Industry briefing · Construction
What construction businesses sell for, and why
What specialty and general contractors sell for, and how to sell yours for more.
Contractors sell for less than their revenue suggests, and the reason is almost always the same: buyers cannot see the next twelve months. The businesses that command a premium show a backlog, a bid process, and a field leadership that do not depend on the owner.
At a glance
- Published median
- 2.43xon owner earnings
- Typical range at sale
- 3x to 5xon EBITDA
- Who buys
- Regional contractors, PE-backed platforms, employee ownership
- Weighed first
- PdPredictability
What construction businesses sell for
Every figure is a multiple of something. The measure sits beside each one, because multiples of owner earnings, EBITDA, and revenue do not compare with each other.
| Multiple | On | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2.43x | Owner earnings | Owner earnings multiple, construction businessesBizBuySell, Construction Business Valuation Multiples & Financial Benchmarks (businesses sold 2021–2025) |
| 3x to 5x | EBITDA | Typical range at saleFNDRS industry playbook |
| 2.79x to 4.11x | EBITDA | A valuer's EBITDA rangePeak Business Valuation, 2026 |
| 10.6x against 7.5x | EBITDA | Sponsors paid moreCapstone Partners, 2025 |
- Owner earnings
- Profit before the owner's own pay and perks, interest, taxes, and depreciation. Small, owner-run businesses are priced on it.
- EBITDA
- Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, with the owner paid like a hired manager. Larger companies are priced on it.
Who buys construction businesses
- Regional contractors
- PE-backed platforms
- employee ownership
Private equity made most construction deals in 2025 for the first time; private and public strategic buyers made the rest. Construction is also one of the most common homes of employee ownership.
- Private equity took the lead. Private equity made 54.3 percent of construction deals in 2025, its first year ahead of strategic buyers, with 68 new platforms and 237 sponsor-backed add-ons. Capstone Partners, 2025
- Strategics keep buying. Private strategic buyers made 204 deals in 2025, up 16.6 percent, and public consolidators such as Comfort Systems USA and TopBuild kept up their roll-ups. Capstone Partners, 2025
- Employee ownership is common. Construction accounts for 17 percent of the 6,098 privately held ESOP companies NCEO counts, behind only manufacturing and professional, scientific, and technical services. National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), 2026
What diligence reads first
Project revenue is lumpy, bonding follows the owner, and margins are decided on the estimate. That makes predictability the thing FNDRS tracks most closely here, and the thing buyers pay for.
Backlog under contract is the number a buyer reads first. Twelve months of it changes the conversation.
Percentage-of-completion accounting has to be right. Work-in-progress schedules are diligence item one.
Bonding capacity and licences are tied to people. A buyer needs to know they transfer.
Estimators and project managers who bid and run jobs without the owner are the management depth in this trade.
One general contractor or one developer over a third of revenue is a concentration discount, however long the relationship.
Buyers read the backlog, the work-in-progress schedule, and the bonding. A missed work-in-progress adjustment can erase much of the earnings a price was set on, and a leveraged buyer can shrink bonding.
- Backlog visibility drew the buyer. Legence named backlog visibility as a reason to buy The Bowers Group, a mechanical contractor with $1.3 billion in contract commitments, at 6.6 times EBITDA in 2025. Capstone Partners, 2025
- Missed WIP erased earnings. In a CPA firm's quality-of-earnings case, two commercial jobs missing work-in-progress adjustments moved over $1.1 million of billings back a year, wiping out over 30 percent of expected EBITDA. Blue & Co., LLC, 2022
- Leverage can shrink bonding. Gallagher warns that private equity deals can shrink a contractor's bonding: acquisition debt strains the balance sheet, and sureties weigh the new management team's experience. Gallagher, 2025
The element buyers weigh first
Predictability
Forecasts that come true; a pipeline a buyer can underwrite.
What it measures. Forecast accuracy over the past eight quarters and the share of next-year revenue already visible in contract or pipeline.
Today and prepared, side by side
The difference is preparation, and in construction it shows up in a handful of measurable places. This is the shape of it, drafted for the industry and read against what buyers actually pay.
| Today | Prepared | |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple on EBITDA | 3.2x | 5.0x |
| Backlog under contract, in months | 3 | 12 |
| Revenue from the largest client | 40% | 15% |
| Estimators who bid without the owner | 0 | 2 |
Illustrative figures for construction. Your numbers come from the calculator.
What founders say
Deals the FNDRS M&A team has advised on
What positioning, process, and structure did for three founders
Each went to market with a story built for it and more than one buyer at the table. The companies are not named.
Advised by members of the FNDRS M&A team, including at prior firms
Roofing
A roofing company in Texas
A technology-enabled operator with about $6 million of EBITDA
Sold at9.5xEBITDA
- 40%
- equity the founder rolled
- 3
- offers above 9.0x
- The situation
- A residential roofer serving major Texas metros, with about $6 million of EBITDA going to market, strong crew retention, and steady referrals. The founder was not done building, but wanted to take risk off the table and add institutional firepower. After testing third-party CRMs, the company had built its own platform, which automated estimating, supplier ordering, and delivery of materials to the job site.
- The approach
- Ahead of launch, that software cut overhead and the reliance on admin and production specialists, and gross margins improved. The company went to market as a scalable, technology-enabled roofing platform, not as a contractor, in a focused process among private equity firms with a thesis in exterior services.
- The outcome
- Three offers came in above 9.0x EBITDA and several more above 8.0x. The company became the founding platform of a new investment at 9.5x, roughly 2.5x above the top of the industry's multiple range at the time. The founder rolled 40 percent into the new company and continues as CEO with a board seat; the rest was cash at close, with capital committed for add-on acquisitions across the Sun Belt.
Advised by members of the FNDRS M&A team, including at prior firms
Read the dealRoofing
A roofing company in Missouri
80 percent residential, 20 percent commercial
Sold at7.2xEBITDA
- 8
- letters of intent
- 5
- groups in management meetings
- The situation
- Exceptional standard operating procedures and operational discipline, a healthy mix of retail and insurance work, and margins that had held. It was ready for market.
- The approach
- Positioned on durable margins, process maturity, and a stable revenue mix, in a highly competitive, tightly managed process.
- The outcome
- Eight letters of intent, five groups through to management meetings, and a final price of 7.2x EBITDA. The founder chose a long-standing private equity platform in roofing, for its culture and its long-term vision.
Advised by members of the FNDRS M&A team, including at prior firms
Read the dealRoofing
A roofing company in Minnesota
About $4.0M in EBITDA, after storm years of $5.5M to $6.5M
Sold at6.5xEBITDA
- $4.0M
- normalized EBITDA
- Rollover
- a second bite of the apple
- The situation
- Storm-heavy years had produced $5.5M to $6.5M in EBITDA. The year of the sale was a normal one, about $4.0M, with some pressure on margins.
- The approach
- The normalization discussions with buyers were managed closely, and the deal was structured so the buyer's incentives and the owners' pointed the same way.
- The outcome
- It closed at 6.5x, above prevailing averages. The owners rolled equity into the new company: a second bite of the apple. On the sponsor's growth plan, the second sale may pay out more than the first, creating generational wealth for the ownership group.
Advised by members of the FNDRS M&A team, including at prior firms
Read the deal
The four levers behind every one
- Answer every question firstWeeks of quantitative and qualitative analysis before anything goes to market, so the materials answer every question a buyer or investor will ask. Leverage at the letter of intent starts here: a factual, compelling story that leaves a buyer no risk to price.
- Tell the right storyOperational maturity, technology that sets the business apart, and the quality of its revenue, put in the terms a buyer underwrites.
- Run a competitive processA disciplined process with several qualified buyers at the table at once, so the tension between them sets the price.
- Structure to close the gapWhere buyer and seller see different numbers, the structure bridges them, so the total value to the shareholders is the number that counts, not the headline.
Know what your contracting business is worth before a buyer tells you
Fifteen minutes for the exit score, then a conversation with the deal team.