Online site: Indianapolis business sales recovering

January 10, 2011
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Sales of small businesses recovered in the Indianapolis market last year, according to BizBuySell.

The San Francisco-based website recorded 29 businesses sold in the Indianapolis metro area in 2010, twice the 14 of 2009 and identical to the number of closings in 2008.

The small sample size makes it difficult to read too much into the numbers, said Mike Handelsman, group general manager for BizBuySell, which lists businesses for sale and is the largest company of its kind.

Nevertheless, Handelsman said Indianapolis clearly is bouncing back faster than the nation, based on the numbers it tracks.

Businesses haven’t sold well the past couple of years because bank financing has been hard to come by, but also because owners haven’t wanted to let their companies go for fire-sale prices.

In Indianapolis, Handelsman said, it appears that “People got very real about what their businesses were worth and got less than what they were asking for them, and therefore more were sold.”

How do you interpret this? Are banks loosening up faster here? Are other factors at work? Your insights, please.

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  • Machinery an Indicator?
    Nathan Bazzle, CMEAJanuary 11, 2011 7:58 AM
    As a local Certified Machinery and Equipment Appraisal company we have seen an upswing in equipment appraisals. These are coming from local Indianapolis Banks for loans and from private companies in Buy / Sell agreements. We feel this is partially due to Americans telling President Obama they want stricter financial controls in the future, partially due to the SBA loan discounts that ended December 31, and on a good note we are also seeing local Banks starting to increase lending.
    Another interesting thing to note is equipment values are starting to move upward due to excess in the equipment market starting to dwindle. Read into that what you willâ?¦
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment

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