BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Restaurant Qsr to Strategic / Industry buyers
Industry operators, larger competitors, and corporate buyers acquiring for synergies, geographic expansion, or capability fill. Typically pays a premium for clear strategic fit but discounts for integration cost and overlap.
Quick answers
- What multiple does this buyer pool pay?
- Median EV/EBITDA 9.38x across 20 disclosed deals (P25: 8.24x, P75: 11.7x). Median EV/Revenue 1.17x across 24 deals. Median deal value: $297.25M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 27 deals total (27 from 2018+), filtered to Strategic / Industry acquirers of restaurant qsr businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Darden Restaurants, Inc. (2) · Mty Franchising Usa, Inc. (2) · Future Vibes INC (1) · Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (1) · RaceTrac, Inc. (1) · Restaurant Brands International Inc. (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Strategic / Industry acquisitions of restaurant qsr businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | AP Company USA Inc. | Future Vibes INC | $0.0M | — | 0.01x |
| 2025 | Heal Lifestyle Inc. | Happy Belly Food Group Inc. | $2.5M | 3.8x | — |
| 2025 | Potbelly Corporation | RaceTrac, Inc. | $689.0M | 8.6x | 1.47x |
| 2024 | Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. | Restaurant Brands International Inc. | $1661.8M | 6.5x | 0.93x |
| 2024 | Chuy's Holdings, Inc. | Darden Restaurants, Inc. | $789.9M | 9.7x | 1.72x |
| 2023 | BurgerFi International, Inc. | Lionheart Equities, LLC | $0.8M | 12.1x | 0.95x |
What this buyer pool prices for
Strategic buyers — operators in adjacent geographies, larger competitors, or corporate consolidators — price for synergies and capability fill. They tend to discount integration cost and overlap risk but pay above market when there's clear strategic fit (key customer relationship, license, geography, technician/professional team). Multiples are competitive with PE for fee-viable deals; below PE for sub-scale acquisitions.
Methodology note
Multiples shown are computed from disclosed M&A transactions in the ExitValue.ai database, filtered to restaurant qsr businesses acquired by strategic / industry 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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