M&A wave hitting equipment finance
Goldman Sachs says M&A activity will rebound strongly in 2026 as monetary easing and fiscal stimulus coax buyers back, and that rebound will drive demand for scalable, integration‑ready platforms in equipment finance — acquirers want faster portfolio onboarding and unified compliance. (sharecafe.com.au)
Goldman projects global M&A deal flow could rise from roughly $3.1 trillion in 2025 to as much as $3.9 trillion in 2026, citing AI spending and private‑markets capital as key drivers behind the uptick. (bloomberg.com) Equipment‑finance buyers are already active: Richmond‑based CCA Financial closed on Macquarie Equipment Finance’s technology lease portfolio on March 21, 2026, and CAN Capital announced acquisition of Republic Bank Finance’s equipment finance portfolio in February 2026. (equipmentfinancenews.com) Consulting and strategy work shows acquirers are explicitly targeting digital assets and scalable platforms in machinery and equipment deals, with Bain reporting a strategic rise in software and platform M&A in the sector. (bain.com) Platform vendors are responding with API‑first, cloud offerings to speed integrations and compliance; Linedata’s Ekip360 advertises “more than 1,000 APIs” for third‑party integrations and configurability to accelerate onboarding. (linedata.com) FIS and other large fintechs have completed cloud/SaaS upgrades that collapse origination, servicing, collections and remarketing into single platforms—FIS’s recent SaaS enhancement explicitly targets consumer auto, wholesale and equipment finance lifecycles. (secure.businesswire.com) Solifi evidence of execution: Rosenthal & Rosenthal converted Accord Equipment Finance contracts and went live on Solifi Portfolio Management in approximately eight weeks, with the implementation finishing two days ahead of schedule. (solifi.com) Solifi has broadened capability to match acquirer needs—its September 2025 purchase of DataScan added RiskGauge digital audits and human‑verified Onsite inventory services to Solifi’s Open Finance Platform to support faster floorplan onboarding and inventory risk workflows. (businesswire.com) Customers report measurable operational changes after migration: Access Capital moved from an on‑premise system to Solifi ABL to gain daily reporting, a borrower portal and near‑real‑time data streaming, while startup ALL Capital cited Solifi’s configurability and borrower portal when launching facilities sized roughly £5M–£26.8M. (magazine.factoring.org)
