Lower Middle Market Weekly Outlook

Good morning, Forum readers. Last week, Goldman Sachs released a report highlighting the dearth of take-privates and LBOs in the first half of 2014. To put it in perspective, “Not a single take-private deal worth more than $5 billion has been struck this year…That compares to four deals above $5 billion in 2013 and 17 such deals in 2007, the year before the financial crisis struck,” wrote Will Alden of the NYTimes.

Take-privates have largely fallen by the wayside because of the high stock market — many firms are simply deeming companies as too expensive. Instead, they are opting for other other strategies, like minority investments. However, as Dan Primack points out, take-privates have often been opportunistic investments and should not be taken as indicators of market activity.

In other news, Thomson Reuters is looking to sell peHUB, Buyouts and Venture Capital Journal.

Transactions:

• HGGC invests in Pearl Holding Group
• Antin Infrastructure Partners to acquire Roadchef
• Nautic Partners invests in All Metro Health Care Services
• Huron Capital Partners completes sale of OneTouchPoint
• Solis Capital invests in LEHR
• Angeles Equity Fund I targets $300 million
• CenterOak Partners is formed and plans to invest in middle market
• CVS Health completes purchase of Navarro Discount Pharmacy
• TA Associates acquires Idera
• Batteries Plus acquires LED Hut
• Salesforce launches its first dedicated corporate VC fund
• Rock Hill Capital buys Beckman Production Services
• Patrick Industries acquires PolyDyn3
• Susquehanna Growth Equity sells The Logic Group to Barclaycard
• Ridgemont Equity acquires Abrasive Products & Equipment
• Argon Medical Devices acquires US Biopsy

Events:

• Axial’s Los Angeles Summit is on Wednesday
• A roundtable discussion on growing portfolio companies is also happening on Wednesday
• ACG Wisconsin hosts its annual Growth, Leadership, and Human Capital (GLHC) conference today
• Hear Ben Bernanke speak at ACG LA’s Business Conference 2014
• Webinar on September 30th: Best Practices for Effective Fund Life Cycle Management
• Want to meet LPs? Don’t miss the registration deadline for the National Summit for Middle Market Funds

Opinions:

• Is the corporate tax inversion crackdown unavoidable? Some say yes
• PE deals collapsing over fee disagreements
• CalPERS hires new head of co-investing
• Bubble forming in US mid-market leveraged finance
• New bill would change healthcare merger review process
• PE invests is the future of energy in Africa
• CFOs don’t last as long at PE-backed companies
• Companies are waiting longer and longer to go public. Here’s why.
• Private equity consistently outperforms public equities in Europe
• Jeffries bankers are told to be nice to underlings
• Here’s why middle market companies have their checkbooks out
• IPO window is open, PE firms keep shoving companies through
• Tax inversion deals increase despite criticism
• PE-backed buyout exits up 53% in Q2
• Do mergers hurt innovation?
• ‘Buy and build’ figures fall flat in first half

This week in history… AT&T announces it will split into three companies (1995).