Quarterly Industry Update: Healthcare - Q4 2020

Healthcare merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the fourth quarter of 2020 exceeded $8.3 billion in disclosed transaction value across 524 deals in Canada and the US. The average deal size among disclosed transactions was$15.9 million, a slight decline from $18.2 million in the third quarter of 2020. In Canada, the top Healthcare sub-sectors for deal activity in the quarter were pharmaceuticals (16), healthcare technology (13), healthcare services (11)and drug retail (9). Together, these sub-sectors accounted for over 77% of Canadian Healthcare deal volume. In2020, industry EV/EBITDA multiples (based on private equity transactions listed below) increased 27% from the previous year and averaged a multiple of 7.1x for lower mid-market transaction values (10 – 25 million range).