From a heat of aerospace metal to a fleet’s engine oil and an explorer’s drill core, materials testing labs test samples in their own laboratories, and many of those samples come back on a schedule. Aerospace, power and medical device makers test each heat of metal or production lot against a specification, fleet and plant operators send oil samples at set intervals to track the condition of engines and gearboxes, and mines send in assay samples week after week. This page covers metallurgical and mechanical testing and failure analysis labs, chemical and polymer analysis labs, oil analysis labs that test lubricants, fuels and other fluids, and assay labs that analyze drill core and ore samples for explorers and mines. If you are thinking about selling a materials testing lab, or a TIC group or platform has already called, it shows what materials testing laboratories have sold for, what earns a higher price and who has been buying.
Materials testing is still a market of many independent laboratories, and TIC groups and private equity-backed platforms are buying them. Since 2015 we have recorded 125 acquisitions of materials testing laboratories, and 73 of them closed in 2021 or later. Private equity-backed buyers account for 47% of the 125 deals: 44% in 2015 to 2020 and 49% since 2021.
For the most active acquirers, buying laboratories is routine. Eurofins Scientific has made 241 TIC acquisitions since 2015, SGS 117 and Phenna Group 101, so each of them prices a new deal against a long record of its own. A laboratory owner usually sells once, and the public record shows a price for 14 of the 125 materials testing deals. This article collects those figures, compares them with all deals on our testing laboratory valuations page and with the wider TIC sector, and sets out what drives the value of a materials testing lab and who is buying.
In short, two materials testing deals carry a published EBITDA multiple, too thin a base for a segment median. The ten deals with a revenue multiple have a median of about 2.4x revenue, just above the 2.3x for all testing laboratories and above our TIC benchmark of 1.1x revenue, 10.4x EBITDA, 1,051 deals, median deal size ~$21M. The EBITDA reference is therefore the 10.1x median of 24 deals across all testing laboratories. Those 24 deals have a median enterprise value of about $60M, so a materials testing lab smaller than that should plan for a price below the medians.
Materials Testing Laboratory Deal Multiples Compared With the Wider TIC Market
Fourteen of the 125 materials testing laboratory deals since 2015 have a published deal value. From those values, acquirer announcements and company filings we could work out 10 EV/Revenue multiples and 2 EV/EBITDA multiples. Treat the segment figures as indicative: with samples this small, one large deal moves the median.
| Materials testing laboratories | All testing laboratories | All TIC (Aventis benchmark) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median EV/EBITDA | n/a (2 deals) | 10.1x (24 deals) | 10.4x |
| Median EV/Revenue | 2.4x (10 deals) | 2.3x (71 deals) | 1.1x |
| Median deal size | $41.0M (14 deals) | $13.9M (128 deals) | ~$21M |
Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket, acquirer announcements and own research), January 2015 to October 2026, plus company filings. All testing laboratories covers every laboratory deal on our testing laboratory valuations page, materials testing labs included. All TIC benchmark: 1.1x revenue, 10.4x EBITDA, 1,051 deals, median deal size ~$21M.
Two deals in the segment carry an EBITDA multiple, and both were far larger than a typical laboratory, so the EBITDA cell shows n/a. On revenue, the ten materials testing multiples have a median of 2.4x, a little above the 2.3x across 71 testing laboratory deals and more than twice the 1.1x TIC benchmark. The middle half of the ten runs from about 2.2x to 3.5x, and their median enterprise value is about $46M.
The median materials testing deal with a published value, about $41.0M, is roughly three times the $13.9M for all testing laboratories and above the ~$21M TIC benchmark. Sales of large laboratory groups and purchases by listed buyers tend to report their terms, while most owner-managed laboratories keep theirs private, and that lifts the published median. For an owner-managed materials testing lab, read the 2.4x revenue and 10.1x EBITDA medians as the upper part of the likely range; where your own lab lands depends on its accredited scope, its share of repeat sample work and the people who sign its reports.
What Drives a Materials Testing Laboratory Valuation
A buyer checks each of the points below before it settles on a price, and each can move a materials testing lab up or down the range. Several, such as sample volume trends and instrument utilization, only carry weight once a year or more of records backs them, so start on them well before a sale.
Accredited scope and customer approvals. ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation covers a defined list of test methods, and a buyer reads that schedule method by method to see what the laboratory can report under accreditation. Labs that test for aerospace usually also hold Nadcap accreditation for materials testing, administered by the Performance Review Institute, and approvals from individual aircraft and engine makers, each won through years of audits. Assay labs compete on an accredited scope for fire assay and multi-element methods, because mining companies report results under codes such as JORC in Australia and NI 43-101 in Canada, which call for disclosure of the laboratory used and its quality control. Show this: the current schedule of accredited methods, the latest assessment and Nadcap audit reports, and a list of customer approvals with their renewal dates.
The mix of work. Of the 125 deals, 47 were metallurgical and mechanical testing or failure analysis labs, 31 oil, fuel and lubricant labs, 30 chemical and polymer labs and 17 minerals assay, geochemistry and ore testwork labs, and each kind earns its revenue differently. Oil analysis and production lot testing return every month; failure analysis and research work arrive one project at a time; assay volumes follow exploration budgets and metal prices through the mining cycle. Oil analysis labs also sit close to condition monitoring and reliability services, and some of their buyers come from that side. Show this: revenue by type of work and by end market for each of the last three years.
Recurring sample programs. Oil analysis labs sell sample kits to fleet operators, mines, power plants and factories that test engines, gearboxes, hydraulics and transformer oil at set intervals. Aerospace and medical device customers send each heat of metal or production lot for testing against a specification, and mine-site labs often run under multi-year contracts with the mine operator. A buyer measures how much revenue comes from these programs, how long the main customers have stayed and how much rests on the largest accounts.
Instruments, capacity and turnaround. Test frames, fatigue rigs, scanning electron microscopes, ICP spectrometers and fire assay furnaces cost a lot to buy and to keep calibrated. A buyer checks the age of the main instruments, how heavily they are used and whether specimens are machined in-house, which shortens turnaround on mechanical tests. Spare capacity lets a group send its own samples to your lab, while old equipment means capital spending after completion. Show this: an instrument register with purchase dates, utilization by instrument group and turnaround times against customer targets.
Scientists and report signatories. Metallurgists, chemists and materials scientists authorized to sign reports under the accreditation are scarce, and in failure analysis one or two named experts often bring in the work. Where the owner signs most reports or holds the main customer relationships, the buyer sees key-person risk and prices it in. A second signatory for each main method, and agreed terms that keep senior staff after the sale, protect the value.
End markets, size and location. Aerospace and defense, power generation, medical devices, semiconductors and electronics, oil and gas, and mining each run on their own cycle. Long qualification programs tie aerospace and medical device customers to a lab for years, while oil and gas and mining work moves with commodity prices, so buyers favor a spread across several markets. Many materials testing labs are bought as add-ons, and the buyer looks at where yours sits against its own network: near an aerospace or manufacturing cluster, in a mining district or close to a port with heavy marine fuel traffic. A small lab is usually bought as an add-on, and the buyer prices in the integration work and the shorter customer list.
Who Is Buying Materials Testing Laboratories
From January 2015 to October 2026, 70 different buyers made the 125 acquisitions of materials testing laboratories in our data. Buyers backed by private equity made 47% of these deals (42% across testing laboratories as a whole), rising from 44% of the 52 deals in 2015 to 2020 to 49% of the 73 since 2021. The targets were in 23 countries: 56 in North America, 31 in continental Europe, 13 in the UK and Ireland, 8 in Australia and New Zealand, 7 in Latin America, 6 in Asia-Pacific and 4 in Africa.
Eurofins Scientific, SGS and Bureau Veritas are listed TIC groups that buy laboratories across many fields of testing. Seven of Eurofins’ ten deals here were materials analysis and microscopy labs and three were oil analysis labs; SGS has bought in all four kinds of work, six of its nine deals since 2021; Bureau Veritas has added an oil analysis lab, a materials analysis lab and two minerals assay labs. Element Materials Technology made six of its seven acquisitions before 2021, while it was building its network of materials test houses under private equity ownership. Phenna Group made all six of its deals since 2021, four of them assay labs in Australia.
| Buyer | Headquarters | Ownership | Materials testing lab deals | Other TIC deals | Total TIC deals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurofins Scientific | Luxembourg | Listed | 10 | 231 | 241 |
| SGS | Switzerland | Listed | 9 | 108 | 117 |
| Element Materials Technology | UK | Owned by Temasek since 2022 (Bridgepoint before) | 7 | 34 | 41 |
| Phenna Group | UK | PE-backed (Oakley Capital since 2022) | 6 | 95 | 101 |
| Bureau Veritas | France | Listed | 4 | 79 | 83 |
Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket, acquirer announcements and own research), January 2015 to October 2026. Other TIC deals are each buyer’s acquisitions elsewhere in TIC; with the materials testing lab deals they add up to the total. Deals are counted at the level of the ultimate buyer group.
The table describes the two kinds of caller an owner is likely to get. A listed TIC group usually wants a method, a customer base or a country that its laboratory network lacks, while a private equity-backed platform is assembling a group of metallurgical or assay labs and wants each one to add earnings. An assay lab is most likely to hear from a group expanding near a mining district, and an oil analysis lab from a group building out its fluid testing. A listed group and a private equity-backed platform will weigh the same lab in different ways and ask different things of the owner once the deal closes; see strategic vs financial buyers.
If a Buyer Has Approached You
When a TIC group or a platform gets in touch, work out what the laboratory is worth to you before the buyer names a figure. Four steps help.
Know the range before the first offer. The published reference points for this segment are ten revenue multiples with a median of 2.4x and a median enterprise value of about $46M, and for EBITDA the 10.1x median across 24 testing laboratory deals with a median enterprise value of about $60M. Compare your own revenue and size with those deals, and split your revenue by type of work first, since a buyer pays more for repeat oil analysis or production lot testing than for project work or assay volumes tied to the mining cycle.
Speak to more than one buyer. The 125 deals were spread across 70 buyers, and about half of those since 2021 went to private equity-backed buyers. A listed group that wants your accredited methods in a new country and a platform adding another metallurgical lab can put very different prices on the same business, and holding both offers side by side shows which one is fair.
Negotiate the terms as hard as the price. Your proceeds turn on the cash paid at completion, any deferred or earn-out payment and the measure behind it, and the role you keep after the sale. Agree retention terms for the metallurgists, chemists and signatories on whom your accreditation depends. If your lab sells prepaid oil sample kits, settle early how unused kits are treated, because a buyer may count that prepaid revenue as a debt-like item in the price.
Prepare what the buyer will ask for. Expect early requests for your ISO/IEC 17025 schedule and recent assessment reports, Nadcap audit results and customer approvals with their change-of-control terms, revenue by type of work and end market, monthly sample volumes for three years, an instrument register and a list of who signs which methods.
Methodology
The deal counts cover acquisitions of companies whose main business is testing materials in their own laboratories, worldwide, from January 2015 to October 2026: metallurgical and mechanical testing and failure analysis; chemical and polymer analysis; oil, fuel and lubricant analysis; and minerals assay, geochemistry and mineral processing testwork on ore samples. The test for inclusion is whether a company mainly tests samples or parts in its own laboratory; a lab that collects samples at customer sites for its own testing still counts. Firms whose main work takes place at customer sites are excluded, and we reviewed every deal in the segment one by one against that test. Field NDT and weld inspection are covered on our NDT valuation multiples page, and testing of concrete, asphalt and soils on our construction materials testing page. Equipment makers, distributors, software companies, contract research organizations, clinical laboratories and consultancies are excluded, as are mining consultancies and engineering firms for which testing is a side line. Secondary sales, where one investor sells a laboratory group to another, are counted. Sources are the Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket, acquirer announcements, company filings and own research), and each target is classified by its own business. Deal multiples are enterprise-value multiples from acquirer announcements, company filings and Mergermarket; a partial-stake deal keeps a value only where the enterprise value of the whole company is known. Owner-managed laboratories rarely publish a price, so the published multiples come mostly from large deals and listed buyers.
Talk to Us
A TIC group or platform asking about your materials testing lab, oil analysis lab or assay lab is the moment to talk to us before you share your accounts with a buyer or agree a number. We will show you how a buyer is likely to read your accredited scope, mix of work, repeat sample programs and senior scientists, which other buyers are active in materials testing, and whether to sell now or later. Aventis Advisors is a boutique M&A firm advising on transactions with typical enterprise values between EUR 5M and EUR 100M, including testing, inspection and certification businesses. The first conversation is informal. Contact us at contact@aventis-advisors.com or see our M&A advisory for TIC companies.
