Unfortunately I was not able to attend Intergrowth this year. For those not familiar, Intergrowth is ACG’s (Association for Corporate Growth) premier national event. In speaking with a number of attendees over the past week, there was varied feedback and perspectives. In general it sounds like there is real excitement about 2010 and the outlook for getting deals done. Demand is being driven by expected changes in the tax code, by the need for private equity investors to deploy capital, and by strategics with a lot of capital seeking top-line growth that can not be met organically. Champ Davis of Davis Capitalsums it up – “the deal market is back …first quarter was strong and there is significant pent-up demand by both financial and strategic buyers”. There does seem to be a question as to what will happen in 2011 and how the credit constrained debt market will impact the actual deals closed.
