Lincoln International’s Global Valuations & Opinions Group team grew by nearly 50% in 2022 and expects continued momentum in 2023

Lincoln International’s global Valuations & Opinions Group materially expanded its services across portfolio valuations and transaction opinions in 2022. Portfolio valuation services were up more than 50% from 2021 across expanding asset classes. The group benefitted from tailwinds and continued growth across all alternative asset classes given the volatility in public markets. It strengthened its complex financial instruments capabilities with a more diverse investment coverage which included, but was not limited to, residential mortgage loans, commercial mortgage loans, commercial mortgage-backed securities, commercial real estate collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), private asset-backed securities, CLOs, consumer loans, as well as collateralized fund obligations (CFOs) or rated notes, among others. The group gained clients in earlier stage valuations and with environmental, social and governance (ESG) focuses. It also saw increasing needs from private equity and infrastructure clients for portfolio valuation services.

The transaction opinions team completed more than 40 opinions for private equity general partners (GPs), public company boards, special committees and privately held companies. The group saw an increased demand for opinions by (i) private equity GPs engaging in continuation vehicle and cross-fund transactions and (ii) public company boards and special committees engaging in going-private, de-SPAC and recapitalization transactions. Current debt capital market and economic conditions are likely to drive an increase in restructuring, recapitalization and capital infusion transactions that will result in a higher demand for solvency, fairness and valuation opinions.

The perspective from Lincoln’s proprietary database increased substantially, reflecting the more than 15,000 portfolio valuations completed annually with close to 150 alternative asset managers during 2022. The Lincoln Private Market Index, which benchmarks an index of Lincoln’s private company enterprise values against the S&P 500, and the Lincoln Senior Debt Index, a quarterly index that tracks Lincoln’s determined fair value of more than 1,000 private credit investments, gained incredible recognition in the media. These indexes, along with the proprietary database insights, were quoted in top-tier media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, CNBC and The Economist.

Other Achievements

• Added Bob Horak who was previously a Managing Director in Lincoln’s Capital Advisory Group to its roster of Managing Directors in addition to two Directors joining with key experience in portfolio valuations and complex financial instruments
• Grew global footprint with greater presence as London-based team completed engagements with large European-based alternative asset managers
• Expanded U.S. Valuations & Opinions Group offices with teams now based in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, alongside original offices of Chicago and New York
• Invested within the group and organization overall so it can scale and add incremental value to client relationships, nearly doubling the size of the group in just 12 months