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The Texas market has seen 15 consecutive quarters with about 200 or more deals. “Before the third quarter of 2013, 200 deals was the high water mark. Since then, 200 deals has been the floor,” says Mergermarket M&A analyst Chad Watt. “We’ve had so many deals completed [during the past couple years] that the market may need a period to digest it all. “There’s a real danger of developing M&A congestion or heartburn.”

How will M&A activity shape up in the second half of the year? The Texas Lawbook interviewed nearly a dozen of the leading corporate and private equity lawyers in the state to gauge their view on the M&A market for the first half of 2017 and what they forecast for the remainder of the year. This is their analysis.

Merger and acquisition activity among Texas-based businesses remained healthy during the first half of 2017, but far from the exuberant pace of dealmaking in 2014. Deal count has been flat, but deal value is up significantly over 2016, fueled by steady oil and gas M&A and Whole Foods’ sale to Amazon. The Texas Lawbook has the exclusive data from Mergermarket, along with a list of the 30 biggest deals during the first six months of 2017.

Dallas-based Lone Star Funds said Thursday that it will purchase Esmalglass, a supplier of intermediate products for the ceramic industry, to Bahrain-based Investcorp for 605 million euros ($693 million).