2025 isn’t the M&A party dealmakers expected, says Orlando Bravo at NEXUS; Investcorp said to be selling Resa Power; Companies for sale update

Good morning, Hubsters. Senior reporter Michael Schoeck here with the US edition of the Wire from the New York newsroom.

PEI Group’s NEXUS 2025 summit just wrapped up yesterday in Orlando. This morning we have a day-three video clip with Thoma Bravo co-founder Orlando Bravo, who spoke with PE Hub editor-in-chief MK Flynn about current market dislocation in the PE deal market.

Next up we have a scoop on Investcorp being in the advanced stages of selling a power engineering company in an auction process.

And we’ll wrap up with a companies for sale weekly update.

Moments of dislocation

“It’s like everybody had a party right after the election thinking that there would be no regulations and there’s going to be deals all over the place,” Orlando Bravo, co-founder and managing partner of Thoma Bravo, told PE Hub about expectations coming into 2025. Today, the mood is quite different, he said, citing the recent dramatic stock market drops.

“We haven’t seen many deals, and people are really worried about geopolitics and the macro,” Bravo told Mary Kathleen (MK) Flynn, editor-in-chief of PE Hub, in a video conversation at PEI Group’s NEXUS 2025 summit. Bravo also spoke on stage in a fireside chat with Flynn.

In these uncertain times, Thoma Bravo is focused on three areas.

First is the portfolio. “If the portfolio is good, everything is good,” Bravo said. “You have to make sure that you factor in all the demand forces, what’s going on in the environment and you make the right decisions on cost and on investments.”

Second is that PE firms always have to be selling. He encouraged GPs to not be afraid to sell.

Third, when markets are dislocated, PE firms should always be buying. “Some of the best private equity firms are built around moments of dislocation like this.”

“That was the case for us,” he explained. “In the year 2000, that’s when we got into software, when the internet bubble burst. In the year 2008, we really scaled in software on the backs of the financial crisis, buying wonderful assets. Think about it. There are thousands and thousands of great companies out there with thousands of great leaders that you can back and that you could create some meaningful returns from.”

Thoma Bravo, which is the largest tech investor in the world, had a banner year in 2024. The firm “returned back almost $20 billion,” Bravo said. The firm had liquidity events on 11 companies. Among the highlights: it fully exited software intelligence company Dynatrace in 2024. Thoma Bravo also sold Salt Lake City-based cybersecurity firm Venafi to CyberArk for $1.54 billion, which closed in October.

For more of Bravo’s insights, see our previous interview here.

Power play

Investcorp has held advanced discussions over the past month for the potential sale of power transmission services company Resa Power, which could generate $825 million or more in proceeds for the seller, three sources briefed on the matter told PE Hub.

Guggenheim Securities was retained in late 2024 to advise on the sponsor-backed sale process, the sources said.

With $70 million-$80 million of recent year EBITDA, the sources said it would be likely that Resa Power will transact with another industrial, energy or infrastructure-focused private equity firm.

Investcorp declined to comment for this article. Resa Power and Guggenheim did not return requests for comment.

Power transmission service companies have been trading recently for about 11x-13x the targets’ trailing EBITDA, one of the sources added.

Investcorp acquired Resa Power in late 2021 from growth investor Blue Sea Capital. Investcorp subsequently embarked on a trail of 12 add-ons for Resa, including PCA Valence, Power Technical Services, High Voltage Electric Service and Prime Engineering.

Investcorp, formed in Bahrain in 1982, is a global alternative asset manager with $55 billion of assets under management.

Resa Power, headquartered in Houston, operates through its 28 subsidiary companies that provide high voltage power maintenance, substation upgrades, circuit protection, and various testing and inspections services for the US and Canadian power markets.

The company was formed in 2003 from the combination of two historical engineering firms, Relectric and Satin American, then based in San Jose, California, and Shelton, Connecticut, respectively.

Companies for sale

So far this year I’ve been briefed on 65 companies said to be in the market or coming to the market within the next quarter.

As of this morning, 15 deal announcements have been made in 2025 involving those companies.

The latest deal from March 4 was Honeywell’s announced acquisition of industrial compressor manufacturer Sundyne from Warburg Pincus for $2.16 billion. The deal caps off a sale process PE Hub reported on in August when the PE firm was interviewing investment banks.

That’s a wrap for me. Keep an eye out for the Europe edition of the Wire tomorrow from Irien Joseph and the US edition from John R Fischer.

Cheers,

Michael