Partnership Philosophy

The FirstService Partnership Philosophy is the guiding principle for our acquisition strategy and the foundation upon which our many great relationships have grown and prospered.

Since its inception in 1989, FirstService has partnered with over 300 entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world. Successful management teams choose FirstService as a preferred partner because we share their entrepreneurial values and can provide the resources and strategic assets to accelerate growth and take their businesses to the next level. Our operating partners retain control of day to day frontline decision-making in their business while maintaining an equity stake in their future growth. Our successful track record has set industry leading benchmarks in terms of capital appreciation and partner retention across our three service platforms.

We focus on four important attributes of partnership that have been at the core of our successful value creation over the last 20 years.

Alignment of Interests

Each of our major business leaders owns a significant equity stake in the business they run on a day to day basis. Our partners participate financially in the long term growth of the operations and remain responsible for frontline decision-making.

Partnering with Proven Management

We operate in a decentralized manner, delegating all day-to-day decisions to the people on the front line. We do this with confidence because each of our service lines is operated by a proven management team.

Leveraging Knowledge and Relationships

We create value for our shareholders and partners by providing:

• Strategic leadership, advice and counsel
• Sourcing and execution of accretive acquisition opportunities
• Identifying and executing on infrastructure leverage to create value
• Introducing cross selling opportunities to grow the business
• Sharing of best practices across platforms

Long Term Capital

FirstService is not an investor with a fixed time investment horizon. We are a builder of businesses and are looking to buy and create value in our businesses over the long term. We continue to invest in our business by providing growth or acquisition capital.

Partner Profile

Our ideal partner is typically a successful privately held company seeking one or more of the following:

• A strong partner with the strategic vision and financial capacity to help take their business to the next level
• The ability to monetize equity value for shareholders
• Support for a management buy-out
• Buy-out of non-active business partners
• An exit strategy for founders
• An exit strategy for a parent company
• An exit strategy for a portfolio investor