Morrissey Goodale expects high deal volume
The slowing economy in 2008 will impact the plans of many buyers, but Morrissey Goodale says that 2008 will exceed 2007’s 200-plus deals.
Consolidation in the AEC industry continued its frenetic pace into 2008 with eight deals announced within the first 11 days of the year, according to Mick Morrissey, principal with Morrissey Goodale LLC, Newton, Mass.
The early indicators are that deal volume will be on pace with or exceed that of 2007. The AEC strategy and research firm looks to the year ahead and reviews 2007.
The year ahead
Morrissey Goodale expects deal activity to be flat this year and closely match the 200-plus deals of 2007. The slowing economy in 2008 will impact the plans of many buyers who are seeing a slowdown in their business for the first time since 2003.activities.
All of these factors will have a dampening effect on merger and acquisition activity in the industry.als, and the attractiveness of U.S. firms to overseas buyers given the weakness of the dollar) will remain and will continue to support deal activity at or close to last year’s levels.
A full listing of all transactions recorded in 2007 and 2008 can be found on the AEC M&A Monitor at the firm’s Web site .
2007 in review
Deal volume at all time high:idering an “unbelievably rich” offer from a buyer.
Globalization is here to stay:enmark, Australia, and India. Last year, international firms bought into the United States at twice the pace that U.S. firms bought overseas. A full 20% of transactions in 2007 occurred outside of the United States involving both an overseas buyer and seller.
More than one-quarter of all transactions last year included a publicly traded company as the buying entity.
Hottest domestic markets:tion—California, Texas, and Florida—all saw a significant number of firms sold in 2007. Of interest is the strong merger and acquisition activity in the Rust Belt and Northeast states (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, New York, and New Jersey) that are seeing relatively weak population growth.
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