WCF Advisors Blog

Category: Market Updates
A quarterly, insightful look at middle-market merger and acquisition activity.

2022 Q2 M&A activity update

Sep 28, 2022
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Market Updates
Merger & acquisition activity(1) The 2022 global M&A continues to slow down from a busy latter half of 2021, with Q2 2022 deal count lagging behind the same period in 2021. Pitchbook reports that the North American deal market closed 3,030 deals worth a combined $544.3 billion, a decline of 20% and 18% respectively. M&A activity faced some major headwinds this quarter, including geopolitical tension and supply chain uncertainty brought about from the COVID-19 pandemic. Macroeconomic...

2022 Q1 M&A activity update

Aug 05, 2022
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Market Updates
M&A activity(1) The 2022 global M&A market is lagging slightly behind the very busy latter half of 2021 but is still in line with that of the previous five years. PitchBook reports that the North American deal market closed 4,739 deals worth a combined $611.3 billion, a 20% decrease for both. New dealmaking took a brief pause in Q1 because of geopolitical uncertainty due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising inflation. The Consumer Price Index rose 8.5% year over year,...

M&A deal activity continues to reach record highs in Q4 2021

Mar 28, 2022
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Market Updates
Deal activity in the fourth quarter of 2021 continued its record-setting pace as seen in the previous three quarters, driven by the continued economic recovery, favorable cost of debt, high levels of dry powder and strengthening job market. Favorable stock prices and relatively low borrowing costs spurred buyers. The robust activity is expected to continue in 2022 amidst new challenges and uncertainty. Investors’ concerns regarding interest rate have heightened, as the Fed has signaled...

M&A market experiences record deal activity in Q3 2021

Dec 14, 2021
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Market Updates
Deal activity in the third quarter of 2021 continued its record-setting pace. As seen in the previous two quarters, it was driven by the continued economic recovery, favorable cost of debt, high levels of dry powder and strengthening job market. The fourth quarter of 2021 is expected to see a record level of M&A volume ahead of the potential capital gains tax change. Looking forward, 2022 is poised for another strong year of M&A, with private equity firms sitting on an unprecedented...

M&A market heats up in Q2 2021

Sep 08, 2021
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Market Updates
Deal activity in the second quarter of 2021 continued at the feverish pace seen in the previous two quarters, driven by the continued economic recovery, favorable cost of debt, high levels of dry powder and a strengthening job market. The continued economic recovery has driven valuation multiples back toward prepandemic levels. As the vaccinated population increases and consumer sentiment continues to improve, the M&A market — as well as the economy as a whole — experienced...

M&A market continues rebound in Q1 2021

Jun 11, 2021
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Market Updates
Through the first quarter of 2021, the global economy and the M&A landscape continued to show signs of recovery. Several months of pent-up seller interest led the charge in an uptick in deal volume toward the end of 2020, with valuation multiples making their way back toward pre-pandemic levels. Successful vaccine rollouts, relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, improved consumer sentiment and a strengthening job market have contributed to recent economic and M&A market rebounds. While M&A...

COVID-19 pandemic leaves imprint on M&A marketplace during Q2 2020

Dec 09, 2020
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Market Updates
During Q2 2020, the U.S. and Canada both confirmed their economies entered recessions during the previous quarter. While Canada has since emerged, the U.S. outlook continues to sour as the economy faces potential shutdowns, continued rising unemployment, deteriorating financing conditions and increased expectations of a prolonged recession.  The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in virtually no change in valuations on dramatically reduced volume and debt usage between Q1 and Q2 2020. Although...

Pandemic brings slowdown and uncertainty for 2020; rebound coming into view

Jun 22, 2020
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Market Updates
After another strong year of M&A activity in 2019, the first quarter of 2020 began in a similar fashion but ended with feelings of uncertainty, at best, and fear, at worst. Although the landscape has continued to evolve over the last two months, it is important to understand where things stood pre-COVID-19 and use these baselines to make informed decisions in the months ahead. M&A deal activity The COVID-19 coronavirus backdrop led to a sudden shift in the underlying macro dynamics...

M&A deal activity falls, but sellers still have options

May 06, 2020
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Market Updates
Our last newsletter started off, “Let the good times roll” as we finished off a strong calendar 2019 and looked forward to 2020. Well, that sentiment was most certainly shattered and in a much shorter time frame than anticipated. However, we remain bullish on M&A on the whole and offer a few words of wisdom on current and anticipated near-term trends. M&A deal activity FactSet reports that total U.S. M&A deal activity dropped 18.8% in March 2020, with 862 announcements...

Favorable conditions for 2019, wavering optimism for 2020

Dec 11, 2019
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Market Updates
Let the good times roll! As year-end rapidly approaches, M&A activity remains strong through the remainder of 2019. GF Data reported that valuations for transactions closed averaged 7.4x EBITDA for the second straight quarter, buoyed by larger deals in the $100M to $250M enterprise value range. For the year-to-date 2019, the average EBITDA multiple for all deals also remained consistent with last year at 7.2x. Multiples in all deal size categories except one rose in 2019 over 2018. With a...