Buyers and sellers should keep John Kerschen and his colleagues at Charter Capital Partners busy next year. He says the U.S. economy should remain on its present growth path and drive business for the Grand Rapids-based M&A firm and investment bank. His outlook doesn’t forecast any major disruptions in the year ahead, but he wishes Michigan would take the time to do some proper long-term planning to avoid issues in the future.
Kerschen said, “I would like to see (Gov. Snyder) take a leadership stand with regard to restoring funding to the MEDC. Michigan has come a long way in cultivating entrepreneurial opportunities and capital sources to support them. It would be a shame to stop funding such activities now that they are generating positive returns to the state. We see encouraging signs toward diversification with life sciences firms and I.T. services, but those industries don’t produce as many jobs as manufacturing. Using a longer-term view, we believe our state needs to stay committed to these diversification and new industry training efforts in order to change the equation for 10 or 20 years from now.” Read more at MiBiz