Middle Market Weekly Outlook

Baby boomers are making news, as more business owners take advantage of the seller’s market and decide to cash out.

Meanwhile, women are slowly making inroads into the traditionally male-dominated private equity world. Bloomberg profiles a women-led PE firm breaking into fashion, while the Boston Globe reports on a PE firm with a unique benefit for new mothers.

Transactions

• Lehman Brothers sells Boot Ranch to Wheelock and Terra Verde Group
• Revelstoke-backed Schryver Medical buys B.O.N. Clinical Laboratories
• Mexican fund buys stake in Poland’s Amrest from Warburg
• Bregal, Pacific Seafood invest in American Seafood
• Carrick Capital invests in Launchpoint
• BelHealth buys Apothecary by Design
• Southfield Capital invests in Vanguard Dealer Services
• Canada’s Brookfield buying Australian freight firm Asciano for 6.6 billion
• H.I.G. Middle Market to buy HelpSystems

Opinions

• M&A activity continued to show strength last month
• Family-owned private companies are taking advantage of the seller’s market
• Entrepreneurial baby boomers are starting to cash out
• Private equity firms without any equity gain steam
• One PE firms will pay for new parents to bring their child and a nanny on business trips
• The SEC is exploring favoritism for LPs providing debt for deals
• The women-led PE firm pushing into the fickle world of fashion
• Breaking up with your PE manager
• What’s behind healthcare’s M&A boom?
• Some PE managers will be required to disclose the fees they’re pocketing from portfolio companies
• The days of ultra-cheap credit are nearing an end
• Proceed with caution toward private equity funds
• Merger Monday isn’t dead
• Private equity braces for international tax changes
• Hubris is the biggest threat to the M&A craze
• The new geography of M&A

This week in history… Workers at the Hormel Company — best known as the makers of Spam — staged what would become a 25 week strike after management decided to cut wages and benefits. The Minnesota State Police and National Guard were at times called to keep the peace. The walkout ended when Hormel recruited replacement workers. (1985)