What's ahead sounds strangely like the past
“Five on the Future” is the annual kickoff to the year for Mainebiz. We ask five economists to give their view of what's ahead for the year.
This year's responses echo some themes from last year and further back. The economy is better, but some of the same issues are still on the minds of the economists we polled: Maine's aging workforce, lack of qualified workers in a wide range of trades and professions, concern about the shackles government puts on business.
Yet there is some good news wrapped in there.
The reason there's a labor shortage is companies are indeed hiring. Interest rates are expected to remain low. Banks are healthy so credit is available.
Industries and sectors seeing growth include health and personal care; professional and technical services (including data analytics, IT, engineering and scientific research); and, at least in southern Maine, housing construction and remodeling.
From global politics to local taxes, this overview has the economy covered.
I want to thank the economists who look time to answer our questions: J. Scott Moody, CEO and chief economist at Federalism in Action; Jonathan Reisman, associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Maine at Machias; Amanda Rector, Maine's state economist; Charles Lawton, chief economist at Planning Decisions Inc.; and Garrett Martin, executive director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
I'd also like to thank the panelists who have agreed to take part in our Jan. 14 “Five on the Future” event at Portland's Holiday Inn by the Bay: Jeff Fuhrer, executive vice president and senior policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; Heather Paquette, vice president of retail operations at Hannaford Supermarkets; John Chandler, managing principal at BerryDunn; Pat Scully, CEO of Bernstein Shur; and David Whitney, regional sales manager at Sheridan Construction.
Could 2016 be the year of the deal?
Already in recent weeks we are seeing a number of deals take place.
- Kepware, a Portland technology firm with $20 million in annual sales, agreed to be acquired by PTC, an Internet of Things technology company based in Needham, Mass., for $100 million. The deal was announced Dec. 23 and is expected to close early this year.
- Kennebec Technologies, a precision machining company based in Augusta, was sold to employees. The ESOP, which took effect Jan. 1, keeps the company (and its 65 employees) based in Maine, while giving former sole owner Charles “Wick” Johnson, 67, a path to retirement.
- Morris Yachts, which we profiled in Mainebiz last year, was sold to Hinckley Yachts, a deal between two privately held Maine companies. The deal was effective Jan. 1. Both companies have significant manufacturing operations in Trenton and a total of 380 employees.
- These go back a couple months, but two WEX Inc. deals are expected to close this year. The South Portland-based corporate-payment services company agreed to buy rival Electronic Funds Source LLC from the private equity firm Warburg Pincus for $1.4 billion in cash and stock. It also agreed to pay $80 million for the Omaha, Neb.-based software company Benaissance. Both deals were announced in October.
Bellview Associates co-founder Susan Scherbel, who arranged the Kennebec Technologies ESOP (as well as those of GAC Chemical, Prock Marine Co. and Sargent Corp.), told me that activity has heated up for two reasons: Few buyers were emerging during the recession and Maine's business-owning baby boomers are looking for an exit strategy. “We're seeing so much happening now,” she says.
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