ISSUE 4 | 2021
12
NORTH AMERICA HEAT CHART BY SECTOR
Financial Services
882 29%
TMT 583 19% Pharma, Medical & Biotech 558 19% Industrials & Chemicals 290 10% Business Services 268 9% Consumer 210 7% Energy, Mining & Utilities 102 3% Leisure 56 2% Real Estate 42 1% TOTAL 2991
tapering and rate increases could present significant challenges to the M&A markets for 2022. As for the balance of 2021, North American M&A activity should remain strong based on the sheer backlog of deals in market as well as the underlying fundamentals of resilient debt and equity markets, abundant cash and a strong economy. Given current activity levels, most market participants expect 2021 to go down in history as the best year for deal-making in the history of deal-making.
Corporates are looking to M&A to update their own business models and stay current with the latest trends while boosting competitiveness. Private equity firms continued to contribute significantly to Q3 M&A volume. Financial buyers accounted for nearly 33% of overall middle-market M&A activity in Q3. By the end of the quarter, private equity firms were sitting on over $3 trillion of investment capital. The sheer amount of private-equity dry powder combined with a booming economy and a liquid debt market has resulted in the first three quarters of 2021 being a record period for sponsor-backed deal-making. Earlier in 2021, the potential for tax policy changes, aka significant increases in capital gains rates, undoubtedly motivated many sellers to pursue a transaction before higher rates were enacted. The number of tax-driven, motivated sellers clearly subsided in Q3 as U.S. Congressional leaders announced spending packages with far more modest adjustments to capital gains rates. This combined with rising inflation, supply/ demand imbalances for goods and services and a shift in Fed policy to
NORTH AMERICA MIDMARKET VOLUMES BY SECTOR
2020
2021
549
BOB SNAPE PRESIDENT
758
bsnape@bdocap.com
20
6
299
306
41
39
267
313
117
159
196
173
142
114
186
166
Technology & Media
Financial Services
Energy, Mining & Utilities
Pharma, Medical & Biotech Real Estate
Consumer
Business Services
Leisure
Industrials & Chemicals
Made with FlippingBook HTML5