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Full Editorial Writeup
This is a regional livestock auction and agricultural services business that earns its keep on the unglamorous mechanics of moving cattle and other animals through a sale ring. Revenue comes from auction commissions, yardage and handling fees, and ancillary ag services, which means the company takes a clip on transaction volume rather than betting on commodity prices itself. That fee-on-flow model is the boring beauty here: producers need a place to sell livestock in good times and bad, and the auction sits in the middle collecting a toll.
The business does roughly $5.93m in revenue and $1.46m in EBITDA, a healthy ~25% margin for a transaction-volume operation. It runs out of an 80,000 SF facility with auction infrastructure, livestock handling pens, office space, truck access, and parking, all owned and included in the deal. With 21 employees and established processes, this is a built platform rather than an owner-dependent one-person shop.
The real story is the real estate. The listing values the property at $8m against a $9m asking price, meaning you are paying roughly $1m for the operating business at this stated EBITDA. That changes the entire underwriting: this is a real estate plus cash flow play with a regional moat built on producer relationships and high barriers to entry, not a pure operating multiple of 6.16x.
Why we like it
- Earnings quality is anchored to transaction volume, not commodity speculation. The company collects commissions, yardage, and handling fees regardless of whether cattle prices rise or fall, which insulates the income statement from the volatility that wipes out the producers themselves. A ~25% EBITDA margin on nearly $6m in revenue signals a clean, scalable fee model.
- The moat is geography plus relationships, which is exactly the kind of boring durability we want. Producers and consignors do not switch auction barns casually; they go where their neighbors go and where the buyers show up. The listing explicitly cites high barriers to entry and a long operating history, and you cannot build a regional livestock hub overnight.
- Roughly $8m of the $9m ask is real estate, so you are buying an 80,000 SF facility plus the cash flow rather than an inflated operating multiple. Strip the property out and the implied operating-business price is around $1m on $1.46m of EBITDA, which is cheap if the earnings hold. The land and improvements provide downside protection and long-term underlying asset value.
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