Over five hundred registrants tuned in this week to our first “Lead Left Presents” webinar. The topic, M&A Outlook for 2022, featured four top middle market investment bankers discussing what happened in the deal market in 2021, and what’s to come for 2022.

Those who missed it can watch our replay [link]. There’s a lot to unpack from the incredibly informative conversations. First let’s highlight some of our panelist’s observations about the year just ended.

Review of 2021. Last year was an “acceleration” of what we saw in 4Q 2020. This was not just in sheer volume, but across a wide breadth of sectors (unlike early 2020). Some slowdown in new deal launches occurred at the end of 2021, but likely because of record deal closings. Capacity to execute was maxed out. And so much of it done remotely!

Tailwinds. The Fed’s massive injection of capital boosted equities in 2020 which “brought courage” to private capital investors. Significant dollars on corporate balance sheets and piles of private equity dry powder then continued to fuel growth via M&A. The supply/demand imbalance of capital outweighing investment opportunities is expected to continue from 2021.