At Cassel Salpeter & Co., 2025 marked a significant milestone for our firm, celebrating 15 years of service in the lower-middle market defined by resilience, momentum, and continued trust. In an environment shaped by evolving market conditions and ongoing economic uncertainty, our focus remained on providing superior investment banking and financial advisory services that help our clients navigate complexity and unlock value.
As we look ahead, we reaffirm our commitment to strengthening long-standing relationships, forging new ones, and pursuing opportunities that create maximum value for our clients.
As we begin 2026, we are proud to reflect on the last 15 years, and stand ready to guide our clients through the challenges and opportunities that the future may bring.
View of 2025, Vision for 2026
Throughout 2025, the lower-middle market continued to operate against a backdrop of evolving economic conditions and policy dynamics. While uncertainty influenced transaction timing and decision-making, market activity reflected a growing sense of clarity as the year progressed. In this environment, we successfully executed a range of healthy and distressed M&A transactions, including three notable bankruptcy sales under Section 363, while remaining focused on helping our clients navigate complexity and identify opportunities across several core sectors.
Although buyer and seller expectations still remained problematic, transaction activity increased across a range of situations, including both healthy and distressed opportunities. Ongoing considerations around tariffs, inflation, elections, global political situations and interest rates underscored the need for our team’s experience, adaptability, and thoughtful execution.
With a versatile skill set and a proven ability to operate across market cycles, we are well-positioned to support our clients’ strategic objectives. Whether assisting with a sale, acquisition, restructuring, advisory work, or capital raise, we continue to provide comprehensive investment banking services, helping clients move forward with confidence.
Amid an Evolving Market, Cassel Salpeter Sustained Momentum and Remains Positioned to Capture Emerging Opportunities on Behalf of its Clients
As we reflect on 2025, we extend our sincere gratitude to our clients, referral partners, and supporters of our firm. Your trust and long-standing relationships, built over more than 15 years, are central to our success and growth. Our work to deliver thoughtful advisory services and actionable market insight continues across the United States and, in select cases, internationally.
As we enter 2026, our focus remains on leveraging our expertise to help identify opportunities for all our clients’ and prospects’ needs, but particularly in sectors such as healthcare, industrial, aerospace and defense, consumer products and services, and technology. We are confident that our skills and expertise in M&A, restructuring, capital raising, and financial advisory services enable us to meet the needs of our clients.
Highlights Include
The firm successfully handled in excess of 50 M&A, capital raising, restructuring, and advisory assignments across a broad spectrum of industries. Our team completed this work on behalf of family businesses, private and public companies, debtors in Chapter 11 cases, financial sponsors, boards of directors, and special committees.
We continued publishing our Florida Sponsor Deal Report, a semi-annual report recapping sponsor deal flow in Florida; our Healthcare Investment Banking Report tracking industry deal flow, while providing deep dives into industry trends and impacts; our Aviation Deal Report, a quarterly resource for the aerospace and defense community, keeping you informed of developments within the aviation capital markets; and our Tech Review, a quarterly report highlighting emerging trends and developments in the technology marketplace. All are available on our website at www.casselsalpeter.com.
Chairman and Co-founder James Cassel joined Aviation Director Joey Smith and Healthcare Managing Directors Ira Leiderman and Margery Fischbein in providing thought leadership and subject matter expertise featured in media, including Nasdaq, BioSpace, American Journal of Transportation, South Florida Business Journal, Logistics Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Supply Chain Moves and Airport Technology.
In 2025 we added Director Brian Valik and Analyst Mason Waldron to our team. Brian Valik brings more than 25 years of investment banking and accounting experience advising public and private companies on M&A, capital raising, and strategic transactions. Mason Waldron supports sell-side M&A and restructuring engagements with his strong analytical foundation. In addition, we are pleased to announce that Charles Davis has been promoted to Senior Associate. Charles has been an integral part of our team since joining as an Intern in 2021.
After 15 years at our Brickell Avenue office, we are pleased to share that, effective February 1, 2026, we will be relocating to a larger office in Coconut Grove. We invite you to visit us at 3250 Mary Street, Suite 410, Miami, FL 33133, and look forward to welcoming you into our new space.
Industry Knowledge
Cassel Salpeter & Co. LLC is an independent investment banking firm providing advice to middle market and emerging growth companies in the United States and worldwide. The firm’s professionals have more than 150 years of combined experience advising private and public companies on a broad range of investment banking and financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions; equity and debt capital raises; fairness and solvency opinions; valuations; and restructurings, including 363 sales and plans of reorganization.
Cofounded by James S. Cassel and Scott Salpeter, the firm provides objective, unbiased, results-focused services grounded in rigorous analysis and transaction-specific insight aligned with each client’s objectives. The firm’s partners are personally involved at every stage of each engagement and have built long-standing relationships and completed hundreds of transactions and assignments nationwide.
The firm’s headquarters are in Miami. Member FINRA and SIPC. More information is available at www.CasselSalpeter.com.
