BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Restaurant Qsr 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 13.3x across 17 disclosed deals (P25: 7.42x, P75: 19.91x). Median EV/Revenue 1.67x across 22 deals. Median deal value: $644.41M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 23 deals total (23 from 2018+), filtered to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquirers of restaurant qsr businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Roark Capital (2) · FAT Brands Inc. (OTCPK:FATA.Q) (2) · BurgerFi International, Inc. (:BFIC.Q) (2) · Inspire Brands (Roark Capital) (2) · Inspire Brands, Inc. (2) · TriArtisan Capital Advisors, LLC (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquisitions of restaurant qsr businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Dave's Hot Chicken | Roark Capital | $1000.0M | — | 1.67x |
| 2025 | Denny's Corporation | TriArtisan Capital Advisors, LLC | $763.7M | 10.4x | 1.67x |
| 2024 | Subway | Roark Capital | $9550.0M | 13.2x | 9.83x |
| 2023 | Barbeque Integrated, Inc. | FAT Brands Inc. (OTCPK:FATA.Q) | $31.8M | — | 0.17x |
| 2023 | Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc. | Authentic Restaurant Brands | $353.3M | 7.6x | 0.88x |
| 2022 | Freshii Inc. | Foodtastic Inc. | $44.1M | — | 1.51x |
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 restaurant qsr 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 restaurant qsr 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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