Q4 2020 saw North American M&A volume of 3,874 transactions and total deal value of $549.9 billion.
Within the consumer sector, there were 231 transactions in Q4 2020, compared to 264 transactions in Q4 2019, representing a 12% decrease from last year. The sector had 802 total transactions in 2020 compared to last year’s total of 995—a substantial decrease of 19% largely due to effects of COVID-19.
Public Company Performance
Public company EV/EBITDA multiples have remained relatively steady with a median consumer multiple of 12.1x in Q4 2020 compared to a median multiple of 11.6x in Q3 2020. The median EV/EBITDA multiple in Q4 2019 was 11.5x.
After Q4 2020, Beverage and Restaurants are the only two out of five Consumer sub-sectors that have outperformed the S&P 500 over the past five years.
