Middle Market Weekly Outlook

M&A activity is breaking records left and right, but private equity deal volume is down. What’s the deal? In Forbes, columnist Jeff Golman explores the effect of today’s sky-high valuations on PE activity.

Meanwhile, with regulations prohibiting investment banks and insurers from getting into the hedge fund business, private equity firms are picking up the slack. Business Insider documents the latest evidence of “how the leveraged-buyout business is transforming into multi-strategy money management.”

Opinions

• Healthcare is driving a large portion of M&A activity
• Private equity firms have sticker shock
• Increasing AUM is the name of the game for PE firms
• M&A is blowing up, and it’s not over yet
• The value of U.S. M&A just hit an all-time record
• What PE professionals want to change about PE
• The summer of M&A
• How working with an independent sponsor is different

Transactions

• Main Street Capital Corporation invests in M.H. Corbin, Inc.
• M/C Partners and J.P. Morgan invest in Everstream Solutions
• EDF Invest and Ardian to buy Géosel Manosque for $296.4 million
• Praesidian backs Privet Capital’s buy of Pyser-SGI Group
• River Associates to buy Action Fabricators
• Värde Partners buys Trimont Real Estate Advisors
• Carlyle invests in Metropolis Healthcare
• Joe’s Jeans sells Joe’s brand to Sequential Brands, Global Brands for $80 million
• Envision Pharma buys Alligent Biopharm Consulting
• Shore Capital invests in Florida Autism Center
• KKR to acquire stake in UK hedge fund Marshall Wace
• CPPIB buys 21.5% stake in Homeplus for $534 million
• Graycliff Partners invests in Super Color Digital
• Octopus completes investment in Healthcare and Services Technology Group
• Praesidian Capital exits John’s Incredible Pizza
• Blackstone to buy Strategic Hotels & Resorts and Strategic Funding LLC for $6 billion
• Cambridge Capital blank check company merges with Ability Computers
• Tesco sells South Korean arm to private equity group for $6.1 billion

This week in history… Workers begin construction on a new New York Stock Exchange building downtown. The building, which took two years to complete, is still in use today. (1901)