M&A & Diligence Support for Marinas & Boatyards
A marina is part annuity, part real estate, and part environmental file, and diligence pokes all three. The slip revenue is what a buyer wants; the submerged-land lease and the fuel-storage records are what can hold up the closing. Both need to be ready.
What diligence actually feels like
Under a letter of intent, the buyer's accountants and lawyers send request lists covering financials, tax, dockage contracts, leases, permits, and environmental records — wanted fast, organized, and reconciled. Deferred revenue from prepaid annual slip fees gets close attention, and so does anything touching the waterfront.
You're still running the marina while this happens. These deals carry unusually heavy legal and environmental diligence, and a busy owner rarely has the submerged-land, permit, and environmental documentation organized. Those items, not the financials, are often the real critical path to closing.
M&A support is the finance seat that runs the data room, defends the revenue in the buyer's language, and keeps the deal moving while you keep the marina running.
The marina deal-killers hiding in plain sight
Buyers focus on marina-specific risks. Is the slip and storage revenue documented as the annuity it is, with occupancy and rate history? Are prepaid annual fees booked as deferred revenue? Do the submerged-land or riparian leases and permits transfer, and on what terms? What do the environmental records show, especially around fuel storage and any underground tanks? Do dockage contracts assign to a new owner?
They'll expect schedules and documents owners rarely keep ready: occupancy and rate trends, deferred slip-fee liabilities, lease and permit status, and environmental compliance records. Prepared, these support a premium, real-estate-like valuation. Missing, they delay closing or reprice the deal.
We build the revenue and occupancy schedules, correct deferred-revenue treatment, coordinate the lease, permit, and environmental diligence with your attorney and advisors, and have the answers ready — so the annuity is priced as an annuity.
How Kaizen runs it
We build and manage the data room, separate and defend slip/storage revenue, correct prepaid-slip deferred revenue, respond to diligence requests, defend adjusted EBITDA and add-backs, model the working-capital peg, and coordinate with your attorney, banker, and environmental advisors so finance never stalls the deal. One point of contact owns every number the buyer questions.
Continuous improvement is our namesake, which in a marina deal mostly means getting the permit and environmental file organized before it becomes the thing everyone's waiting on at the closing table.
What's included
- Data room built and managed: financials, dockage contracts, leases, permits, tax
- Slip/storage revenue documented with occupancy and rate history
- Prepaid annual slip and storage fees corrected to deferred revenue
- Adjusted EBITDA and add-backs defended under buyer and QoE-firm questioning
- Submerged-land/riparian lease and permit transfer documented
- Environmental records (fuel storage, tanks) coordinated for diligence
- Working-capital peg modeled and the closing true-up negotiated
- Coordination with your M&A attorney, banker, and environmental advisors
Pricing
Straight answers
What usually holds up a marina closing?
Rarely the financials — more often the submerged-land lease, the permits, or the environmental file. These take time and third parties to resolve, so we map them early and coordinate with your attorney and advisors to run them in parallel rather than discover a blocker at the end.
We collect annual slip fees up front. Is that a problem in diligence?
Not if it's booked right. Prepaid annual fees are deferred revenue earned over the year; handled correctly, they're a strength — visible, committed occupancy. Booked as immediate income, they overstate a period and invite an adjustment. We correct it so it works in your favor.
Can you help me acquire a marina?
Yes. Buy-side, we test the target's slip-revenue documentation and deferred-revenue accounting, and coordinate the lease, permit, and environmental diligence — so you know what you're buying before you commit.
When should I bring you in?
Ideally before the letter of intent, so the revenue schedules and the lease, permit, and environmental documentation are underway when diligence starts. On marina deals, early coordination on those items is often what keeps the timeline realistic.
Related
Free 20-minute books assessment
We'll show you the five things we'd fix first in your books — useful whether you hire us, hire someone, or do neither.
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