BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Water Wastewater 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 16.51x across 10 disclosed deals (P25: 10.9x, P75: 20.7x). Median EV/Revenue 6.1x across 11 deals. Median deal value: $156M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 14 deals total (14 from 2018+), filtered to Strategic / Industry acquirers of water wastewater businesses.
- Most active buyers
- American Water Works Company, Inc. (1) · Parker-Hannifin Corporation (1) · Hawkins, Inc. (1) · Veolia (1) · Grundfos (1) · Georg Fischer AG (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Strategic / Industry acquisitions of water wastewater businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Essential Utilities, Inc. | American Water Works Company, Inc. | $20202.1M | 15.2x | 8.49x |
| 2025 | Filtration Group Corporation | Parker-Hannifin Corporation | $9250.0M | 19.6x | 4.60x |
| 2025 | Hawkins - Surplus Management Assets | Hawkins, Inc. | $204.0M | 20.4x | — |
| 2025 | Water Technologies and Solutions (30% stake) | Veolia | $1750.0M | 11.0x | — |
| 2024 | Culligan Commercial & Industrial Business (Europe) | Grundfos | $108.0M | — | 1.00x |
| 2023 | Uponor Corporation | Georg Fischer AG | $2268.0M | 10.6x | — |
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 water wastewater 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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