acquisition financing

A trucking company is marketed at $4.0 million of adjusted EBITDA. The lender accepts $3.4 million, which cuts the debt available by $1.8 million and raises the equity the buyer has to write by the same amount, after the price is agreed.

Acquisition leverage has recovered to roughly where it stood at the 2021 peak. On platform deals the senior layer has not, and the gap was filled by junior capital, which is not the pool most buyers approach first.

A buyer models an acquisition as price minus debt equals equity. Then the working capital true-up lands, and the seasonal build after it. The cash required is the same whichever month the deal closes, and the acquisition facility funds none of it.

Nearly eight in ten buyers expect to fund an acquisition through one government-guaranteed program, and ninety percent expect a seller note that only twenty-nine percent of owners plan to write.

Two buyers agree the same $18 million price for the same business. Depending on how the deferred consideration is structured, the cash the buyer needs at close is $9 million, $5 million, or $3 million. The price never changed.

Second-quarter deals of $100 million or more rose 88 percent in value and 29 percent in volume, and the data that reports it does not count anything smaller. What that means for a buyer working a $5 to $50 million acquisition.

Middle-market direct lending hit its lowest quarter since 2023 while bank and asset-based capacity expanded. Why the buyers who run a multi-source process capture the leverage.

Single-family offices now drive 65% of NAV loan demand, and 85% of that borrowing funds acquisitions, not distributions. What the shift means for owners financing against a portfolio.

Two facilities priced 200 to 250 basis points apart in the same week. The difference was collateral, not credit. Why acquisition debt sized only on EBITDA leaves both pricing and capacity on the table.

Two revolvers priced in the same week of July 2026 carried spreads 150 to 250 basis points apart on an identical base rate. The difference was credit tier, and tier is something a borrower can change.

U.S. acquisition capital sits near record levels while deal volume has fallen by half. The binding constraint for buyers now is structure and matching, not availability.

Private credit redemptions jumped 217% in a quarter. For acquirers leaning on one lender, the risk is no longer deal supply, it is certainty of close. Here is the defense.

A higher bid lost to a lower one backed by committed financing. In 2026's busy M&A market, structure and certainty of close decide which acquisition offer a seller actually takes.