Lower-middle market mergers and acquisitions ruled during the first six months of 2022, according to exclusive new data from The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker.
There were 79 M&A transactions with a value of $100 million or less from Jan. 1 to June 30 — an increase of 52 percent over the final six months in 2021 and up 22 percent from the same period a year ago, CDT data shows.
The business sectors that did the most lower-middle market deals included insurance, real estate, energy renewables, healthcare and financial services.
The mega-transactions, by contrast, plummeted during H1 2022. CDT data shows that there were 38 M&A deals with a price tag of $1 billion or more during the first six months of 2022 — down 38 percent from H1 2021.
The two largest M&A deals of H1 2022 were both for $11 billion. The first, in February, was the Irving-based Celanese Corp. purchase of chemical assets from DuPont. The transaction was led by Kirkland & Ellis and Gibson Dunn.
In May, Houston lawyers for Simpson Thacher advised affiliates of New York-headquartered DigitalBridge Group, Inc. and IFM Investors, an Australian institutional investor, in connection with their take-private agreement to acquire Switch, Inc. Switch is a Las Vegas-headquartered provider of digital infrastructure.
There were only three other deals over $5 billion.
In March, Oasis Petroleum bought Denver-based Whiting Petroleum for $6 billion. Baker Botts, Kirkland, Latham & Watkins and Vinson & Elkins were the legal advisors.
In February, Vinson & Elkins advised Preferred Apartment Communities in their sale to Blackstone REIT for $5.8 billion. And in May White & Case advised Brookfield Infrastructure in their $5.04 billion acquisition of HomeServe, a UK-based residential maintenance and remodeling firm.