Certification Body Valuations: EV/EBITDA & EV/Revenue

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, the value an owner has in mind before that first meeting decides how well they can judge the figure put to them. 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 on top of the first certification. 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. 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, including 24 in 2024 and 27 in 2025. Private equity firms or their platforms made 41% of the deals, rising from 30% in 2015 to 2020 to 46% of those since 2021.

The most active buyers come back to the market year after year. Kiwa has bought 23 certification bodies since 2015 and Amtivo 21, and Bureau Veritas has made 83 TIC acquisitions in all. Each knows what it paid every time. An owner sells once, and the public record is thin: 27 of the 194 deals disclose a value, and 7 disclose enough to calculate an EV/EBITDA multiple, of which we use 5 (see Methodology). This article brings that record together, compares it with inspection and testing laboratories, splits it by kind of certification body, and covers what drives value and who is buying.

In short, the 5 certification deals with a usable EBITDA multiple have a median of 11.8x EBITDA, and 7 deals give a median of 2.0x revenue. That puts certification a little above inspection at 9.5x EBITDA and testing laboratories at 10.1x, and above our all-TIC median of 9.7x EBITDA (53 deals) and 1.8x revenue (141 deals), with a median deal size of $13.2M (281 deals) across 2,784 TIC deals. Both certification medians rest on small samples, and the deals behind the EBITDA median have a median deal size of about $35M, while the median deal size across all disclosed certification deals is $6.7M.

Certification Compared With Inspection and Testing

The table sets certification bodies beside the two other parts of TIC. Each target is counted once, in the group that matches its main business. EV/EBITDA and EV/Revenue divide enterprise value (EV), which is equity value plus net debt and so the value of the whole business to all providers of capital, by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) or by revenue. Buyers usually apply the multiple to adjusted EBITDA, normalized for one-off items and owner costs.

Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket, acquirer announcements and own research), January 2015 to October 2026. Targets classified by their main business. Disclosed enterprise-value multiples only. Deal size is the enterprise value where disclosed, otherwise the disclosed deal value. All TIC: the inspection, testing laboratory and certification deals on our pages combined, 2,784 since 2015.

The certification EBITDA median of 11.8x sits a little above the inspection and laboratory medians, and it rests on 5 deals that range from 8.0x to 27.8x, with the middle half between 9.7x and 23.8x. Those 5 have a median deal size of about $35M. The median certification deal size, at $6.7M, is about half the $14.6M for inspection and the $13.4M for testing laboratories. On revenue, certification at 2.0x across 7 deals sits between inspection at 1.5x and testing laboratories at 2.4x.

For the owner of a certification body, the 11.8x median is a usable reference, and the inspection and laboratory medians, which rest on 24 deals each and sit close to it, add a larger sample. The deals behind the certification median were larger than the median certification deal size, so a smaller body should expect a multiple somewhat below it and set any offer against deal size as well. A body with broad accreditation scope and a loyal certificate base can argue for the upper part of the range those three medians span.

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.

Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket, acquirer announcements and own research), January 2015 to October 2026. Median deal size shown where at least 3 deals disclose a value.

The four unlinked rows cover smaller groups of certifiers. Other certification bodies run or audit sector schemes and labels, such as contractor health and safety prequalification, fair-labor quality marks, health and disability service audits and data center facility certification. Carbon and sustainability verification bodies verify greenhouse gas statements, carbon credit and offset projects, life cycle assessments and green finance labels; 13 of their 15 deals came after 2020. Multi-scheme certification bodies certify management systems, products and often food within one group, and their deals are the largest in the table. Personnel certification bodies certify the competence of individuals, such as electricians and installers, energy assessors, anti-money laundering specialists and cybersecurity professionals.

ISO and management system certification is the busiest segment, and private equity buyers made 56% of its 72 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 on a certification body. Accreditation scope, designations and auditor depth build 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. National 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. A schedule of every accreditation, its standards and sector scopes, the accreditation body and the next assessment date answers the first questions.

The certificate base and its renewal record. The three-year cycle means 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 the number of 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, with the Medical Device Coordination Group consulted before the decision. Organic control bodies in the EU 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 designation, approval and license 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. A body that relies on the owner or a small group of senior auditors for its main schemes carries key-person risk, and a heavy reliance on freelance auditors can raise the same question. An auditor register showing each person’s qualifications, sector scopes, employment status and length of service answers the buyer’s first questions on staff.

Standard and client mix. Buyers look at which standards the revenue comes from and how much depends on the largest clients. Scheme revisions bring extra audit work and test a body’s capacity: certified organizations had to move to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 by 31 October 2025, and bodies with information security scope handled that transition for every certified client. Show revenue by standard and by sector, and the share brought in by 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, which 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.

Who Is Buying Certification Bodies

We count 194 acquisitions of certification bodies between January 2015 and October 2026, by 75 different buyers, with targets in 34 countries. Close to half of the targets were in continental Europe, about a fifth in the UK and Ireland, almost a fifth in North America and about one in eight in Asia-Pacific, with the rest in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. By country, the UK had 34 targets, the US 29, Germany 20, Italy 16 and the Netherlands 15. Private equity firms or their platforms made 41% of the deals, 30% of those in 2015 to 2020 and 46% of those since 2021. The five most active buyers since 2015:

Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket, acquirer announcements and own research), January 2015 to October 2026. Certification deals cover all certification segments. Other TIC deals are the buyer’s acquisitions in any other testing, inspection or certification business. The two columns add up to the total. Deals are counted at the level of the ultimate buyer group.

The table holds two kinds of buyer. Amtivo is a certification specialist: 21 of its 25 TIC acquisitions were certification bodies, most of them management system certifiers. For Kiwa, Bureau Veritas, TÜV Austria and Normec, a certification body is one purchase among many testing and inspection deals, and it often adds a scope, a designation or a country to a wider group. An owner may hear from either kind, and a strategic group and a private equity-backed platform value the same body differently and expect different things from the owner after completion; see nabywcy strategiczni a finansowi.

If a Buyer Has Approached You

An approach from a certification platform or a TIC group is the moment to build your own view of value, before the buyer’s numbers set the terms. Each segment page linked in the table above has the figures for these steps.

Set your own range first. Median deal size varies widely by segment, from $0.5M in food safety and organic certification to $42.8M in product certification and $87.8M for multi-scheme bodies, with $5.9M for ISO and management system certifiers. The 5 certification deals with a usable EBITDA multiple had a median deal size of about $35M, so place a smaller body somewhat below the 11.8x median, and check it against the inspection (9.5x) and laboratory (10.1x) references.

Hear from more than one kind of buyer. Since 2015, 75 different buyers have bought certification bodies, and private equity firms or their platforms made 46% of the deals since 2021. A certification specialist and a TIC group that wants your scope for its wider business will value the same certificate base differently, and two offers show where the market sits.

Read the terms with the same care as the price. Cash at completion, any earn-out and whether it is measured on revenue, audit days or certificate renewals, and the time the buyer wants you and your lead auditors to stay together decide what you keep. Where accreditation, designations or key client relationships rest on named people, settle their terms alongside the headline figure.

Assemble the file a buyer will ask for. Expect early requests for your accreditation certificates and scopes, any notified body designation or scheme approvals with their change-of-control terms, a register of certified clients with renewal dates and retention history, the auditor register, and revenue by standard and sector.

Metodologia

The figures cover acquisitions of companies whose main business is certification, worldwide, from January 2015 to October 2026, drawn from the Aventis Advisors TIC deal database. A certification body, for this page, audits a client against a standard and issues a certificate. The database combines Mergermarket with our own research, including the most active buyers’ acquisition announcements, and each deal was reviewed against the target’s own business before it was counted and assigned to one segment. Multi-scheme bodies are those whose certification spans several segments. Excluded are training providers, consultancies (including ISO implementation consultants and SOC 2 attestation firms), testing laboratories, on-site inspection firms (cleanroom certification counts as inspection) and minority stakes. Laboratories are covered on our testing laboratory valuations page and inspection firms on our inspection company valuations page. Duplicate records are excluded. Two deals whose main business lies outside certification audits, one in prequalification software and one in professional training and membership, are counted in the deal totals, deal sizes and buyer tables but excluded from the multiples as outliers. Deal multiples are enterprise-value multiples from acquirer announcements, company filings and Mergermarket; most private certification deals keep their terms confidential, so the deals with a published multiple skew toward larger transactions.

Talk to Us

If a buyer has asked to acquire your certification body, speak to us before you open your client files or agree heads of terms. We can show you how buyers in your segment are likely to value your accreditations, designations, auditors and certificate base, which of them have been active recently, and whether selling makes more sense 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.