It might be the middle of winter, but things are still hot in the insurance M&A market. Although activity slowed a bit in the fourth quarter, 2011 transaction volume far surpassed that of 2010. Through November, the number of insurance deals was up 24% for the year with 256 transactions recorded. This is the second highest level of M&A activity in the last 10 years, only surpassed by 2008 which was the peak of the market.

It has been a wild year for the for-profit education sector, and career and technical colleges in particular.  The tone of the industry is quiet, but optimistic.

After successfully weathering the storm over the Department of Education's new gainful employment regulations, the for-profit education sector was hit by several high profile placement rate scandals, including publicly traded Career Education Corporation.  Eighteen state attorneys general are now investigating for-profit colleges. As a result, publicly traded education companies saw their stocks drop by more than 24% from their high in July of this year compared to a 9% decrease for the S&P 500.

But, fortunately, we are beginning to see the market reward well run schools. 

A recent study conducted by GF Data confirmed that the use of seller financing in the form of earnouts and seller notes in middle market transactions hit an all time high in 2011. Historically, seller financing has been used in between 40% and 50% of all lower middle market transactions.The exception was 2008, when seller financing was included in over 60% of deals. However, according to GF Data Resources' Second Quarter 2011 Report, almost 80% of deals in the under $25 million range were structured using earnouts and/or seller notes.   That's almost twice the historic average.

Despite the soft employment growth statistics, the budgetary crisis in Washington and overseas, and an anemic economy, a recent survey by Deloitte indicates that businesses plan to move forward with their plans for growth and expansion. Nearly 60 percent of corporate M&A professionals surveyed by Deloitte said they expected an increase in the number of deals their companies will pursue each year for the next two to five years.

Interestingly, the initial optimism reflected in the survey, "Corporate Development 2011," is put into context when you consider that only 7 percent of respondents felt that previous deals exceeded their expectations and more than 31 percent believed that past transactions failed to live up to expectations.

While the study found that buyers are everywhere, many high-quality would be sellers are waiting for the economy to turn solidly bullish and are holding out for even better offers. The survey also found:

Laura Maver Ward, Managing Director of MidCap's Kansas City office, was named one of the Kansas City Business Journal's Women Who Mean Business Class of 2011. This program recognizes corporate executives, entrepreneurs and professionals in the Kansas City area who have worked hard in their respective business fields and communities and by doing so have helped improve the business environment for professional women.

With the second quarter coming to a close quickly, we are half way through the year and here is a summary of the mergers and acquisitions in the insurance world so far this year. According to the FactSet MergerStat Monthly Review (June 2011), the insurance sector is one of the sectors that saw the biggest increases in M&A deal activity in the second quarter with an increase of 48% in transaction volume for March through May compared to the same 3 month period last year.

On June 2, the Department of Education released its long awaited "gainful employment" rules.

Until then, owners of for-profit schools and investors interested in the education sector had feared that the new rules would cut federal financial aid to students who attended schools whose graduation rates and career salaries were below the standards set by the Department of Education ("DOE").

The good news is that the 437-page final regulations the DOE issued turned out to be more favorable than many had expected.