An electrical testing business is usually built over decades: certified technicians, long-standing relationships with facility owners and utilities, and a reputation for being on site when the power has to stay on. When you decide to sell, that work should show up in the price. Private equity platforms made 86% of electrical testing acquisitions since 2021, so the first call is likely to come from one, and knowing your value beforehand is the starting point for a sale, a recapitalization or a partner buyout. What follows sets out what electrical testing firms have sold for, what lifts or lowers the price and who has been buying.
The segment covers two kinds of firm. Power systems testing companies carry out acceptance and maintenance testing of switchgear, circuit breakers, transformers, protective relays, cables and substations, and commission new electrical systems, usually to the NETA ATS and MTS standards. Installation safety testing companies carry out the periodic testing of electrical installations and equipment that landlords, employers and insurers require: EICRs, fixed wire and portable appliance testing in the UK, DGUV V3 testing in Germany, NEN 3140 and SCIOS inspections in the Netherlands, plus thermography and lightning protection testing. Both kinds of work come back. Maintenance testing follows the cycles in NFPA 70B, which became a standard in its 2023 edition, and installation testing follows intervals set by regulation or by insurers.
We count 104 acquisitions of electrical testing companies since 2015, 72 of them since 2021, and European deals are probably undercounted (see Methodology). Resa Power has bought 17 electrical testing companies since 2017, and Sansidor five between 2022 and 2024, while an owner usually sells once. Each buyer has the terms of every deal it has done in hand, and the public record holds a price for 7 of the 104 deals in this segment. This article gathers what is public, sets it against inspection company valuations as a whole and the wider TIC sector, and covers what drives the value of an electrical testing business and who is buying.
In short, one deal in the segment discloses an EBITDA multiple, too thin a base for a median. The five deals with a revenue multiple have a median of about 1.7x revenue, a little above the 1.5x for all inspection deals and a little below the 1.8x median for all TIC deals. For EBITDA, the median of 9,5x across 24 inspection deals is the better reference. Those 24 deals have a median enterprise value of about $132M, so a smaller firm should plan for an EBITDA multiple below 9.5x.
Electrical Testing Deal Multiples Compared With the Wider TIC Market
Of the 104 electrical testing deals in our database since 2015, 7 disclose a deal value. Adding company filings and announcements, we could calculate an EV/EBITDA multiple for 1 transaction and an EV/Revenue multiple for 5. The segment figures below are therefore indicative only.
| Electrical testing | All inspection | All TIC (Aventis database) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mediana EV/EBITDA | n/a (1 deal) | 9.5x (24 deals) | 9.7x (53 deals) |
| Mediana EV/Przychody | 1.7x (5 deals) | 1.5x (62 deals) | 1.8x (141 deals) |
| Mediana wielkości transakcji | $15.2M (7 deals) | $14.6M (126 deals) | $13.2M (281 deals) |
Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket and own research), January 2015 to October 2026, plus company filings. All inspection covers all inspection segments, including electrical testing, and field services carried out at the customer’s site, such as stack testing, asbestos and legionella surveying and on-site calibration. All TIC: the inspection, testing laboratory and certification deals on our pages combined, 2,784 since 2015, with medians of 9.7x EBITDA (53 deals), 1.8x revenue (141 deals) and $13.2M deal size (281 deals).
The five revenue multiples run from about 0.2x to 2.2x, and all five come from installation safety testing deals in the UK, Australia and the US. Of the 58 power systems testing deals, 53 were made by private equity-backed buyers, mostly add-ons and platform sales, and one discloses a value, so the segment multiples say little about power systems testing firms. With five data points of very different size and country, the 1.7x is a rough guide.
The median deal with a disclosed value, about $15.2M, is above the $14.6M for inspection as a whole and above the $13.2M median for TIC overall. For a smaller electrical testing firm, the 9.5x EBITDA median for inspection is a ceiling more than a target, because those deals were much larger. How close your own firm comes to them depends on how much of its revenue is testing, how many certified technicians it keeps and how much of its work returns under contract.
What Drives an Electrical Testing Valuation
A buyer works through each of the points below in due diligence, and each one moves an electrical testing business up or down the range. Several of them need two or three years of records before they show well, so it pays to start early.
Testing revenue against repair, remanufacturing and parts. Many power systems testing firms also repair and remanufacture breakers and transformers, sell reconditioned equipment and parts, or take on installation work. Buyers pay inspection-type multiples for acceptance and maintenance testing revenue, and value repair, remanufacturing and equipment resale like industrial services, at lower multiples. Show this: revenue and gross margin by service line for the last three years, with testing separated from everything else.
Certified technicians and crew capacity. In power systems testing, buyers count NETA Level III and Level IV technicians, who lead test crews and sign off results, and look at how many junior technicians are working toward those grades. In installation testing, they count qualified electricians and testers, such as holders of the 18th Edition wiring regulations and City & Guilds 2391 inspection and testing qualifications in the UK, or Elektrofachkräfte in Germany. Crew size and retention set how much work the firm can take on, and a firm where the owner still leads the important jobs carries key-person risk. Show this: a technician list with certification level, years of service and staff turnover for the last three years.
Accreditation and scheme approvals. NETA Accredited Company status marks an independent third-party testing firm with certified technicians, and many utility, data center and industrial specifications call for NETA-certified staff. In the UK, NICEIC or NAPIT registration and UKAS accreditation support access to framework contracts; in the Netherlands, SCIOS Scope 8 certification covers NEN 3140 inspections, which employers need under health and safety law and insurers increasingly require. Buyers check which approvals sit with the company and which with named individuals, and what happens to each on a change of ownership.
End markets. Power systems testing work comes from data centers and critical power, utilities and grid upgrades, renewables and battery storage, and industrial plants. Buyers look at the mix and at how much depends on one customer or one construction program. Installation testing is driven by obligations on landlords, employers and building owners, such as the five-yearly electrical checks in private rented homes in England, the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 in the UK, DGUV V3 in Germany and insurer requirements in the Netherlands. Show this: three years of revenue by end market and the trend in each.
Recurring maintenance contracts against one-off commissioning. Multi-year maintenance testing programs, including electrical maintenance programs under NFPA 70B, and periodic EICR, DGUV V3 or NEN 3140 cycles bring revenue back every year. Commissioning and acceptance testing on new projects is often larger per job, but it has to be won again project by project. Buyers value the first above the second, so show the share of revenue under contract, renewal rates and the next due dates in your periodic testing register.
Safety record. Testing energized equipment carries arc flash and shock risk, and utilities, data center operators and industrial customers prequalify contractors on their safety statistics. A clean record protects revenue; a poor one narrows the field of buyers. Have three years of incident rates and current prequalification certificates to hand.
Size and regional density. Testing is a field business, and a firm with dense coverage of one region, or crews in several states or provinces, fills a gap on a platform’s map. Smaller firms are usually bought as add-ons, at lower multiples, because the buyer takes on integration work and customer concentration.
Who Is Buying Electrical Testing Companies
We count 104 acquisitions of electrical testing companies between January 2015 and October 2026, by 50 different buyers. Private equity firms and their platforms made 82% of them. Their share has risen from 72% of the 32 deals in 2015 to 2020 to 86% of the 72 deals since 2021. The targets were in 10 countries: 65 in North America, 19 in the UK and Ireland, 14 in continental Europe, 5 in Australia and 1 in Latin America.
The two kinds of firm attract different buyers. Reading each target’s description, 58 of the 104 deals were power systems testing firms and 46 installation safety testing and thermography firms. Private equity-backed buyers made 91% of the power systems testing deals and 70% of the installation safety testing and thermography deals; strategic buyers made the other 30% of the installation deals.
| Power systems testing | Installation safety testing and thermography | |
|---|---|---|
| Deals since 2015 | 58 | 46 |
| Deals since 2021 | 38 | 34 |
| Share bought by private equity-backed buyers | 91% | 70% |
| Targets by region | 55 North America, 3 elsewhere | 18 UK and Ireland, 13 continental Europe, 10 North America, 5 Australia and Latin America |
Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket and own research), January 2015 to October 2026. Type assigned from each target’s description; condition monitoring firms are counted with installation safety testing and thermography.
Three of the five most frequent buyers, Resa Power, Shermco Industries and Integrated Power Services, are private equity-backed North American electrical services platforms with power systems testing arms. Two of them have changed hands themselves: Resa Power has had two private equity owners since 2021 and Shermco was sold to a large private equity fund in 2025; both platform sales are among the 104 deals. Sansidor and PTSG buy installation safety testing firms, in the Netherlands and the UK, and both buy more in other parts of TIC than in electrical testing (21 of Sansidor’s 26 deals and 6 of PTSG’s 11). The table shows each buyer’s electrical testing deals and its other TIC acquisitions since 2015, which add up to its total.
| Nabywca | Headquarters | Własność | Electrical testing deals | Other TIC deals | Total TIC deals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resa Power | USA | PE-backed (Kohlberg since 2025) | 17 | 1 | 18 |
| Sansidor | Holandia | PE-backed (IK Partners since 2024) | 5 | 21 | 26 |
| PTSG (Premier Technical Services Group) | Wielka Brytania | PE-backed (Macquarie since 2019) | 5 | 6 | 11 |
| Shermco Industries | USA | PE-backed (Blackstone since 2025) | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| Integrated Power Services | USA | PE-backed (Searchlight Capital) | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket and own research), January 2015 to October 2026. 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.
For an owner, the table points to two groups of buyer: North American platforms that add one NETA-type testing firm after another to fill out their regional coverage, and compliance groups for which an installation testing firm is one of many inspection acquisitions. All five are backed by private equity, so an approach will most likely come as an add-on offer, with questions about where your crews and customers sit on the buyer’s map. A private equity-backed buyer and a strategic buyer weigh a business differently and plan a different role for the owner after completion; see nabywcy strategiczni a finansowi.
If a Buyer Has Approached You
A call from a testing platform or a compliance group is the moment to work out what your business is worth, before anyone puts a number on the table. The four steps below help before any figure is discussed.
Know the range before the first offer. The public reference points are thin: one EBITDA multiple in this segment, five revenue multiples with a median of 1.7x, and a median of 9.5x EBITDA across 24 inspection deals whose median enterprise value is about $132M. Split your own revenue into testing and repair or parts first, because a buyer will price the two differently, and set your size against that $132M before you react to any figure.
Speak to more than one buyer. Since 2015, 50 different buyers have acquired electrical testing companies, and private equity-backed buyers made 86% of the 72 deals since 2021. A NETA platform filling a gap in its coverage and a compliance group entering a new country can put quite different values on the same crews and contracts, and offers from both kinds of buyer show what each one is worth to you.
Negotiate the terms as hard as the price. The cash paid at completion, any deferred or earn-out payment and what it is measured on, and the role the buyer expects you to play after the sale all change what you receive. The buyer will want your Level III and Level IV technicians or senior testers to stay, so settle retention terms for them, and for you, alongside the price.
Prepare what the buyer will ask for. Expect early requests for a technician list with certification levels, your NETA accreditation and scheme approvals with their change-of-control terms, revenue by service line and end market, the register of maintenance contracts and periodic testing cycles with renewal dates, and three years of safety statistics.
Metodologia
The deal counts cover control acquisitions of companies whose main business is electrical testing, worldwide, from January 2015 to October 2026: acceptance, maintenance and commissioning testing of power systems, and periodic testing of electrical installations and equipment, including thermography and condition monitoring firms whose work is mainly electrical inspection. Sales of a testing platform from one owner to another count as deals. Electrical contractors, repair and remanufacturing businesses, equipment makers, engineering design firms and laboratories that test electrical products are excluded. The deals are drawn from the Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket and own research), checked against the acquisition announcements of the most active North American platforms, and classified by the target’s own business. The split between power systems testing and installation safety testing is our reading of each target’s description. Our coverage of electrical testing acquisitions by the large European TIC groups is less complete than for the North American platforms, so European deals, and the share made by strategic buyers, are probably undercounted. Deal multiples are enterprise-value multiples from acquirer announcements, company filings and Mergermarket; distressed sales are excluded from the multiples. Most private electrical testing deals keep their price confidential, so the deals with a published multiple are a small and uneven sample of the segment.
Talk to Us
If you own an electrical testing business and a testing platform or compliance group has been in touch, speak to us before you accept an indicative offer or agree to exclusivity. We can tell you how buyers are likely to read your testing share of revenue, certified technicians, accreditations and maintenance contracts, which other buyers have been active in electrical testing, 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.
