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Maybe you haven't heard of ProFrac; but you probably should. The company's been on an acquisition tear of late, gobbling up producers of pumps and proppants at an eye-popping rate. CDT Roundup has their latest deals — and the lawyers and firms that advised them, along with the usual roster of last week's transactions.
M&A in 2022 was down by a lot, especially in deal value. Post-pandemic 2021 was a record year, so some decline was more than possible. But according to Refinitiv, the 37 percent global decline in deal values from 2021 was, in fact, the worst year-over-year drop in value since 2001. This week's CDT Roundup observes a few other ways in which 2022 stood out, as well as the names of 167 lawyers who helped forge the first deals of 2023.
In dealmaking 2022 was no 2021. Still, the CDT Roundup reported a total of 778 deals during the 52 weeks just ended, and we can show you how the CDT Roundup's year stacked up against last year's record-smasher — not to mention the names of those Texas lawyers who worked before and during the holidays.
The Mergermarket year-end polling is out and the results are optimistic. More than 60 percent of decision-maker respondents from 300 corporate and PE firms predict overall increases in M&A, despite the ongoing threat of inflation and continued geopolitical challenges. The CDT Roundup has details of the survey, as well as which markets they are predicting will prosper. As always, there are the names of Texas lawyers who advised on 14 deals reported last week.
Houston-based NRG Energy made news last week with their $5.2 billion acquisition Vivint Smart Home Inc. The deal included the assumption of $2.4 billion in debt, and was immediately unpopular with the market, but the company says the deal's expansion of its retail utility product line is worth the price. The CDT Roundup has the lawyers behind that deal, as well as 13 others and a bonus Q&A with Latham partner Ravi Purohit, who has reported several high-profile deals in recent weeks.
There's no surprise in the fact that global PE deals are down. With inflation, market volatility and geopolitical concerns, investors have become increasingly cautious and borrowers increasingly concerned, according to a new Mergermarket report. But there are also indications that some underlying changes are taking place in the PE pipeline. This week's CDT Roundup has more on the Mergermarket survey, as well as the usual roster of lawyers who reported deals last week.
You may remember traditional IPOs — those initial public offerings popular before the market eruption of SPACs. Are they making a comeback? Maybe. A $2 billion IPO announced this week by BKV Corp. may hold a clue to the future. But in any case, BKV's recent acquisition tear makes it worth watching. The CDT Roundup has more on that BKV deal, as well as the names of Texas lawyers who announced deals during a holiday-shortened week.
As financing costs continue to endure at higher levels, no region seems to have been spared a drop in deal value — even when deals continue at an active pace. A recent Mergermarket report notes that even in the southern U.S., often a statistical outlier, the value of mergers and acquisitions are depressed as smaller deals in sectors like technology and communications gain in number. The CDT Roundup has more on the Mergermarket report, naming a few of the big deals that led the quarter — along with a cavalcade of Texas lawyers who reported their involvement in 21 transactions last week.
So much attention has been given to energy and energy transition that it would be easy to overlook other business sectors that make up the Texas M&A market. Take the healthcare sector, for instance. Healthcare has become a new favorite among PE investors, according to PitchBook. This week's Roundup looks at a few of the reasons for that, as well as healthcare stats for Texas. All that, and the usual roster of lawyers involved in last week's Texas-related transactions.
Is the M&A market becoming a competition between "haves" and "have nots?" Maybe so, according to a recently released survey of nationwide dealmakers conducted by Dykema. Nearly two-thirds of respondents expect the U.S. M&A market to improve in the coming year. But for whom? Where companies with record amounts of cash on hand see opportunity, those who operate as borrowers see obstacles. The Roundup has more on the Dykema report, along with more than 500 names of mostly-Texas lawyers who worked on 25 deals reported last week to the Corporate Deal Tracker. It was, in that way, a record-breaking week.
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