Utah Set a New Record of at Least $39.2 Billion in Equity Deals in 2023 vs. the Previous High of $31.2 Billion Set in 2021, the Latest "Deal Flow Report" Says
M&A activity in Utah in 2023 represented over 91.3% of ALL known equity transactions that occurred in the state last year.
The new record of $39.2 billion is 25.6% higher than the previous known annual total value of Utah equity transactions of $31.2 billion set back in 2021.
The Report shows that on a Year-over-Year basis, 2023's transactions in Utah grew by over 10X vs. comparable data for 2022 "deals."
The Report also provides details on 329 financial transactions from 2023 involving Utah-based firms, with the five largest transactions surpassing $1.4 billion each.
Utah businesses set a new record in 2023 with $39.2 billion in equity transactions occurring last year in the state, a 25.6% jump over the prior record of $31.2 billion in "deals" that happened in 2021.
This fact is the highlight of my review of the 2023 Deal Flow Report, which was released this afternoon by the MountainWest Capital Network, the 27th such Report published by the Salt Lake City-based nonprofit.
Interestingly, an additional highlight from the Report is the fact that the total known value of the 2023 disclosed deals involving at least one Utah-based firm was over 10 times higher last year versus comparable transactions disclosed in 2022.
In total, this year's Deal Flow Report identified 329 equity transactions with Utah ties that took place in 2023. These deals ranged from
- Mergers to Acquisitions, and from
- Private Placements to Public Offerings.
The five largest equity transactions of 2023 involving at least one Utah-based firm were
- The $12.7 billion acquistion of Life Storage by Salt Lake City-based Extra Space Storage (NYSE:EXR);
- The $12.5 billion "Take Private" acquisition of Provo, Utah-based Qualtrics by Silver Lake Technology Management;
- The $3.9 billion acquisition of Draper, Utah-based Swire Coca-Cola USA by John Swire & Sons;
- The $2.8 billion acquisition of Provo-based Vivint Smart Home by NRG Energy; and
- The $1.5 billion acquisition of Provo-based MountainWest Pipelines Holding Company by Williams Companies.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Separately, although not officially disclosed by any of the parties (and not included in the 2023 Deal Flow Report) but as Utah Money Watch reported last September in "Salt Lake City-based Maverik Completes its Acquisition of Kum & Go and Solar Transport from Krause Group for a Reported $2.25 Billion," our sources confirmed to us that Salt Lake City-based Maverik paid a combined $2.25 billion to Krause Group in 2023 to acquire Kum & Go and Solar Transport.
In total, 130 of the 329 deals included in the Report did not disclose the transaction amount.
Utah's Top Mergers & Acquisitions in 2023
In Utah's M&A arena in 2023, there were 24 acquisitions involving at least one Utah-based firm where a dollar amount was disclosed (including the six deals noted above in this write-up).
Ranked below by transaction amount and alphabetically (when appropriate), these deals include
- Cedar City, Utah-based American Pacific Corp. was acquired for $700.0 million by NewMarket;
- Lehi, Utah-based Quotient Technology was acquired for $430.0 million by Neptune Retail Systems;
- Orem-based Mercato Partners Acquisition Corp., a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation, completed a $312.0 million SPAC Merger with Nuvini Holdings;
- Cottonwood Heights, Utah-based Papa Pita Bakery was acquired for $273.5 million by Flower Foods;
- Salt Lake City-based PathologyWatch was acquired for $130.0 million by Sonic Healthcare;
- West Jordan, Utah-based Deep Medicine Acquisition Corp., a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation, completed a $125.0 million SPAC Merger with Centerville, Utah-based TruGolf;
- West Valley City, Utah-based Foursight Capital was acquired for $115.0 million by OneMain Holdings;
- Ogden, Utah-based Marketstar acquired regalix for $91.0 million;
- Salt Lake City-based Recursion (NASDAQ:RXRX) acquired Valence Discovery for $47.5 million;
- Recursion also acquired Cyclica for $40 million;
- Salt Lake City-based Famous Brands International was acquired for $33.0 million by Pearl Street Equity;
- Salt Lake City-based Rocco & Roxie Supply was acquired for $26.5 million by PetIQ;
- Springville, Utah-based Deseret Wellness was acquired for $20.0 million by Curaleaf Holdings;
- Entrepreneurial Equity Partners acquired certain "carved out assets" of the Ogden-based operations of Oatly Group for $20.0 million;
- Salt Lake City-based Process Instruments was acquired for $13.0 million by Horiba;
- Salt Lake City-based Clarus (NASDAQ:CLAR) acquired TRED Outdoors for $7.5 million;
- South Jordan, Utah-based PolarityTE was acquired by for $6.5 million Grander Acquisition;
- Salt Lake City-based PUR LIFE Medical was acquired for $2.6 million by Panacea Life Sciences;
- Lehi-based CareOne was acquired for $2.18 million by New Frontier Energy;
Private Placements and Venture Capital Fundings in Utah in 2023
According to MWCN's 2023 Deal Flow Report, there were 205 private placements and/or venture capital "Equity" fundings that involved at least one Utah-based firm in 2023.
Of these, 37 of these transactions did not disclose the amount of the deal, while
- 105 were less than $5 million,
- 54 were over $5 million.
Separately, nine other equity fundings occurred in Utah where the transaction amount was also over $5 million, but the identities of the parties were not disclosed.
As identified in the Report, outlined below (ranked by the amount of each deal) is a list of the 54 private placement/VC/equity fundings in 2023 in Utah of $5 million* or more:
- A $748 million convertible debt funding of South Jordan-based Merit Medical Systems;
- A $500 million equity funding of Lehi-based PCF Insurance Services;
- A $118.2 million equity funding of Orem-based Nomi Health;
- A $110.0 million equity funding of Lehi-based Consensus Sales;
- A $90.0 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Anonyome Labs;
- An $85.0 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Platform Accounting Group (a dba of PT&C Group);
- An $80.0 million equity funding of Murray, Utah-based Nursa;
- A $61.0 million equity funding of Pleasant Grove, Utah-based Alianza;
- A $58.0 million equity funding of Lehi-based Limble Solutions;
- A $50.0 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based CleanJoule;
- A $50.0 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Recursion;
- A $50.0 million equity funding of Sandy, Utah-based Spiff;
- A $35.0 million equity funding of West Valley City-based Metrodora Institute;
- A $32.1 million equity funding of Park City, Utah-based AMPHP,
- A $30.0 million equity funding of Lehi-based Owlet Baby Care;
- A $26.5 million equity funding of Lehi-based Graphite Systems;
- A $22.3 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Pathology Watch;
- A $21.0 million equity funding of Draper-based Xenter;
- An $18.8 million equity funding of Midvale, Utah-based Bamboo Ide8 Insurance Services;
- A $17.8 million equity funding of Pleasant Grove-based Fortem Technologies;
- A $16.0 million equity funding of Lehi-based PhotoPharmics;
- A $16.0 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Tava Health;
- A $15.0 million equity funding of Park City-based Stay Ai;
- A $13.0 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Nodal Power;
- A $12.1 million equity funding of Provo-based Irvine Holdings;
- A $12.0 million equity funding of Draper-based Agility Holdings;
- A $12.0 million equity funding of American Fork, Utah-based American Battery Factory;
- A $12.0 million equity funding of Logan, Utah-based Electric Power Systems;
- A $12.0 million equity funding of Herriman, Utah-based Noodle Cat Games;
- An $11.9 million equity funding of Murray-based Accelerate Dental Holdings;
- An $11.2 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Alucent Biomedical;
- A $10.0 million equity funding of American Fork-based Biolexis Therapeutics;
- A $10.0 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Xenocor;
- A $9.4 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Leash Laboratories;
- An $8.4 million equity funding of Orem-based Techcyte;
- An $8.0 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Fluidx Medical Technology;
- A $7.6 million equity funding of Sandy-based Staq Finance;
- A $7.4 million equity funding of American Fork-based ELB Learning;
- A $7.3 million equity funding of Sandy-based Mingle Healthcare Solutions;
- A $7.3 million equity funding of Midvale-based PlanSight;
- A $7.2 million equity funding of Lehi-based Clientbook;
- A $7.0 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Cotopaxi (a dba of Global Uprising PBC);
- A $7.0 million equity funding of Park City-based Oka (a dba of Carbon Insurance Inc.;
- A $7.0 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Onboard RS;
- A $7.0 million equity funding of Ogden-based Senior Sign (a dba of Whippersnap);
- A $6.9 million equity funding in Draper-based Giddy (a dba of DefiQ);
- A $6.9 million equity funding of Lehi-based Leland;
- A $6.6 million equity funding of Draper-based Cinch Solutions;
- A $6.6 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Dented Brick Distillery (a dba of Salt Lake City Distillery);
- A $6.5 million equity funding of Provo-based Hypercraft;
- A $6.5 million equity funding of Lehi-based Qualiti;
- A $6.1 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Monarx;
- A $5.3 million equity funding of Salt Lake City-based Gauge Automotive; and
- A $5.0 million equity funding of West Valley City-based Scientia Vascular.
Public Offerings of Utah-based Firms in 2023
Last of all, according to the Deal Flow Report, there were only a handful of public offerings of Utah based firms in 2023 ... five to be exact.
Those firms were
- $110.0 million was raised in a public offering by Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics (NASDAQ:MYGN);
- $81.6 million was raised in a public offering by Salt Lake City-based Recursion (NASDAQ:RXRX);
- $40.0 million was raised in a public offering by Salt Lake City-based Clene (NASDAQ:CLNN);
- $12.0 million was raised in a public offering by Salt Lake City-based SINTX Technologies (NASDAQ:SINT); and
- $3.0 million was raised in a public offering by Salt Lake City-based omniQ (OTC PINK:OMQS).
Some Additional Noodling on the Data
Clearly, the M&A world was the approach that saw the most uplift in Utah's business community in 2023.
In total, the 2023 Deal Flow Report identifies over $35.79 billion in acquisitions / mergers that took place in Utah last year.
In other words, M&A activity in Utah in 2023 represented over 91.3% of ALL known equity transactions that occurred in the state last year. Wow!
That. Is. Mind. Blowing!!!
Other factoids you might find interesting include these:
- 43% of Utah's 2023 equity transactions came from the Technology / Software Development arena;
- 15% of Utah's 2023 equity transactions came from the Consumer / Retail arena;
- 15% of Utah's 2023 equity transactions came from the Healthcare arena; while only
- 2% of Utah's 2023 equity transactions came from the Services sector, a drop of 80% from 2022.
Last of all, here's a breakdown of how cities fared from an equity transactions standpoint last year (with the caveat that as the largest city in the state, one would expect Salt Lake City to come out on top, which it did).
Nevertheless, here's that breakdown of equity transactions (where the amount was disclosed), ranked by the number of deals, then alphabetically by city name, if necessary:
- Salt Lake City: 31 equity transactions
- Lehi: 11 equity transactions
- Draper: 5 equity transactions
- Provo: 5 equity transactions
- American Fork: 3 equity transactions
- Orem: 3 equity transactions
- Park City: 3 equity transactions
- West Valley City: 3 equity transactions
- Midvale: 2 equity transactions
- Murray: 2 equity transactions
- Ogden: 2 equity transactions
- Pleasant Grove: 2 equity transactions
- South Jordan: 2 equity transactions
Additionally, there were seven cities in Utah that the 2023 Deal Flow Report shows had one known equity transaction in 2023, specifically: Cedar City, Cottonwood Heights, Herriman, Logan, Ogden, and Springville.
Final Commentary / Thoughts
In 1988, the first full year after our family moved to Utah, I was invited to become a volunteer Vice President and Board Member of the MountainWest Venture Group, the forerunner of today's MountainWest Capital Network.
And during my nine years of service to that great organization, I learned much about the amazing potential of Utah's business ecosystem, built connections, and made many friends, throughout the state.
It was also during that time that, as a Board, we looked for potential events or activities that could be held quarterly and would "Anchor" the relevance and importance of our nonprofit within the business community.
One such Anchor Tennant became the Deal Flow Report, which as noted above and in the full report (which can be found here), has blossomed into an amazingly useful, and important, reference for anyone interested in tracking, and learning from, the financial / monetary ecosystem found Utah's business world.
As such, I applaud all who labored of late, and over the years, to make the Deal Flow Report into what it has become — an unparalleled marvel. Bravo!
* — NOTE: Nine additional equity fundings valued at over $66.4 million apparently also occurred in 2023. Unfortunately, the advance copy of the 2023 Deal Flow Report that I received did not include information on these nine additional firms, only the amounts of their respective fundings.
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