Lower Middle Market Weekly Outlook

Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe 2014 is already over, especially since it was a particularly good year for M&A. As the NYTimes reported this weekend, “Some 40,298 transactions — worth nearly $3.5 trillion — were announced worldwide in 2014, according to Thomson Reuters, fulfilling the hopes of an industry that has bet on such a resurgence for some time. It was the biggest year in deals since 2007.”

The main driver of deals appeared to be the increased activity from strategics. As it turns out, 2014 was a record year for exits via sales.

If you are looking to make 2015 just as successful as 2014, it is critical to really focus on your business development efforts. Read a recent article from Axial CEO, Peter Lehrman, about how you can get to business development 2.0.

Transactions:

• The DAK Group completes strategic expansion in Ethnic Food Distribution
• Pamplona Capital Management is buying Charter Nex Films
• Mistral Equity Partners to sell Country Pure Foods
• Cantel Medical buys Pure Water Solutions
• Lexmark acquires Claron Technology
• Growthgate Capital sells its stake in Able Logistics Group
• Fosun to acquire Meadowbrook Insurance Group
• Cameron completes sale of Centrifugal Compression Business
• Bison Capital invests $10 million in Lime Energy Co.
• Ranieri Partners will soon announce the sale of Situs Holdings
• KKR sells last of Alliance Boots stake
• CEB acquires Essential Forms
• Addus HomeCare picks up Priority Home Health Care

Opinions:

• Fees get leaner on private equity
• Private equity not so private as fees revealed at Blackstone
• Digital advertising shift may spark media M&A in 2015
• PE tracks the rise of health care ‘consumerism’
• Manufacturers in M&A to gain larger market share
• Private equity salaries soar
• India’s private equity last year was worth only half of WhatsApp
• UBS tries old-school investment banking
• Investors bought into nearly $250 billion in global IPOs in 2014
• 10 big mergers, acquisitions, and spinoffs to be on the lookout for in 2015
• Investors struggle to get into some PE funds
• 12 important tech deals of 2014
• Deal multiples for leveraged buyouts reach 2007 levels
• The biggest buyout deals of 2014
• Oil price slump may spur European oil & gas dealmaking
• 10 key issues for private equity in 2015

This week in history… The Bank of North America, the nation’s first commercial bank, opens (1782).