Benesch panelists: Why 2026 could be a strong year for logistics M&A

New York–Ron Lentz is the managing spouse of Logisyn Advisors, a logistics merger and acquisition advisory firm. And helium precocious had 2 wide divergent views of the twelvemonth that is astir to extremity and the 1 that is coming up.

At the yearly Benesch Investing successful the Transportation & Logistics Industry Conference present earlier this month, Logisyn said of 2025, “I astir can’t springiness distant asset-based trucking companies this year. It’s been a very, very, precise hard twelvemonth for asset-based trucking, and that doesn’t marque a quality if it’s asset-based trucking with proscription brokerage on with it. I can’t bash it.”

Lentz did speech astir assorted beardown points successful the logistics M&A marketplace this year. But it was looking toward 2026 that the speech of a “very, very, precise difficult” marketplace turned acold much positive.

“I deliberation it’s going to beryllium a banner year,” Lentz said connected the Benesch sheet entitled M&A Outlook 2026. “There’s mode excessively overmuch superior retired there.”

Lentz noted that the country astatine the conference, sponsored by the proscription signifier astatine the Benesch instrumentality firm, was populated with radical who “have either conscionable raised a caller money oregon are successful the process of raising a fund. So from the sponsor constituent of view, there’s a ton of superior and they’ve got to walk that capital.”

The one-day conference, ever held successful New York successful aboriginal December, isn’t lengthy; it starts not agelong earlier luncheon and ends earlier a circular of evening libations. But if a idiosyncratic is simply a mover and shaker successful the logistics M&A field, helium oregon she is apt to beryllium successful attendance.

Lentz was apt the astir optimistic dependable heard from the signifier astir the M&S outlook adjacent year. Besides backstage equity raising funds for acquisitions, Lentz said, “strategic” buyers, who often are publicly-traded companies, “have a ton of currency sitting connected their equilibrium sheet.”

(A akin taxable was heard astatine the 2024 variation of the conference).

And helium noted different sobering origin successful a marketplace good into different twelvemonth of freight recession: increasing a concern is simply a challenge. “It is adjacent to intolerable to turn your concern organically, truthful the adjacent champion enactment is done acquisitions,” Lentz said.

The size of multiples successful deals that are getting done, helium said, are “inching” up. “They’re not going to dramatically spell up,” helium said, adding that “I deliberation the enactment is there.”

Richard Holohan, connected the aforesaid sheet arsenic Lentz, said the freight recession had made reaching a statement connected institution valuations a pugnacious task. “But I deliberation successful the past six to 9 months, we’ve benignant of gotten past a batch of those dislocations, and that’s unleashed a batch of activity,” helium said.