Articles

Aug 25, 2016

Within the GF Data universe of middle-market deal sponsors, the slowdown in M&A activity has been neither as deep nor as prolonged as general industry reports would suggest, according to the deal tracking firm’s second-quarter report.

Jun 1, 2016

Completed deal activity in the GF Data private equity universe was light by any measure in the first quarter of 2016, according to the data tracking firm’s May 2016 report.

Apr 12, 2016

GF Data’s semi-annual view of trends in key deal terms other than price – indemnification cap, escrow/hold back and basket shows that the “seller’s market” conditions driving valuations continue to affect key deal terms as well.

Jan 22, 2016

Prices paid for lower middle-market targets averaged 9.1 times Ebitda, up from 7.8 in 2014, says GF Data’s Graeme Frazier.

Soaring valuations in today’s frothy M&A environment have made it difficult for the average private equity firm to win deals. Even when a private equity firm is able to buy a company, the margin to create value is thin, due to the high price paid to acquire the company in the first place. According to S&P Capital IQ’s LCD unit, U.S. buyout firms paid an average of 10.3 times Ebitda for their purchases in 2015. That’s surpasses the 9.7 times Ebtida seen in 2007.

Nov 25, 2015

Midsize companies commanded higher valuations in the third quarter, though the number of deals was down, according to GF Data Resources, a research firm that tracks the middle market.

Nov 5, 2015

Midsize companies commanded higher valuations in the third quarter, though the number of deals was down, according to GF Data Resources, a research firm that tracks the middle market.

Sep 25, 2015

A question framed by GF Data’s second quarter report, accentuated by the recent tumult in the international and domestic equity markets, and on the minds of deal professionals

Jul 29, 2015

Overall, the market is very robust across the board. The Southeast is as healthy, if not healthier, than any other market in the country.

Feb 5, 2015

A question raised with increasing frequency this past year is: Are valuations of middle market businesses becoming commoditized? That is, if you have a business of a given size and industry, is it more likely now than at some point in the past to be valued within a narrower and more easily predicted range, often expressed as multiples of cash flow?

Oct 9, 2014

The analysis surrounding GF Data’s quarterly reports usually is based on observing some trend or anomaly in the data and then drawing from practical deal-making experience to explain it.