1st Half 2019 Private Equity Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2019 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest sponsored transaction in the Software horizontal in 1st Half 2019 was the acquisition of Ultimate Software by an investor group led by Hellman & Friedman for $10.82 billion. Ultimate Software is a provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solutions.

Regarding the Online & Mobile horizontal, the largest sponsored transaction in 1st Half 2019 was Apollo Global Management’s announced acquisition of Shutterfly, an online manufacturer and retailer known for its flagship photo book line, for $2.78 billion. Apollo also acquired Snapfish, another digital photo printing service, during the half year period and plans to merge the two companies.

As for the Finance vertical, the largest sponsored transaction in 1st Half 2019 was Thoma Bravo’s announced acquisition of Ellie Mae, a software provider for the residential mortgage sector, for $3.7 billion.

1ST HALF 2019 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2019 improved by 11 percent over 2nd Half 2018, from 470 to 523.

Total transaction value in 1st Half 2019 remained nearly constant over 2nd Half 2018, at 45.70 billion.

The median revenue multiple rose from 3.0x in 2nd Half 2018 to 3.7x in 1st Half 2019. The median EBITDA multiple declined from 14.8x in 2nd Half 2018 to 12.3x in 1st Half 2019.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 2,248 private equity transactions between 2017 and 1st Half 2019, of which 297 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $149.06 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 1,951 undisclosed transactions to be $61.70 billion, totaling $210.76 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Disclosed median revenue multiple for all segments combined in this report in the last 30 months were 2.7x revenue and 12.8x EBITDA.