Why Dealmakers Expect Healthy M&A Action Through Year’s End

The middle-market private equity scene remains blessed by high valuations and a building pipeline

Don’t be distracted by fluctuations in the mega-deal space—2016 is on pace to be a strong and steady year for mergers and acquisitions in the middle market, according to a panel of dealmakers.

The market outlook was one of the themes to come out of Privcap’s recently convened conversation between Harshad Khurjekar, of RSM US LLP, Christopher Elvin of Preqin, and Ryan Budlong of Harris Williams & Co.

Elvin notes that, while overall volume for private equity-backed deals in the second quarter of 2016 was down, the actually number of deals rose to more than 1,000 globally, according to Preqin data, indicating many deals being struck outside the mega-market category.

“We see the middle market traditionally [being] a lot more of a stable environment,” says Budlong. “And I think part of that is it’s not as susceptible to stock market fluctuations, overall—the public market investor market sentiment—and so it tends to be a little bit more stable than the mega deals.”

In this video, Budlong and Khurjekar offer their predictions for private equity deal activity for the rest of the year:

View the full program, Dealmaker Roundup: Q2 2016, here: https://www.privcapdemo.com/dealmaker-roundup-q2-2016-video/