1st Half 2021 Private Equity Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2021 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Thomas Bravo was responsible for three of the industry’s top ten highest value deals year-to-date.

Along these lines Thoma Bravo announced its acquisition of Proofpoint, a cybersecurity company that offers email and advanced threat protection, for $12.3 billion; Talend, a data integration and integrity company, for $2.5 billion; and QAD, which provides cloud-based enterprise manufacturing and supply chain solutions, for $1.76 billion.

1ST HALF 2021 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2021 increased by 14 percent over 2nd Half 2020, from 490 to 559.

Total transaction value in 1st Half 2021 improved by 28 percent over 2nd Half 2020, from $62.83 billion to $80.46 billion.

1st Half 2021 was the peak for both volume and value during the last 30 months.

The median revenue multiple from 2nd Half 2020 to 1st Half 2021 remained constant at 4.0x. The median EBITDA multiple moved downward from 18.4x in 2nd Half 2020 to 15.2x in 1st Half 2021, which was in line with its 1st Half 2020 level.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 2,446 private equity transactions between 2019 and 1st Half 2021, of which 260 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $190.41 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 2,186 undisclosed transactions to be $78.19 billion, totaling $268.60 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Transactions from 1st Half 2019 to 1st Half 2021 with enterprise values in the $10-$20 million range had a median revenue multiple of 2.7x, whereas those above $160 million garnered a median revenue multiple of 4.9x.

Disclosed median revenue multiple for all segments combined in this report in the last 30 months were 3.5x revenue and 15.2x EBITDA.