Reporting Live from the Barnes Buchanan Conference

The 2012 Barnes Buchanan Conference opened yesterday on an upbeat note. The outlook for 2012 deal flow is viewed positively. David Stang, senior vice president of Bank of America noted that equity markets are improving; and in particular the leveraged loan market for RMR is improving and the volume of deals is on the rise. “Activity is robust,” Stang commented.

Affiliated Central’s Stanley Oppenheim unveiled the company’s new 70,000 sq. ft. central station of the future. The $25 million facility is located in Millburn, N.J. and “there is nothing else like it, anywhere,” Oppenheim assured the audience.

Ron Petnuch presented a security integrator of the future model to attendees. Intertech Security CEO Petnuch shared his company’s united model bringing the engineered systems business together with their own global security operations center that generates RMR.

John Jacobs of eOriginal explained how electronic contracting will impact RMR agreements when a company goes to sell its accounts. Jacobs explained the process of correctly and legally acquiring an e-signature that is legal and that will make a contract valid in the eyes of the funding and/or acquiring company. Not appropriately, e-contracting can cause RMR accounts to be rejected by potential investors. 

Mike Barnes presented an industry overview today, which pegs monitoring and services revenue growth up 5 percent, but sales and installation down 6 percent. The data was collected in cooperation with SDM. Barnes forecasts growth for 2012, with the ADT spin-off being a bellwether for the industry.