We surveyed private equity firms, investment banks and mezzanine lenders to get a pulse on the overall market sentiment surrounding M&A. We wanted to solicit the wisdom-of-the-crowd to report on current conditions and to capture what industry participants collectively think about likely future outcomes.

300 M&A professionals representing 267 unique firms completed the survey that was open for 24 hours – 78% from M&A investment banks and 10% from private equity firms.

I started reading the CARES Act and making some notes along the way. 880 pages later, I realized I had accidentally created a 175-point list of where exactly the $2.2 trillion is going.

I don’t normally link to my personal blog, but many of our readers at Private Equity Info will likely have an interest in my comprehensive summary of the CARES Act.

The trending private equity investment sectors for February 2020 are highlighted below with a few example transactions.

In a previous data study titled “Smart, Contrarian Private Equity Firms”, I wrote about private equity firms with prescient timing during the last recession… those that exited at the peak, just before the last recession, and those PE firms that acquired new portfolio companies at the lower valuations of 2009-2010.

Today, we’ll look at private equity firms that exited portfolio companies in January and February (and a few in the first part of March) of 2020, just prior to the onslaught of the Coronavirus. Here are those firms:

Companies offering telehealth and telemedicine services not only have the ability to help in a crisis, they will likely experience significant increased demand from the recent CoronaVirus outbreak. Our M&A Research Database currently tracks 25 private equity-backed portfolio companies offering telehealth services. Sample acquisitions below…

The trending private equity investment sectors for January 2020 are highlighted below with a few example transactions.

The PEI research database continues to grow. We now track 90,000+ private equity-owned portfolio companies and 48,000+ private equity executives! In addition to growth, we remain fanatical about data quality.

Data centric companies have become one of the most favored sectors for private equity investors in recent years. This trend started gaining momentum in 2011. Although private equity began exploring data analytics companies as an investment thesis in 2007 and 2008, the recession of 2009 – 2010 halted most PE investments across all sectors during this time.

The increased focus on data analytics companies is largely fueled by the adoption of predictive analytics (initially), and subsequently by machine learning and the rise in artificial intelligence. These applications require data (preferably good data) as the atomic input unit from which to learn. Input data informs machine learning much the same way our five senses input data into our brain, from which we derive patterns and develop predictive skills.

Data-as-a-product resonates with private equity investment preferences precisely because it is scalable, potentially quite profitable and not capital intensive (relative to scalability).

Private equity firms have made a number of investments in companies offering physical therapy services, including: general rehabilitation services, occupational therapy, sports injury recovery, orthopedic rehabilitation and pediatric therapy. Our Private Equity Database currently tracks 43 U.S. based physical therapy companies held by private equity firms.

The security industry overall has attracted significant attention from private equity investors in recent years. Private equity investments into security-related companies ranges from cybersecurity, home security, national security, private security, to security screening of goods crossing borders.

Our private equity database currently tracks 719 current platform portfolio companies with some element of security to their product or service offering. 73 of these investments were made in the last 12 months alone.