Last week we held our first “Lead Left Presents” webinar attended by over 500 registrants. 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]. In our previous commentary we highlighted our panelists’ observations about the year just ended. This week we encapsulate their thoughts on the year ahead.

Industry Outlook. “No slowing of activity for 2022.” 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 automation. Other pandemic winners included water filtration and air purification.

Covid “spiked” growth in some areas by a factor of ten. Which ones will come back to earth and which ones are sustainable? Technology and software are “eating the world” by creating “digitization of everything.” Typical commercial and industrial buyers are being more aggressive in tech and software “just to stay where they are.”