Trends Shaping M&A: ACG's 2025 M&A Recap & 2026 Outlook

Dealmakers spent 2025 recovering from the leftover uncertainty of 2024 and cautiously entering into new, highly vetted relationships. The key focus areas impacting every M&A professional's mind were lagging interest rates, longer hold periods, and post-acquisition value creation.

How did these concerns impact middle-market M&A activity and the lending markets in 2025, and what's in store for the year ahead?

Join us on Jan. 28 for a live webinar for ACG members and GF Data Subscribers to hear from Bob Dunn, managing director of GF Data, an ACG company; and Brent Baxter, chief executive officer of ACG and former investment banker with Nolan & Associates in St Louis.

The two will discuss what the data reveals about the past four quarters and where the market is headed, including:

• Sector-specific valuation trends for private-equity backed companies valued between $10 million and $500 million in Enterprise Value
• Forecast for middle-market, private equity-backed M&A transaction volume in 2025 and the likely impact on pricing
• Seller sentiment and motivations at the start of the new year
• A live Q&A discussion and more

The conversation will be grounded in GF Data's rich set of transaction data collected quarterly from more than 330 private equity groups sponsoring lower middle-market deals in the U.S. and Canada. GF Data records more than 30 data points on each contributor's deals, providing a clear benchmark for valuing and structuring transactions.