The Fed has said it: interest rates are coming down. Fed Chairman Jay Powell surprised markets in early December when he announced, somewhat unexpectedly, that the Fed was not planning to raise rates any further, and, in fact, was projecting three rate cuts in 2024 now that inflation has cooled. Surprisingly, the Fed’s quarterly economic projections released in December, the…
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The AVP Pulse Index for December
Dec. 27, 2023 – The AVP Pulse Index this month rose 0.6% month-over-month, while increasing 3.8% year-over-year. The proprietary AVP Pulse Index – a joint effort between mergers and acquisition advisors Allen-Villere Partners, and Rock Products – illustrates the health of the industry in one single trend line, using relevant data that is updated monthly or quarterly. “With our proprietary algorithm, a…
Read MoreUpending Another Giant Industry
There are tectonic plate shifts in our economy that have existed since the early ages of commerce, events so dramatic, they shake entire industries. An example would be how the advent of the Internet decimated the travel agency world. A couple of decades ago, trying to book airline tickets and hotel rooms was a laborious, over-the-phone nightmare that travel agents…
Read MoreFirst Look – December 2023
TOP NEWS Martin Marietta Materials Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its South Texas cement business and certain related concrete operations to CRH Americas Materials Inc., a subsidiary of CRH plc, for $2.1 billion in cash. This on the heels of third quarter Building Materials business revenues of a record $1.9 billion, a 10.5%…
Read MoreThe Burgeoning Field of Private Credit
New financing instruments have been invented since the time of the Phoenicians and the Médicis. The modern corporation was developed by English and Dutch trading companies in the 1600s, and some believe the genesis goes back as far as the 1300s in France. With that modern concept of multiple owners of a single entity, it drove the early advent of…
Read MoreFirst Look – November 2023
TOP NEWS Armada Materials Formed; Acquires VolunteerArmada Materials LLC has been formed to build a leading infrastructure materials and services business through strategic acquisitions. The company was founded by Rob Duke, who will serve as CEO of Armada, along with a group of investors including several industry veterans, and Kelso & Company, L.P., a middle-market buyout private equity firm founded…
Read MoreThe AVP Pulse Index for October
Oct. 19, 2023 – The AVP Pulse Index this month dropped 1.4% month-over-month, while increasing 4.4% year-over-year. The proprietary AVP Pulse Index – a joint effort between mergers and acquisition advisors Allen-Villere Partners, and Rock Products – illustrates the health of the industry in one single trend line, using relevant data that is updated monthly or quarterly. “The previously flattened…
Read MoreFirst Look – October 2023
TOP NEWS Superior Industries Hires Kristen RandallSuperior Industries Inc. recently added another industry veteran to its lineup of passionate, high-service employees. After 17 years at Haver & Boecker Niagara, Kristen Randall comes to Superior as the company’s first official training coordinator. “Many of us at Superior have developed strong relationships with Kristen due to her active involvement in our industries,”…
Read MoreWho Is Snapping Up All The Houses?
We are never-ending in our firm’s quest for up-to-the-minute data that we can analyze and then draw conclusions on how that data drives the construction aggregate market, and every now and then, we get tossed a big surprise that we did not expect. Take a recent, seminal report from a major investment bank that conducted a deep dive into the…
Read MoreThe Pulse (Fourth Quarter 2023 Edition)
By Allen-Villere PartnersThe Pulse and the AVP Pulse Index, are joint projects between mergers-and-acquisition advisors Allen-Villere Partners, and Rock Products. The Pulse appears quarterly in Rock Products, and the AVP Pulse Index appears monthly. The Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark rate 11 times to cool inflation, with the latest rate increase of 25- basis-points in July. This puts the federal funds target…
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