Many inspection businesses are the work of a lifetime: years spent winning accreditations, training inspectors and earning the trust of clients who return every inspection cycle. When the time comes to sell, that work deserves a fair price, and getting one starts with knowing what comparable firms have sold for. Below are the deal prices for each inspection segment, how inspection compares with testing laboratories and certification, and the buyers behind them.
Inspection companies check that equipment, buildings, vehicles, cargo and industrial assets are safe and compliant: pressure vessels and lifts, welds and pipelines, fire safety systems, new buildings and homes, ships and commodity shipments. Much of the work is required by law or by insurers on a fixed schedule, so it repeats year after year. The market is fragmented and consolidating, and private equity firms or their platforms made 59% of the deals, and 66% of those since 2021.
The busiest buyers keep coming back to the market: Phenna Group has made 37 inspection acquisitions since 2015, DEKRA 35 and Alliance Technical Group 34. Each of them knows the price of every deal it has closed, while an owner sells once and has the public record to go on, where 126 of the 1,338 deals in our database disclose a value. This article gathers that record: what inspection companies sell for, how that compares with testing laboratories and certification bodies, the main inspection segments, and who is buying.
In short, inspection deals with a disclosed multiple have a median of about 9.5x EBITDA i 1.5x revenue. That is a little below the median for all TIC deals on both measures, 9.7x EBITDA and 1.8x revenue. Testing laboratories and certification bodies sell for higher multiples of both EBITDA and revenue.
Inspection Compared With Testing and Certification
Of the 1,338 inspection deals in our database, 126 disclose a value and 24 disclose enough to calculate an EV/EBITDA multiple. Those 24 are mostly larger deals, with a median enterprise value of about $132M, so smaller inspection firms should expect to sell below the medians shown. The interquartile range shows how widely individual deals vary.
| Kontrola | Testing laboratories | Certification bodies | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deals since 2015 | 1,338 | 1,246 | 194 |
| Mediana EV/EBITDA | 9.5x (24 deals) | 10.1x (24 deals) | 11.8x (5 deals) |
| Interquartile range, EV/EBITDA | 8.0x to 11.2x | 8.0x to 12.9x | 9.7x to 23.8x |
| Mediana EV/Przychody | 1.5x (62 deals) | 2.4x (72 deals) | 2.0x (7 deals) |
| Mediana wielkości transakcji | $14.6M (126 deals) | $13.4M (128 deals) | $6.7M (27 deals) |
| Share of deals by private equity buyers | 59% | 42% | 41% |
Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket, acquirer announcements and own research), January 2015 to October 2026. Segments classified by the target’s main business. Disclosed enterprise-value multiples only. 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).
On EBITDA, inspection, testing and certification sell within 2.3 turns of each other (9.5x to 11.8x, the certification figure resting on five deals), with inspection lowest. On revenue, inspection also sits lower: 1.5x, against 2.4x for testing laboratories and 2.0x for certification bodies. A revenue multiple equals the EBITDA multiple times the EBITDA margin. Against both testing laboratories and certification bodies, the revenue gap is wider than the EBITDA gap, which points to lower margins in inspection, mostly field work billed by the inspector’s time. Deal sizes differ as well: the median certification body deal is $6.7M, against $14.6M for inspection and $13.4M for testing laboratories. If you are weighing an offer, set it against EBITDA first, where the three groups sit closest, then turn to your segment’s page below for figures nearer your own business.
Inspection Segments
The table splits the 1,338 deals by segment, each target classified by its main business. Each linked segment has its own page with multiples, value drivers and buyers.
| Segment | Deals since 2015 | Since 2021 | Private equity share | Mediana wielkości transakcji |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NDT and welding inspection | 170 | 93 | 49% | $14.2M (32 deals) |
| Asset integrity and industrial inspection | 161 | 91 | 49% | $14.3M (11 deals) |
| Building and construction inspection | 148 | 100 | 74% | $5.7M (8 deals) |
| Stack testing and field environmental monitoring | 136 | 87 | 60% | $7.6M (13 deals) |
| Electrical testing and inspection | 104 | 72 | 82% | $15.2M (7 deals) |
| Vehicle inspection | 90 | 42 | 13% | $19.8M (15 deals) |
| Fire safety engineering and inspection | 86 | 60 | 74% | n/a |
| Lifting and pressure equipment inspection | 75 | 57 | 63% | $4.7M (5 deals) |
| Field construction materials testing and special inspection | 75 | 47 | 51% | $21.0M (16 deals) |
| Asbestos and legionella surveying | 72 | 54 | 57% | $6.0M (3 deals) |
| On-site calibration and scale service | 71 | 54 | 79% | n/a |
| Cleanroom certification | 64 | 48 | 84% | $10.6M (4 deals) |
| Marine, cargo and commodity inspection | 64 | 31 | 53% | $21.6M (7 deals) |
| Supply-chain and product quality inspection | 22 | 9 | 32% | n/a |
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 field services in the table were added on 22 Oct 2026. Stack testing has its own page, and the unlinked rows have yet to get pages of their own. Their main work is done at the customer’s site: stack testing firms measure emissions from industrial stacks and monitor air and water around the plant; asbestos and legionella surveyors check buildings for asbestos and water systems for legionella; field construction materials testing and special inspection firms test concrete, soil and steel and inspect structural work on construction sites; on-site calibration and scale service firms calibrate instruments and weighing equipment where they are used; cleanroom certification firms test cleanrooms and controlled environments in pharmaceutical, hospital and electronics facilities; supply-chain inspectors check goods and audit factories at suppliers before shipment.
On-site calibration and scale service and lifting and pressure equipment inspection are consolidating fastest: 54 of 71 and 57 of 75 deals came after 2020, and private equity firms or their platforms made 85% and 72% of those recent deals. Vehicle inspection has the highest share of strategic buyers, who made six in seven of its deals.
What Drives an Inspection Company Valuation
A buyer tests each of these points in due diligence, and each one moves an inspection business up or down the valuation range. Several are slow to change, so the time to work on them is well before a sale.
Recurring, mandated work. Inspections required by law, insurers or customers on a fixed cycle, such as lifting equipment, pressure systems and fire safety systems, give a buyer visible revenue. Show how much of the business is periodic and how long customers have stayed.
Accreditations and authorizations. ISO/IEC 17020 accreditation, notified body or approved inspection body status, and customer approvals take years to obtain and limit competition. A buyer will check whether they stay with the business after a change of ownership. Keep a list of every accreditation and approval, the entity that holds it and what its terms say about a new owner.
Qualified inspectors. Inspection capacity depends on certified and authorized people. A business that depends on the owner or a small group of senior inspectors carries key-person risk. A broad team with documented qualifications supports the valuation. A register of each inspector’s certifications, authorizations and renewal dates answers the buyer’s first question on staff.
End-market mix. Buyers discount heavy dependence on one cyclical end market, such as oil and gas, and pay more for a spread across power, infrastructure, buildings, manufacturing and the public sector. Set out what share of revenue each end market and each of your largest customers brings in.
Size and local position. Smaller firms are usually bought as add-ons by platforms that already cover the region or segment, at lower multiples. A business with a strong local position in a segment a platform wants to enter is in a better negotiating position.
Who Is Buying Inspection Companies
Inspection M&A is spread across the world. More than two in five of the targets since 2015 were in North America, more than a quarter in continental Europe and a sixth in the UK and Ireland, with the rest in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Private equity-backed platforms and the large TIC groups are the main buyers, and several of them buy across many inspection segments at once. The five most active buyers since 2015:
| Nabywca | Headquarters | Własność | Inspection deals | Inspection segments covered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phenna Group | Wielka Brytania | PE-backed | 37 | 9 |
| DEKRA | Niemcy | Strategiczny | 35 | 3 |
| Alliance Technical Group | USA | PE-backed | 34 | 2 |
| Trescal | Francja | PE-backed | 28 | 3 |
| SGS | Szwajcaria | Strategic (listed) | 26 | 10 |
Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database (Mergermarket, acquirer announcements and own research), January 2015 to October 2026. Deals are counted at the level of the ultimate buyer group.
Most of the five buy in several segments, so the group that approaches you may already own a business next to yours. Whether it is a strategic group or a private equity-backed platform changes what it will pay for and what it will ask of you after closing; see nabywcy strategiczni a finansowi.
If a Buyer Has Approached You
A call from one of these buyers, or from a platform active in your segment, is the point to work out what your business is worth. Where your segment has its own page, linked in the segment table, it has the figures for each step below.
Know the range before the first offer. Begin with your segment’s median deal size, which runs from $4.7M in lifting and pressure equipment inspection to $21.6M in marine, cargo and commodity inspection among the segments where at least 3 deals disclose a value. The 24 inspection deals with an EBITDA multiple had a median enterprise value of about $132M, so expect a smaller firm to price below the 9.5x median.
Speak to more than one buyer. Since 2015, 507 different buyers have bought inspection companies, and private equity firms or their platforms made 66% of the deals since 2021. Inviting both a TIC group and a platform gives you two independent readings of the same business.
Negotiate the terms as hard as the price. The cash paid at closing, any deferred or earn-out payment and the figure it is measured on, and the role the buyer wants you and your senior inspectors to play afterwards together decide what you keep from the sale.
Prepare what the buyer will ask for. Your accreditations and approvals with their change-of-control terms, the inspector register, the share of revenue from periodic mandated inspections, and the length and renewal dates of your main contracts.
Metodologia
The figures cover acquisitions of companies whose main business is inspection, worldwide, from January 2015 to October 2026, drawn from the Aventis Advisors TIC deal database. The database combines Mergermarket with our own research, including a review of the most active buyers’ own acquisition announcements. Each target is assigned to one segment by its main business, using the database classification and a line-by-line review of each segment’s deals. Inspection also includes field firms whose main work is at the customer’s site (stack testing, asbestos and legionella surveying, field construction materials testing and special inspection, on-site calibration and scale service, cleanroom certification, supply-chain inspection), classified deal by deal. Testing laboratories (laboratory-based testing only), certification bodies are grouped separately and covered on our testing laboratory valuations i certification body valuations pages; training providers are excluded. Geotechnical and ground investigation firms, EHS consultancies, survey and mapping firms, R&D test facilities, and maintenance and repair contractors are excluded from all three groups. Fire protection installation and maintenance contractors are excluded; a few companies whose business is led by inspection and testing are counted. Duplicate records are excluded. Deal multiples are enterprise-value multiples; most private inspection deals close at undisclosed values, so the deals with a published multiple skew toward larger transactions.
Talk to Us
If you own an inspection business and a buyer has been in touch, speak to us before you accept an indicative offer or grant exclusivity. We can show you how buyers in your segment are likely to value your accreditations, inspectors and recurring work, which of them have been active recently, and whether a sale makes 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. We are happy to start with an informal conversation. Contact us at contact@aventis-advisors.com or see our M&A advisory for TIC companies.
