By Lou Sokolovskiy, CEO & Founder at Opus Connect
December 2020

Introduction

M&A professionals in the manufacturing/industrial sector make up a significant portion of Opus Connect’s extensive middle market M&A network, providing valuable insights into the current state of the industry during the challenges of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our findings in this report seek to illuminate the challenges faced by the manufacturing/industrial sector in obtaining deals, conducting due diligence, and adapting to a changed landscape after a pause during the global economic slowdown. The inherent variety within the manufacturing/industrial sector led to a diversity of responses within participants’ responses regarding their deal pipelines, access to capital, debt, portfolio management, and more.

Opus Connect’s goal is to be a resource to the M&A deal community, conducting this research with the goal of providing a window into the current state of the middle-market manufacturing/industrial sector. A tool for future success, the information gathered aims to promote awareness of current practices as well as the speed and growth potential for deals going forward. Business development strategies are continually changing and growing alongside an industry that is now seeing greater utilization of digital resources and new technologies as some – but not all – parts of the deal process transition to virtual interactions and events. As the global scenario changes, business processes adapt alongside it.

Thank you to our esteemed survey respondents in the manufacturing/industrial sector for sharing their timely experiences and discussing the impact of COVID-19 with us as we all cope with the curveballs of 2020 and the unexpected issues that arise from shifting the ways in which we do business during a global pandemic.