While deal volume remained relatively quiet in the accounts receivable management industry during the third quarter, there does appear to be an influx of both buyers and sellers entering the market, which could lead to an increase of deals in the future, according to a quarterly report published by Corporate Advisory Solutions.
A copy of the report can be accessed by clicking here.
The number of merger and acquisition deals in what CAS calls the Outsourced Business Services market — which includes the ARM industry as well as the Revenue Cycle Management industry and the Customer Relationship Management industry — doubled in the third quarter compared with the second quarter of 2020, and was even higher than the number of deals made during the third quarter of 2019, showing that even in a pandemic, wheeling and dealing does not take a break.
The number and volume of deals in the ARM industry was not as robust as the other two markets covered by CAS, but it said in its analysis of the collection industry that they are aware of several companies that are looking to be sold or planning on putting themselves on the market, combined with larger companies that are “very interested” in acquiring smaller businesses that might be suffering because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now that a “new” normal has settled in and people have adjusted their operations for the long haul, it will be interesting to see how M&A activity is impacted by the pandemic. It does appear that deal volume has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic levels yet, but there does appear to be signs that it could so soon.
