Mid-Year M&A Round Up and the 250 Milestone

Mid-Year M&A Round Up and the 250 Milestone

The Morrissey Goodale Buy-Side Team came together last week in Boston for their summer strategy session and to welcome the firm’s newest vice president, David Thornhill.

It was great to see our teammates from North Carolina, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, and Maine. In between various team-building (ahem) activities and breaks to watch some of the more obscure Olympic events, we’re pretty sure that productive work got done. 

The Morrissey Goodale Buy-Side Team takes a well-earned break between watching Olympic Sport Climbing and Skateboarding events. 

The get-together provided an opportunity for my colleague Jon Escobar and me to review the firm’s upcoming 2024 M&A Mid-Year Review. The full report—with color commentary, insights, and more data—will be available to download on August 16 from our website. Ahead of the official publication date, here are some of the key metrics that describe how the industry has consolidated in the first half (H1) of the year.

• 250: Before we dive into the H1 stats, here’s another number to consider: 250. That’s the unparalleled milestone that we reached last week. It’s the number of successful transactions that we have helped bring to fruition for our clients. We would like to thank all our clients over the years for relying on us to assist them with their most important corporate decisions and for trusting us to help them get across the finish line (another Olympics reference). Here’s to the next 250.
• 6: That’s the number of domestic transactions announced by both LJA Engineering (Houston, TX) (ENR #67) and Atwell (Southfield, MI) (ENR #71)—the most prolific acquirers of U.S. design and environmental firms in the first half of this year.
• 243: That’s the number of domestic transactions announced in the first half of this year. This is right on pace with H1 2023 (243), but down 9% from the record 2022 H1 deal count of 268. 
• 7: That’s the number of domestic transactions announced by industry leader IMEG (Rock Island, IL) (ENR #52)—the most prolific acquirer of design firms in the first half of this year. IMEG was the recipient of the 2023 Most Prolific and Proficient Acquirer Award as part of our Excellence in Acquisitive Growth Awards Series. The firm is also one of our “Nine Movers and Shakers to Watch in 2024” (see below).
• 33: That’s the number of domestic transactions announced by our “Nine Movers and Shakers to Watch in 2024” during the first half of this year. Among them, IMEG, Atwell, Bowman Consulting Group (Reston, VA) (ENR #78), UES (Orlando, FL) (ENR #34), Salas O’Brien (Irvine, CA) (ENR #39), RMA (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) (ENR #112), Verdantas (Tampa, FL) (ENR #113), and NV5 (Hollywood, FL) (ENR #24) accounted for almost 14% of domestic industry consolidation through the end of June. 
• $4.4 billion: That’s the total revenues acquired in H1 2024, a 10% increase over the same period last year. 
• $147.9M: That’s the median-sized buyer in H1. This compares to $85.3M in the same period last year.
• $4.3M: That’s the median-sized seller in H1. This compares to $2.9M in the same period last year. 
• 11: The number of big (revenues of over $100 million at the time of transaction) firms that were acquired or recapped in H1. That’s up from eight in the first six months of 2023.
• 32: The number of mid-size and large firms (revenues over $25 million) sold or recapped in the first six months of the year. That’s up from 28 in the same period last year. And it’s a big jump from the 17 such deals in H1 2022. 
• 15: The number of ENR 500 firms that either sold or recapitalized in the first half of the year. This compares to 10 in the first half of 2023 and 8 in the same period of 2022. 
• 26: That’s the number of H1 transactions announced in California. This was followed closely by Texas (25) and Florida (24). Together, these three states accounted for 30% of all H1 transactions.
• 126: The number of H1 acquisitions made by employee-owned or ESOP buyers. This represents 52% of all H1 domestic acquisitions and is down 5% over the same period last year. 
• 42%: That’s how many H1 deals involved some form of private equity—including 13 platform investments and 88 add-on acquisitions.
• 90: That’s how many private equity firms now have active holdings in the industry. Twenty of these have multiple platform investments across distinct industry verticals (architecture, engineering, environmental, construction services). 

The full 2024 M&A Mid-Year Review report—with color commentary, insights, and additional data—will be available to download on August 16 from our website.

You can catch Jon Escobar and our entire M&A Advisory Team PLUS network with over 200 AE industry executives, investors, and experts from across North America at our upcoming 10^th annual Texas and the South M&A and Business Symposium in Houston this October.

You can contact Mick Morrissey at [email protected] or 508.380.1868. Jon Escobar is reachable at [email protected] or 224.577.8595.