BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Freight Brokerage to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up buyers
Private equity firms and PE-backed platform consolidators acquiring for roll-up, add-on, or platform plays. Pricing tends to lead the market for fee-viable scale, with multi-bidder competitive processes above the EBITDA floor.
Quick answers
- What multiple does this buyer pool pay?
- Median EV/EBITDA 7.79x across 16 disclosed deals (P25: 6.53x, P75: 13.29x). Median EV/Revenue 0.61x across 27 deals. Median deal value: $165.68M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 27 deals total (5 from 2018+), filtered to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquirers of freight brokerage businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Trunkeast Investment Canada Limited (1) · Stonepeak Partners LP (1) · J.F. Lehman and Company, LLC (1) · TJC LP (1) · The Jordan Company (1) · General Logistics Systems B.V. (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquisitions of freight brokerage businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Titanium Transportation Group Inc. | Trunkeast Investment Canada Limited | $165.7M | 6.5x | 0.49x |
| 2024 | Air Transport Services Group, Inc. | Stonepeak Partners LP | $3072.4M | 6.2x | 1.58x |
| 2022 | Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. | J.F. Lehman and Company, LLC | $4548.4M | 4.3x | 1.06x |
| 2021 | AIT Worldwide Logistics, Inc. | TJC LP | $1200.0M | — | 1.00x |
| 2021 | Echo Global Logistics | The Jordan Company | $1300.0M | — | 0.52x |
| 2016 | General Logistics Systems US, Inc. | General Logistics Systems B.V. | $90.0M | — | 0.79x |
What this buyer pool prices for
Private equity acquirers price for scale and roll-up arbitrage. They pay up for businesses that fit a platform thesis — recurring revenue mix above 30%, technician/professional depth, clean financials, and a management layer that survives integration. The same freight brokerage can command 1.5x to 2x the multiple of an individual-buyer transaction simply because the PE buyer is acquiring a platform piece, not an owner-operated shop.
Methodology note
Multiples shown are computed from disclosed M&A transactions in the ExitValue.ai database, filtered to freight brokerage businesses acquired by private equity / pe-backed roll-up buyers. EV/EBITDA outliers outside the [0.5x, 60x] band and EV/Revenue outliers outside [0.05x, 25x] are excluded from medians. Where available, post-2018 transactions are weighted; otherwise the all-time sample is used. Deal counts shown reflect deals with disclosed financials only — total transaction count for this buyer pool is typically 2-3x larger. Full methodology
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