Energy Group bought out the commissioning and turnaround team of Dynamysk Automation. The same pattern shows up in industrials and manufacturing: NASDAQ-listed DXP Enterprises acquired Calgary’s Mequipco, a water and wastewater equipment distributor with roughly $2.4 million of EBITDA, Toronto’s Canerector bought RITZ Machine Works in Dauphin, Manitoba, and Dallas-based Industrial Refrigeration Pros used Winnipeg’s Prairie HVAC/R as its entry point into Canada. Cross-border interest ran both ways — Calgary’s Trimac Transportation bought a California bulk logistics operator, California Freight, and Regina’s SSC Security Services went to Irvine-based Allied Universal. Think of it as buyers shopping for crews, licences and customer relationships they can’t hire fast enough on their own.

On the sell side and the capital side, the supply of deals is being pushed along by demographics. National Bank’s July survey of mid-market owners across the four western provinces found 47% expect to retire within a decade and 68% plan to sell or transfer, yet 36% of those sellers haven’t engaged a single advisor yet — a large pipeline of unprepared sellers meeting a well-capitalized buyer pool. Investors are showing up mostly through platform-and-tuck-in strategies rather than headline buyouts: Calgary’s TriWest Capital Partners closed its majority investment in AirSprint alongside Onex on August 10, its fourth platform in Fund VI, Vancouver’s CAI Capital added ATS Scientific to its distribution portfolio, and Blackstone Energy Transition Partners bought North Vancouver inspection-technology firm DarkVision from Koch.

Two practical takeaways for owners: valuations still favour differentiated, contracted revenue over asset-heavy commodity work — Redcap pegs recent private equity multiples for oil and gas support services at roughly 3.5x to 5.7x EBITDA depending on size, and the buyers circling Western Canada right now are strategics with a labour problem, which is exactly the kind of buyer that pays for a well-run, well-staffed service business. We are seeing an increase in discussions and reach-outs from both strategic and financial buyers, but broadly buyers remain cautious as they weigh the macro environment.

Exit Ready

Practical advice to increase value before selling your business.

Many owners have never calculated what percentage of their personal net worth sits inside the company, and that concentration risk should shape both personal financial planning and sale timing. For oilfield services owners specifically, this concentration is often compounded by owning the real estate, yard, or equipment the operating company leases — meaning a downturn or a single lost contract can threaten far more than just the operating business.

This matters because owners who are financially overexposed to their business tend to make emotional, rushed decisions when a downturn hits or when an unsolicited offer arrives, rather than negotiating from a position of strength. Understanding true concentration also clarifies whether a full exit, partial recapitalization, or continued operation is the right near-term path.

The tactical step is straightforward: work with a wealth advisor or accountant annually to calculate your personal net worth against the estimated fair market value of the business (including any owned real estate or rolling stock), and set a target percentage — many advisors recommend no more than 50-70% concentration by the time an owner is within five years of a planned exit.

Need help with this – please contact us as we work with what we believe are the best Financial Advisors in Western Canada and would be happy to make a few referrals.

Building Enterprise Value

The decisions that make businesses more valuable.

Last month we focused on building a Board or Advisory Team (click here for a link to that newsletter).  So what information can you provide them?  Well the first thing you hear is “show me your numbers”, but a lot of entrepreneurs don’t have the systems and processes set up to properly reflect their firms financial position.

Many owner-run businesses review financials informally or reactively, checking the bank balance rather than reviewing a structured monthly package of P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow against budget. Moving to a disciplined monthly close and review cadence, ideally within 10-15 business days of month-end, creates the data owners need to actually manage the business rather than just observe it.

This matters because businesses with disciplined financial reporting habitually catch margin erosion, cost overruns, or collection problems months earlier than businesses that only look closely at year-end, and that speed of detection directly protects EBITDA. Lenders and equity partners also price risk based partly on reporting discipline itself.

The tactical step: implement a standard monthly reporting package that includes P&L versus budget, AR aging, cash position, and 2-3 operational KPIs and review it with your  accountant or CFO within two weeks of every month-end, with variances over a set threshold requiring a written explanation. Then share it with your Board and have them ask questions – you will be amazed at what a fresh set of eyes sees.

What Owners Need to Know

Tax, regulation, financing and AI developments affecting private businesses.

AI financing — BDC’s LIFT program

BDC launched LIFT (Lead with Innovation and Focus on Technology) in April, a $500 million pool to help over 1,000 Canadian SMEs adopt AI and automation — BDC’s own research says SMEs using AI in 2025 were 24% more productive than those that didn’t. There are two tracks. The digital and AI track needs $1M in revenue and lends $25K to $2M over up to six years, covering data infrastructure, ERP and CRM systems, cybersecurity, AI implementation and even training costs. The productivity track needs $5M in revenue and lends $350K to $5M for robotics, automation and digitally enabled equipment, and is open to manufacturing, construction, wholesale, transport, and mining and oil and gas.

Implication for owners: this is a loan, not a grant — you need demonstrated profitability and, on the AI track, a completed BDC advisory plan before financing is approved. So start with the plan, not the loan application. Two things move the economics: sourcing from qualified Canadian suppliers earns preferential rates, and any genuine experimental work should be carved out as an SR&ED claim, where Bill C-15 (royal assent March 26) tripled the enhanced 35% refundable credit limit from $3M to $6M. Financing the equipment and clawing 35% back on the development beats doing either alone. Intake is continuous, so there’s no deadline pressure — but there’s also no queue-jumping.

Tax — the 100% write-off on manufacturing buildings still isn’t law

What happened: Budget 2025 promised immediate expensing — a full first-year write-off — for eligible manufacturing and processing buildings, additions and alterations acquired on or after November 4, 2025 and in use before 2030. It sits in Bill C-31, which passed second reading June 3, went to the Finance Committee, and has recorded no committee activity since; the Senate began a pre-study June 10. Third reading hasn’t been reached in either chamber.

Implication for owners: The measure is “substantively enacted” for accounting purposes as of May 6, so your financial statements can reflect it — but it is not yet law, and a minority Parliament means timing risk. If you’re buying or expanding a plant, document the acquisition date and the 90%-manufacturing-use test now, and build your cash-tax forecast with and without the deduction. Don’t let a lender’s covenant model assume the write-off is banked.

Closing Note

We hope you both enjoyed our first few editions of Deal Brief helpful.  We would welcome any feedback you may have on it.  As a reminder, Redcap&Truss is a Calgary-based boutique M&A advisory firm that advises entrepreneurs on the sale or growth of their businesses.  Redcap&Truss focuses on manufacturing, oilfield services and other industrial business in Western Canada, with our typical client having revenues between roughly $15 million and $200 million and EBITDA above $3 million. Please connect with us on LinkedIn or via our website at www.redcapandtruss.com.