Bulletin Trends and Highlights
- Despite apparent challenges, overall, 56% of middle-market merger advisors said they are feeling positive about the M&A market, the first increase in optimism in a year. Only 14% had negative feelings.
- Forecasts for volume in the coming three months increased for the first time all year to 43%. Only 19% expect deal flow will decline.
- Buyers and sellers continue to be very interested in pursuing middle-market M&A transactions, as measured by a rise in data room openings in the third quarter of 2022.
- To bridge the price gap between buyers and sellers, four in ten advisors say that earnouts are becoming more common in deal agreements.
- More than half of advisors say company valuations are average, the first time in the two years of the survey that most advisors didn’t call valuations high or very high.
- The pace of cross-border transactions is largely staying constant, although more than a third of advisors in Europe see an increase in foreign buyers doing deals in their country.
A New Forecast for Deal Volumes
Along with our forecast for deal flow in Q4 2022, The Firmex Deal Flow Bulletin presents readers with a look into changes in valuations, financing availability, and cross-border transactions.
Readers of the bulletin will come away with deal volume insights gained from knowledge of virtual data room activity, as well as a grasp of what current M&A advisor sentiment is for the market for the fourth quarter of the year.
