A certification body is often its founder’s life’s work: years of accreditation assessments, auditors qualified one sector scope at a time, and clients who return for surveillance and recertification audits cycle after cycle. When a buyer asks to acquire it, what the owner receives depends on how many credible buyers compete for the business, and in certification there are many: 75 different buyers have bought certification bodies since 2015. This page sets out what certification bodies have sold for, how they compare with inspection firms and testing laboratories, the main kinds of certifier, and the groups buying them.
A certification body audits a client’s management system, product, process or staff against a published standard and, when the client conforms, issues a certificate. Management system certificates run on a three-year cycle: an initial audit, a surveillance audit in each of the following two years and a recertification audit before the certificate expires. Product, food and organic schemes set their own surveillance and renewal audits. A client that keeps its certificate pays for audits every year, which is why buyers treat the revenue as recurring.
Ownership is fragmented, and it is consolidating, so a well-run body can draw several buyers into a process. We count 194 acquisitions of certification bodies since 2015, made by 75 different buyers, with targets in 34 countries. The pace has picked up, from 67 deals in 2015 to 2020 to 127 since 2021. Private equity firms or their platforms made 41% of the deals, rising from 30% in 2015 to 2020 to 46% of those since 2021.
Of the 194 deals, 27 disclose a value and 7 publish both EV and EBITDA, of which we use 5 (see Methodology). Their median is 11.8x EBITDA, and 7 deals give a median of 2.0x revenue. That puts certification a little above inspection at 9.5x EBITDA, testing laboratories at 10.1x and our all-TIC median of 9.9x EBITDA (54 deals) and 1.8x revenue (142 deals), with a median deal size of $13.4M (282 deals) across 2,841 TIC deals.
Certification Compared With Inspection and Testing
The table sets certification bodies beside the two other parts of TIC, with each target counted once, in the group that matches its main business. Buyers usually apply the EV/EBITDA multiple to adjusted EBITDA, normalized for one-off items and owner costs.
| Certification | Inspection | Testing laboratories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deals since 2015 | 194 | 1,376 | 1,271 |
| Median EV/EBITDA | 11.8x (5 deals) | 9.5x (25 deals) | 10.1x (24 deals) |
| Median EV/Revenue | 2.0x (7 deals) | 1.6x (63 deals) | 2.4x (72 deals) |
| Median deal size | $6.7M (27 deals) | $15.0M (127 deals) | $13.4M (128 deals) |
| Share of deals by private equity buyers | 41% | 60% | 42% |
In EBITDA terms, the first band covers firms with up to about $6M of EBITDA.
For the owner of a certification body, the certification median is a usable reference, and the inspection and laboratory medians, which rest on 25 and 24 deals and sit close to it, add a larger sample. The median certification deal size, $6.7M, is about half that of inspection or testing laboratories. The five deals with a published EBITDA multiple include some of the largest certification transactions, so a smaller body should expect a multiple below these medians unless several buyers compete for it and it can show broad accreditation scope and a loyal certificate base.
We track every certification body acquisition since 2015, 194 deals by 75 different buyers, so we know which buyers fit a firm like yours and what they have paid.
What is your certification body worth?
Send us three numbers: revenue, EBITDA and revenue growth rate. Within two working days we show you in confidence how your body measures up against 194 certification deals, which buyer groups have acquired bodies like yours, and how any offer you hold compares with what they paid where terms are published. Request your valuation assessment or email the numbers to marcin.majewski@aventis-advisors.com.
Certification Segments
The table splits the 194 deals by the kind of certification the target mainly carries out. Three segments have their own page with multiples, value drivers and buyers.
| Segment | Deals since 2015 | Since 2021 | Private equity share | Median deal size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISO and management system certification bodies | 72 | 53 | 56% | $5.9M (9 deals) |
| Product certification and notified bodies | 41 | 22 | 24% | $42.8M (7 deals) |
| Food safety and organic certification bodies | 30 | 18 | 23% | Not shown (3 deals): see All certification |
| Other certification bodies | 18 | 9 | 50% | Too few deals (1): see All certification |
| Carbon and sustainability verification | 15 | 13 | 27% | Too few deals (1): see All certification |
| Multi-scheme certification bodies | 11 | 7 | 45% | Not shown (4 deals): see All certification |
| Personnel certification bodies | 7 | 5 | 57% | Not shown (2 deals): see All certification |
The four unlinked rows cover smaller groups. Other certification bodies run or audit sector schemes and labels, such as contractor health and safety prequalification, fair-labor quality marks and data center facility certification. Carbon and sustainability verification bodies verify greenhouse gas statements, carbon credit projects, life cycle assessments and green finance labels; sustainability and carbon consultancies have their own page on sustainability consultancy valuation. Multi-scheme bodies certify management systems, products and often food within one group. Personnel certification bodies certify the competence of individuals, such as electricians, energy assessors and cybersecurity professionals; training providers are covered on our training company valuation page.
ISO and management system certification is the busiest segment, with private equity buyers behind more than half of its deals. Product certification and notified body deals are larger, and strategic TIC groups made most of them.
What Drives a Certification Body Valuation
These are the points a buyer works through in due diligence, and each builds slowly, so the owner gains most by putting them in order well ahead of a sale.
Accreditation and its scope
A certificate carries weight with the client’s customers when the body that issued it is accredited: to ISO/IEC 17021-1 for management systems, ISO/IEC 17065 for products, processes and services, or ISO/IEC 17024 for certification of persons. Accreditation bodies that signed the IAF multilateral arrangement recognize each other’s accredited certificates; IAF and ILAC merged into one organization on 1 January 2026, and existing recognition carries over to its new arrangement. Buyers check which standards and sector scopes each accreditation covers and which legal entity holds it, so keep a schedule of every accreditation, its scopes and the next assessment date.
The certificate base and its renewal record
A certified client generates audit days every year and a recertification decision at the end of each cycle. Buyers value the base on how many clients renew, how long they have stayed and how much of next year’s audit program is already scheduled. Show certified clients and sites by standard, the renewal rate over recent cycles and the audit days booked for the coming year.
Designations and scheme approvals
Some certification work needs more than accreditation. An EU notified body is designated by its member state and listed in the European Commission’s NANDO database; under the Medical Devices Regulation (EU) 2017/745, designation follows a national assessment and a joint assessment. EU organic control bodies work under Regulation (EU) 2018/848, which ties delegation by the competent authority to accreditation against the product certification standard, and in the US the National Organic Program accredits the certifying agents. Food safety bodies are approved scheme by scheme by the owners of GFSI-benchmarked schemes such as BRCGS, SQF, IFS and FSSC 22000. Each approval is hard for a new entrant to obtain, and a buyer will read the terms each one sets for a change of owner.
Qualified auditors
Audit capacity depends on auditors qualified for each standard and sector scope. Heavy reliance on the owner, a small group of senior auditors or freelancers for the main schemes carries key-person risk. An auditor register with each person’s qualifications, sector scopes, employment status and length of service answers the buyer’s first questions.
Standard and client mix
Buyers look at which standards the revenue comes from and how much depends on the largest clients. Show revenue by standard and sector, and the share from the largest clients.
Size and fit with a platform
Smaller certification bodies are mostly bought as add-ons by groups that already hold the same accreditations and can move certificates onto their own systems and auditors. The median deal size is about $5.9M in ISO and management system certification, against $42.8M in product certification. A body with a scope, a designation or a country a platform lacks is in a stronger position than one that duplicates what the buyer already has.
How we present these to buyers. A buyer pays for what it can see and check. Part of our work in a sale is to present the business as strongly as the facts allow: we set out the accreditation scope, the certificate base with its renewal record, and the depth of qualified auditors, and we deal with weak points before a buyer finds them and uses them to lower the offer. A valuation assessment is the place to start, a year or two before a sale.
Who Is Buying Certification Bodies
By country, the UK had 34 targets, the US 29, Germany 20, Italy 16 and the Netherlands 15. The five most active buyers since 2015:
| Buyer | Headquarters | Ownership | Certification deals | Other TIC deals | Total TIC deals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kiwa | Netherlands | Family-owned (SHV) since 2021 | 23 | 49 | 72 |
 Amtivo | UK | PE-backed (Charterhouse Capital Partners since 2022) | 21 | 4 | 25 |
 Bureau Veritas | France | Listed | 10 | 73 | 83 |
 TÜV Austria | Austria | Strategic | 9 | 34 | 43 |
 Normec | Netherlands | PE-backed (Astorg since 2020) | 8 | 54 | 62 |
The table holds two kinds of buyer. Amtivo is a certification specialist that buys mostly management system certifiers. For the four TIC groups, a certification body is one purchase among many and often adds a scope, a designation or a country. A strategic group and a private equity-backed platform value the same body differently and expect different things from the owner after completion; see strategic vs financial buyers.
One buyer’s offer tells you what that buyer would like to pay. Offers from several buyers, made at the same time on the same information, tell you what the business is worth. That is what a sale process does, and it is the work we do for owners: talk to us before you reply to an approach.
Selling a Certification Body: What a Run Process Changes
An approach usually comes on the buyer’s timetable, on the buyer’s terms and before any rival offer exists to compare it against, so an owner who answers it alone is negotiating with one party. A competitive sale process changes that in four ways, and running it is what we do for owners.
Several buyers bid at the same time. Private equity firms or their platforms made 46% of certification deals since 2021, and 75 different buyers have bought certification bodies since 2015. A certification platform such as Amtivo and a TIC group such as Kiwa, Bureau Veritas or TÜV Austria value the same body differently. Offers that arrive in the same week, on the same information, show what the market will pay.
The process sets the terms of engagement. The timetable, the information each buyer sees and the date offers are due are set for the seller, so competition sets the value and the first buyer’s opening figure becomes one bid among several.
Every term is negotiated while alternatives exist. Cash at completion, any earn-out and what it measures, how long you and your lead auditors stay, and the terms for accreditations or clients that rest on named people all move most while a second buyer is still in the process.
The business is ready before the first call. Your accreditation and scope schedule, renewal record and auditor register, and every designation or scheme approval with its change-of-control terms. Buyers pay for what they can verify, so we prepare this with you before any buyer is contacted.
Why Certification Body Owners Work With Us
We advise owners on sales with typical enterprise values between $5M and $100M, as partners of the Globalscope network. We also advise serial acquirers, which is how we know the way their offers are built and where they leave room.
Recent transactions:
- Advice to Apave on its acquisitions of ISOCERT and De Duurzame Adviseurs.
- Sale of CKSource, the rich-text editor developer, to PSG via Tiugo Technologies, after a global process that drew several letters of intent.
- Advice to Visma on its acquisition of SaldeoSMART.
Sindre Talleraas Holen, M&A Director, Visma: “We were impressed with Marcin’s negotiating skills and Aventis’ ability to make things happen.”
Wiktor Walc, President, CKSource: “Aventis Advisors did the heavy lifting so that our management team could stay focused on our business.”
Before you reply to a buyer
Send us three numbers: revenue, EBITDA and revenue growth rate. Within two working days we show you in confidence how your body measures up against 194 certification deals, which buyer groups have acquired bodies like yours, and how any offer you hold compares with what they paid where terms are published. Request your valuation assessment
Talk to Us
If you own a certification body, talk to us before you reply to an approach, agree a price or sign a letter of intent. We run competitive sale processes for owners: we prepare the business for buyers, approach the TIC groups and private equity platforms most likely to pay for your accreditations, designations, auditors and certificate base, bring their offers to a single deadline and negotiate the terms through to closing. Aventis Advisors is a boutique M&A firm advising on transactions with typical enterprise values between $5M and $100M. Write to us at marcin.majewski@aventis-advisors.com. The first conversation is confidential. See also our M&A advisory for TIC companies.
Methodology
The figures cover majority acquisitions, worldwide, of companies whose main business is auditing clients against a standard and issuing certificates, since January 2015: bodies certifying management systems, products, food and organic production, people, and carbon and sustainability claims, plus multi-scheme bodies spanning several segments. Training providers, consultancies, testing laboratories and on-site inspection firms are excluded; laboratories are covered on our testing laboratory valuations page and inspection firms, including cleanroom certification, on our inspection company valuations page.
The deals come from the Aventis Advisors TIC deal database, which combines Mergermarket with acquirer announcements and our own research. EV/EBITDA and EV/Revenue use enterprise value (EV), which is equity value plus net debt; EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. Median deal size uses EV where disclosed, otherwise the disclosed deal value, which is the consideration for the stake acquired; stakes of 51% to 99% count only where an EV is stated. Distressed sales, and multiples outside 1x to 60x EBITDA or 0.05x to 20x revenue, are excluded from the multiples. Most private deals close at undisclosed values, so the deals with a published figure are a small sample. A median from as few as two deals is shown only where it falls inside the interquartile range of the next wider group, such as all certification; otherwise the page points to that group. Ranges need at least ten deals. EV/EBITDA is shown where the multiple or the EBITDA was published by the buyer, the seller, filings or a reputable data source; EBITDA derived from a stated margin is excluded. Each deal is counted under the buyer’s group at the time of the deal, and private equity buyers are private equity firms and the companies they owned then. All TIC combines the inspection, testing laboratory and certification deals on our pages, 2,841 since 2015.
Two deals in which most of the value lies in a non-audit business (prequalification software; professional training and membership) are counted in the deal totals, deal sizes and buyer tables but left out of the multiples.
