Lower Middle Market Weekly Outlook

Good morning, all. There is talk that we may be on the eve of the BDC era. As Aaron Peck, a managing director at Chicago-based Monroe Capital recently explained, “One of the reasons the BDC market has grown so much is what’s happened in the banking market – they can’t do the kind of lending that we do anymore.” Much of this advantage comes from a BDC’s ability to tap into the stock market for funding. Looks like the mezz space is about to get much more crowded.

In other news, learn how to leverage social media in dealmaking and what other deal professionals are reading this summer.

Transactions:

• Succession Capital buys Wine Valley Siding Supply
• Long Ridge Equity Partners invests in Portware
• IBM acquires Lighthouse Security Group
• Trivest recaps Advanced Discovey
• Brookside Equity Partners invests in SelectQuote
• Beeline announces merger with OnForce
• Calera Capital acquires United Site Services
• Maidstone Capital Corporation acquires EU Services
• Wynnchurch Capital sells Safeworks
• Leviton acquires ClickOn Technology
• Centre Partners sells Ross Aviation
• Mosaic Capital invests in Express Medical Transporters
• Palladium Equity Partners near sale of ABRA Auto Body

Events:

• Wednesday: Axial Breakfast Roundtable

Opinions:

• The essential PE glossary
• PE exhales as exits increase
• As big merger deals boom, so do big failures
• Mergers fail because of people and culture
• Public pensions cannot stop chasing performance
• Discord among PE firms is their best defense in collusion lawsuit
• PE firms play ball with insurance industry
• Boom-era buyouts weighed down by lingering debt
• What’s really going on with all those crazy tech deals, in charts
• Ten charts that show us something new about the IPO boom
• Has PE learned its lesson on fashion investments?
• Industrial products M&A activity surged in Q2’14
• The M&A boom hits a roadblock

This week in history…Amscan merges with Goldman Sachs affiliate for $315 million (1997).