Australia-based searchers: Has anyone here bought a business off-market (not publicly listed for sale)?

August 07, 2025

by a searcher from University of Queensland in Sydney NSW, Australia

It would be great if you could briefly share your experience or any strategy you used. Did you reach out to the owner directly or work closely with a broker?

6 Likes

17 Replies

213 Views

Replies

Reply by a searcher
from INSEAD in Melbourne VIC, Australia

I have been involved in both processes. Depends on circumstance and situation, market, how niche the industry, sometimes the public just won't understand a certain sector and ascribe the valuation that the seller could find with a more bespoke sale process targeting those in the industry or industry adjacent. MBB recently advised a small family glass manufacturing/ supply business that sold off market which was in this situation. On the other side, as an acquirer, the lower hanging fruit is with public listed with brokers as they tend to be serious sellers and have at least gone through the motions, discussions and either warm or onboard with selling. Approaching sellers cold, off market is another approach but can be way too much frictions the outcome desired and therefore less efficient given extra step of weeding out the serious sellers.

Reply by a searcher
in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

^redacted‌ can share his input well here as he is from Australia, and has connections with other Australian searchers as well. Both approaches work fine, based on my experience supporting other searchers in their deal-sourcing journey. Majorly, it is about the numbers game; the higher the number of broker connects or the outreaches, the better the chances are of finding the business. It still takes several months at least. However, numbers would depend on your bandwidth as well as the budget that you have kept for your search. With a decent budget, you can hire professionals like us to fasten up your search, or if you are doing it yourself, working on it full-time would give you enough time to do outreaches in tangible number to produce something good. Hope this gives some help. If you seek my help during process, drop me a DM.

+15 more replies.

Join the discussion