The head of Canadian technology upstart Dye & Durham Corp. isn’t afraid to tap the debt market to help finance his firm’s growth-by-acquisition strategy.
Dye & Durham Chief Executive Officer Matthew Proud said that while the company is flush with available cash, he wouldn’t hesitate to issue bonds to raise further capital if the right acquisition target presents itself.
“We’re sitting with access to approximately a billion dollars in capital through cash on our balance sheet and committed credit facilities,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
“Should the right acquisition come along, would we increase that leverage, provided there was the ability to completely delever? Absolutely we would. Credit’s a critical part of funding any acquisition, and with today’s low interest rates it’s something we would have to consider.”
Dye & Durham – which specializes in cloud-based software for the legal industry – has been highly acquisitive since its July 2020 initial public offering, and has thus far largely funded those acquisitions through issuing fresh equity.
The firm has undertaken about $800 million worth of M&A since hitting public markets, which helped grow revenue in its latest quarter by 300 per cent year-over-year. Proud said Dye & Durham is keen to continue to snap up complementary businesses but will also be focused on organic growth.
“We have deployed a lot of capital to acquire over the last year, but this has really led to a better experience for our customers,” he said. “It’s helped drive part of the revenue growth, but that’s not the whole story. As we bring these businesses together, we’re able to have different revenue streams coming in to one platform, and you’re seeing the synergies being realized.”
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