Overall, M&A transaction activity in Canada declined by approximately 15% in 2025 (source: Capital IQ), reflecting a year of geopolitical and economic uncertainty. While our team experienced a slowdown in new mandates between April and October, we continued to advance several live transactions and ultimately closed the year with a record number of successful deal completions.
Over the past year, the mix of counterparties in our transactions shifted meaningfully toward strategic buyers (including private equity-backed strategics), compared to a long-term average of roughly 50% strategic and 50% financial sponsors. More broadly and anecdotally, private equity firms completed fewer new platform acquisitions in 2025, instead prioritizing add-on acquisitions within existing portfolios.
We also observed that while banks remain supportive of transactions for valued acquiror relationships, financing processes have become more rigorous, with increased diligence requirements and longer approval timelines.
Valuations for private company M&A remained relatively stable in 2025, with industry averages for North American lower middle-market buyout transactions holding at approximately 6.4x Total Enterprise Value / EBITDA in both 2024 and 2025 (source: GF Data; TEV US$10–25M).
Encouragingly, several of our sell-side clients achieved exceptional outcomes in 2025, realizing valuation multiples well above industry averages. This was driven primarily by strong strategic buyer interest with clear synergy potential and their access to attractive financing.
