Bain & Company crunched numbers as part of its Global M&A report and found that a steady, methodical approach to M&A by public companies translates into higher total shareholder return growth and stronger sales growth.

• Compared, of course, to companies in their peer set who don't actively pursue consolidation.

Why it matters: As I've outlined in this newsletter, the retail sector is on the mend from a post-pandemic growth standpoint but looking at the chart above, you can see that the fragmented retail sector is actually the lowest on Bain's list of frequent acquirers.

Of note: Bain defines frequent acquirers as public companies that made greater than 10 acquisitions between 2011 and 2020.

Details: According to Bain, companies that fit into its frequent acquirers' bucket saw their TSR grow 12.1%, or 1.5x greater than their infrequent acquirer peers. In terms of sales growth, 2.1x greater, Bain's data show.

• "Companies that have a repeatable model of M&A show a TSR return and stronger sales growth than peers who have a more episodic approach to M&A," said David Harding, a Bain advisory partner.
• In terms of where retail fits into this picture, Harding noted that the industry has simply not shown a tendency for a steady approach to deals.
• "One of the riskiest things for a company is the big, one-off deals. Big deals are usually problematic," Harding added.

The bottom line: Taking Bain data a step further, a disciplined biz dev team or chief strategy officer with a long-term approach plays a larger role in returns than may be appreciated at some companies.

• Tomorrow, we'll take a closer look at companies that Bain groups in the frequent and infrequent categories.