As we reported in our 2006 M&A Market Update, middle market M&A activity set records in terms of deal volume and deal value last year. Key factors contributing to the record performance included private equity firms raising and investing record amounts of capital, relatively low interest rates, liberal advance rates on bank debt, and large numbers of buyers and sellers in the market.

We forecasted that the aggressive deal making dominating the headlines in 2006 would continue into 2007, despite some indications of an anticipated slowdown in the intermediate term. Now that the first quarter of 2007 is completed, it is evident that the M&A boom is showing few signs of deceleration.

In fact, there were 3,043 middle market transactions announced through the first three months of 2007, up 4.8 percent from the near record 2,906 transactions announced during the same period in 2006.

Download the complete Market Update — First Quarter 2007.