This roundtable conversation was sponsored by Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar and moderated by James Morgan, managing director at Forbes Partners.
What are your predictions for 2026?
Matt Dent | SVP, Commercial Team Leader | KeyBank
We have quarterly calls where we get on and understand what’s changing across the portfolio. … The last several quarters, it’s stable and improving. … [In a recent] survey of our middle market clients, 50 percent said they’re expecting to do a buy-side deal in 2026. Borrowers and clients are feeling optimistic.
Sam Orme | Managing Director, Global Investment Banking | Bank of America Merrill Lynch
70 percent of U.S. GDP is the consumer, and the American consumer has never had a better balance sheet, by far. They’ve never been better off in terms of home equity, in terms of cash on hand. We’ve all seen Americans will spend until they’re out of money. I don’t see how it’s mathematically possible for us to have a down year next year, just based on how healthy consumer balance sheets are.
What were some lessons learned or opportunities taken in 2025?
Ben Clarke | Board Member & Former CEO | BetterRX
We made sure that we didn’t have any skeletons in the closet. We knew that during the process, everything would come out about the business that a potential buyer might want to know. We’re a very transparent organization regardless. We love to just be very candid and transparent. There weren’t any surprises for the buyers.
Matt Keenan | SVP, Mergers & Acquisitions | Larry H. Miller Company
The Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals transaction that we did in Q1 of this past year was great for us. We have a long history of sports in Salt Lake City, so it was a natural fit. We’ve really been focused on investing in our platforms, and where you see that is in the ballpark at America First Square down in South Jordan. We had the grand opening for that this summer. … There will be more to come. You’ll see some announcements in Q1 this year.
Mike Bennett | Managing Partner | Crewe Capital
I remember this time last year, we were really bullish. Now Q3 is as strong as it’s been since 2021 as far as deal activity. … It feels more normal and less like a stimulated economy. I think valuations are more rational. … The fact that we’re taking on good deals, that there are good deals out there, there’s been pent-up demand because there hasn’t been a normal year in five years. The indicators appear to say that this could be a normal year.
Matt Durham | Principal | Savory Fund
This year, we’ve acquired two concepts that couldn’t be more different: a large $70 million Asian cuisine concept, probably the largest brand we’ve ever acquired, and one of the smallest, which is Bonrue Bakery. … Hawkers is the up-and-coming Asian cuisine, and Bonrue Bakery is the disruptor in the bakery space. … Now they’re cash flowing and supporting their own growth organically for new store builds.
Emily Holt | Shareholder Attorney | Parsons Behle & Latimer
Two years ago, we started to see an uptick in workouts, where there was a covenant violation or something like that. I don’t think the workout space is limited to just the large cap deals. What we’ve seen is that those workouts started light and then continued to have issues. Right now, borrowers have become so stressed that they’ve either been pushed into bankruptcy or a foreclosure situation. … It’s a real concern for people, but hopefully we’re seeing the end of that.
Dave Lawless | VP, Investment Banking | D.A. Davidson Companies
We’re seeing headlines where these strategic buyers that did deals a couple of years ago in the COVID-19 environment probably paid too much, and now boards of directors are firing people and management teams are answering for that. So, buyers have been a little skittish and still on the sidelines this year.
Zach Larkin | Managing Director | The Cynosure Group
The IPO we did was Black Rock Coffee Bar. … The team felt that an IPO was a good way to get the company out into the market, have some realization for us on some of our basis, but then provide a platform for the company to continue to grow. … It’s been an interesting market post the IPO, but we felt that that was the right choice. We still continue to retain a meaningful ownership in the public company, as do the founders. … We were fortunate to have very strong fundamentals in terms of same-store sales and where we were seeing the business going. That prepared us to be able to have an exit in a market where we had not seen as many IPOs going on.
Tom Taylor | Shareholder | Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar
2023 and 2024 were pretty slow worldwide on M&A. … When Trump was elected and we had some certainty who was going to be in the White House, things really took off until the tariffs hit and then things were dead. But about April, things just took off on the M&A front. … One of the things that we have been seeing is a lot of rollovers on almost every deal and some seller financing on many deals.
David Andersen | Regional President | UMB Bank
It’s all about people. This whole business is about operators and their ability to drive confidence with the investment to grow. … The gut read is always about the people. We also want to see that they have the financials to support what we’re putting in place and that the plan is clear. How are we going to grow? … We’ve seen a few cracks where there are any project-based companies related to government contracts, … but things seemed to be back in place.
What is unique about your approach to mergers and acquisitions?
Matt Durham | Principal | Savory Fund
Whenever we look at a concept, we need to see that they could support their own growth, meaning they’re not a distressed asset. … At that point, we lean in and accelerate that growth. So every asset is getting fueled by additional capital to accelerate that growth. We have a five-year timeline to try to prove portability and scalability within multiple markets and provide that consistency across all those different markets. That’s just our model.
Patrick McMillan | CFO, Transaction Advisor | Amplēo
The more prepared you are, the more likely you’re going to close a deal. When we come in and we’re doing a fractional CFO gig to help them clean up their books, we’re helping them to actually prepare for anything that can happen in the future. … It really helps the owners a lot of times understand what blinds they have and then how we can help them overcome them.
Matt Keenan | SVP, Mergers & Acquisitions | Larry H. Miller Company
What makes our capital a little bit different is that we don’t have the stopwatch. With our patient capital approach, we aren’t on a fund life cycle. We’re able to be a little bit more patient, a little bit more methodical, and we spend a lot of time building out themes and point-of-view work, so that when we’re ready and we see the right opportunity, we can capture that.
Sam Orme | Managing Director, Global Investment Banking | Bank of America Merrill Lynch
We only get paid when the deals close as investment bankers, so we want to be selective on who we take on. … We’re getting legal involved early. … It’s nice to have a few bids in your pocket before you go to a broader market, especially in a world that a lot of us don’t want to talk about, which is we’re spoiled here in Utah with top decile private equity firms.
Dave Lawless | VP, Investment Banking | D.A. Davidson Companies
For founder-owned businesses, which are the majority of our clients, you’ve started a company out of your garage and you think it’s the best company in the world. There’s an emotional attachment there where sometimes when the market’s not giving you an outside valuation, you either want to press the pause button or it’s very discouraging. There’s definitely an aspect to this job of being a psychologist in this market and trying to coach people through valuations that are more realistic.
What trends have you seen?
Braxton Savage | Senior Manager, Transaction Advisory Services | Tanner
A lot of these lenders are also our clients. Some of our buyers … get a little excited with add-backs and adjustments. We need to make sure that these are really reasonable and not just what our buyer wants us to put in there so that they can get the lending. … We want to remain without conflict to be able to provide that value and trust without getting too over our skis, if you will, with adjustments that might not be really realistic.
Matt Bartholomew | Principal | Clifton Larsen Allen
I would tell any kind of owner, founder, operator and their teams to ensure that they’re investing and professionalizing their accounting. Are your numbers telling the story of the business ultimately? Look at public companies in your space and … how profitability is being looked at in the public markets. Is that similar to how you’re looking at it within your business?
David Andersen | Regional President | UMB Bank
Rates don’t drive transactions. The fundamentals of transactions drive transactions. That will always be there. … We’ve seen an appetite for the type of debt change, whereas rates have gone down, we’ve seen more recapitalizations. As assets have continued to improve, we’ve seen some firms hold onto the asset a little bit longer. They’ve wanted to recap to reward investors to stay out a little bit longer on this asset rather than sell the asset itself.
Matt Dent | SVP, Commercial Team Leader | KeyBank
The banking market is really healthy right now. Most banks, us included, are having record levels of capital to deploy. … One thing that’s fundamental is it really comes down to the people involved. … Yes, the tariffs were challenging, or there were environmental factors out there. But ultimately, it’s, “How good are those operators to pull levers as fast as they can?”
What has been the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on how buyers are scrutinizing the transaction or how it impacts the scope of work?
Braxton Savage | Senior Manager, Transaction Advisory Services | Tanner
From my sense, I haven’t really seen much personally that’s really impacted it from the bill. Usually, our deal killers or issues are the sales tax.
Matt Bartholomew | Principal | Clifton Larsen Allen
I’ve seen some sellers who have ideas about plowing the proceeds into another investment. … Since OB3A has been passed, [these sellers are thinking,] “I can take the proceeds and flip that on this other related business, because there’s the accelerated depreciation around it or it can take it fully as a credit.”
Have you seen a difference over the past couple of years in the level of diligence in a transaction?
Emily Holt | Shareholder Attorney | Parsons Behle & Latimer
From a diligence perspective, I don’t think there’s been a change. It varies from lender to lender. We see, like for the workout space, the deals that weren’t diligenced very well at the beginning are the ones that are having problems. So that really, I think that’s a hard lesson for some lenders to learn.
Tom Taylor | Shareholder | Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar
If you’re prepared, the diligence is often lighter. If there’s a request for a document or something and you’re able to turn it over tomorrow, you don’t have to go out and create the document or take three weeks to find it. … That all reflects on the management team. It says that they do their housekeeping, they’re doing the things that are best practices, keeping their books and records in order. That then gives a lot of confidence to a buyer.
Are you seeing any new investment theses that are more topical this year? What are you chasing?
Jeremiah Jewkes | Founder & Managing Partner | Brooks Growth Partners
The residential services play is still really interesting. The cat’s out of the bag, and there’s been some flummox in that this year, particularly in HVAC and plumbing and a few other areas — roofing a little bit. So, there’s still some interesting stuff there, but maybe not quite as hot as it was a year ago. I’m really interested in the property management space and am starting to see a lot of activity there. … That’s a big, largely untapped category.
James McKean | Principal | Tower Arch Capital
[In terms of AI,] what are the infrastructure services that go into building out data centers? … [They have] announced $500 billion a year from the top tech firms, and do the economics justify that? I think that’s a big question that’s top of mind for us because if this goes for 10 years, there’s still a lot of room to grow. … Tangentially, beyond that, what are the impacts that you see with a lot of power and money going into data centers? How does that influence the needs of neighborhoods and areas where there’s a lot of population growth?
What would be your advice to someone looking to transact, sell, raise money or issue debt in 2026?
Ben Clarke | Board Member and former CEO | BetterRX
Have the right leadership team in place and make the transaction of all things go as smoothly as possible.
Tom Taylor | Shareholder | Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar
Plan and prepare early, irrespective of the type of deal. M&A, IPO, joint venture, partnership, loan, whatever it is, be prepared for the transaction and hire the best advisors you can get.
Emily Holt | Shareholder Attorney | Parsons Behle & Latimer
Engage your partners early — your investment banks, your banks, your tax, your legal. Stay engaged with them throughout the process and until your transaction closes.
David Andersen | Regional President | UMB Bank
This is a seller’s market, and it has been for a while, and it will be for a few more years. … Be patient, and you can get what is important to you; you don’t have to compromise.
Zach Larkin | Managing Director | The Cynosure Group
Spend time thinking about what the right transaction is and who the right parties are that you want to partner with on that transaction. What is the optimal solution for you and your business?
Matt Dent | SVP, Commercial Team Leader | KeyBank
Sometimes we forget that it is not only the leadership, but also the people and the employees that helped build [the business], and they’re the ones that are going to help make that successful transaction three or five years later.
Dave Lawless | VP, Investment Banking | D.A. Davidson Companies
In today’s deal environment, there’s so much transparency. … It’s so much better to just address an issue at the beginning of a deal or before you start a deal, versus finding out nine months into a transaction.
Sam Orme | Managing Director, Global Investment Banking | Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Timing isn’t everything, but it’s super important. 2026 looks phenomenal if you’re looking to sell your company.
Matt Durham | Principal | Savory Fund
Maintain discipline around valuations, what is a fair price, being good to the founders and being where the founders are today for those future deals.
Braxton Savage | Senior Manager, Transaction Advisory Services | Tanner
Some of the best deals with the best companies are not necessarily the ones that are the most flashy. Sometimes they’re just your good old blue-collar business that proves good margins historically at cash flow.
Mike Bennett | Managing Partner | Crewe Capital
It’s going to be a great 2026, but I would probably say if you’re considering it, talk to your investment banker sooner rather than later because they’re going to be busy. … Your personal planning [will] help you be a lot more objective when you actually do run a process.
Patrick McMillan | CFO, Transaction Advisor | Amplēo
Don’t be scared to ask questions. Ask your advisors, ask multiple advisors. … Make sure that you’re able to understand and tell your story from an accurate depiction.
James McKean | Principal | Tower Arch Capital
Keep focusing on the fundamentals and run the business like you [will] own it for another 10 to 20 years, and it’ll pay off.
Matt Bartholomew | Principal | Clifton Larsen Allen
Challenge your assumptions about your management team and those who are a part of that leadership team. If they are adopters of the innovations that are really disrupting processes, … that’s going to be the differentiators between those who are accelerating winning and leaving others behind.
Jeremiah Jewkes | Founder & Managing Partner | Brooks Growth Partners
You have a great business, and that’s all that really matters. Great businesses sell themselves, … so get fundamentals right.
Matt Keenan | SVP, Mergers & Acquisitions | Larry H. Miller Company
What makes this year different is that it’s going to be a continuation of premium assets [being] highly sought after. You’re going to have to build a ton of conviction and lean in early, but maintain discipline; that’s a really challenging balance.
