HPE Miami 2026 Conference Recap

It is no longer controversial to assert that McDermott Will & Schulte’s Healthcare Private Equity (HPE) Miami conference has overtaken the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference as the most important event on the healthcare M&A calendar. Held March 4-5 at an increasingly crowded Ritz Carlton South Beach, this year’s conference drew around 2,700 attendees. It has grown by around 25% each year since 2023, when 1,300 people attended. As one conferencegoer observed, it is no longer reasonable to say, “I’ll meet you out by the pool.”

Bailey was a title sponsor of HPE Miami and brought a large delegation, including five clients for fireside chats. Our observations on the dealmaking climate are largely unchanged from JPM, with one exception. We are seeing increased pitch activity; a healthy, if not spectacular, number of processes in market; and yet in many cases, elongated timelines and moderate uncertainty around deals actually closing. Sentiment toward deploying capital and achieving portfolio exits remains resolute, despite geopolitical volatility.

These are all continuations of themes we heard at JPM. The key shift is in sentiment around AI, which bubbled to the surface in virtually every conversation we had and has begun to seriously disrupt sale processes in some sectors. We unpack this dynamic and share our own evolving viewpoint below. We do expect investment committee unease about AI to subside later this year as the PE ecosystem becomes more accustomed to operating within a new realm of unknowns. All told, we are continuing to prepare for a moderately more active year for M&A in 2026 than what we saw in 2025.

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