BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Specialty Contractor 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 8x across 23 disclosed deals (P25: 5.7x, P75: 9.64x). Median EV/Revenue 0.92x across 71 deals. Median deal value: $34.16M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 76 deals total (76 from 2018+), filtered to Strategic / Industry acquirers of specialty contractor businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Installed Building Products, Inc. (9) · TopBuild Corp. (4) · Cardinal Infrastructure Group Inc. (2) · Bird Construction Inc. (2) · Bowman Consulting Group Ltd. (2) · Primoris Services Corporation (2)
Recent disclosed deals
Strategic / Industry acquisitions of specialty contractor businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | A.L. Grading Contractors, LLC | Cardinal Infrastructure Group Inc. | $245.5M | — | 1.53x |
| 2026 | Cobalt Power Systems Inc | SunPower Inc. | $9.9M | — | 0.28x |
| 2026 | EnergyAid, Inc. | Otovo Inc. | $11.3M | — | 0.62x |
| 2026 | Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation | Saltchuk Resources, Inc. | $1358.3M | 5.9x | 1.82x |
| 2026 | Liqui-Force Services (Ontario) Inc. | Per Aarsleff Holding A/S (CPSE:PAAL B) | $14.3M | — | 2.09x |
| 2025 | AP Alternatives LLC | STINorland USA, Inc. | $231.9M | 9.3x | 1.80x |
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 specialty contractor 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
What's your specialty contractor worth to strategic / industry?
Get an instant valuation range for your business. Backed by 25,592 real M&A transactions.
Engine-grounded estimate. Comparable strategic / industry deals on the full results page.