Wading Through the Data of M&A Forecasts

Every January, the industry is flooded with research and analysis trying to predict what the coming year holds for middle-market M&A. 2023 is no different, and if anything, people may be paying closer attention than usual in the midst of broad market uncertainty and a unique economic environment.

Rather than have you peruse each report on your own, we’ve gathered research from leading firms and interviewed three experts to get to the heart of the matter. Here we share the dominant economic trends, key challenges for dealmakers, which industries could see the most activity and the effects of the continued rise of ESG on the dealmaking process.

2022’s M&A activity closed out not with a bang, but with a whimper. According to analysis from Greenwich Capital Group, transaction volume was slightly higher in the fourth quarter than in the second and third quarters of 2022, but still down significantly from the same time frame in 2021.