M&A Webinar: 2022 Outlook
Last week we held our first “Lead Left Presents” webinar. 500 attendees heard four top middle-market investment bankers discussing what happened in the M&A market in 2021, and what’s to come for the year ahead.
From a sector perspective, industrials were challenged in 2020, then bounced back sharply last year. Backlogs were “very strong” going into this year. Covid highlighted increased labor costs and motivated businesses to ramp up in areas such as automation, water filtration, and air purification.
Covid “spiked” growth in some areas, but which ones will fall to earth and which are sustainable? Technology and software are “eating the world” by creating…
▶︎ Read Jan 24 2022 newsletter: here
▶︎ Chart of the Week: here (by Natixis, Census, Federal Reserve, BLS)
(Any “forward-looking” information may include, among other things, projections, forecasts, estimates of market returns, and proposed or expected portfolio composition Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing involves risk; principal loss is possible.)
Latest news
PE exit activity
Exit value fell to $102.6 billion in the second quarter—down 46.3% from the prior quarter and 7.4% YoY—while exit count dropped to 353, a 14.1% quarterly decline and a 5.4% rise against Q2 2025.
US BSL and MM CLO Performance Held Stable in July 2026
In July 2026, portfolio credit quality in reinvesting Fitch-rated U.S. BSL CLOs remained broadly stable from June. Net portfolio losses held at 0.5%. The Fitch weighted average rating factor also held at 23.1. The Fitch weighted average recovery rate declined slightly by 0.1%, while the weighted average spread fell by 0.01%.
