BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Wholesale Distribution 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 8.29x across 26 disclosed deals (P25: 6.21x, P75: 12.05x). Median EV/Revenue 0.91x across 42 deals. Median deal value: $577M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 43 deals total (43 from 2018+), filtered to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquirers of wholesale distribution businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Patient Square Capital (2) · Midwich Group plc (2) · Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC (2) · CFW Partners, L.P (2) · Mill Road Capital Management LLC (2) · QXO, Inc. (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquisitions of wholesale distribution businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Kodiak Building Partners Inc. | QXO, Inc. | $2305.4M | — | 0.96x |
| 2025 | Air Lease Corporation | Sumitomo Corporation | $28215.1M | — | 9.82x |
| 2025 | Kyocera Industrial Tools, Inc. | Truelink Capital Management, LLC | $480.8M | — | 0.52x |
| 2025 | Quipt Home Medical Corp. | Kingswood Capital Management / Forager Capital Management | $260.0M | 4.7x | 1.10x |
| 2025 | Patterson Companies | Patient Square Capital | $4100.0M | — | 0.60x |
| 2024 | Agiliti Inc. | Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. | $2500.0M | 9.4x | 2.10x |
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 wholesale distribution 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 wholesale distribution 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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