Testing, inspection, and certification (TIC, also written TICC when compliance services are included) is a fragmented sector, with many small testing laboratories and certification bodies operating independently. If you are a business owner in the TIC industry, chances are you are facing an increased number of acquisition inquiries from investors. It has become common for strategic buyers to acquire and consolidate the fragmented TIC market.
Additionally, as regulatory bodies become increasingly involved in various businesses and with a growing focus on quality and compliance, the TIC market has become a prime target for mergers and acquisitions. This is why understanding the M&A in TIC and TIC company valuations is more important than ever for buyers and sellers, and the deals themselves are increasingly labeled TICC.
In this comprehensive article, we will try to understand everything about the TIC industry, from the basic definition of a TIC business to why there is a wave of M&A in TIC and what valuation you can expect when selling your TIC company.
So, let’s begin!
What is a TIC business?
TIC is a service-oriented business that tests, inspects, and certifies its clients’ business activities to ensure that products, processes, systems, or services meet specified requirements and standards.
Put simply, TIC businesses are responsible for testing and inspecting your business, and if all your activities comply with legal and regulatory standards, they will provide you with a certificate to continue your operations.
What does a TICC company do?
The four major activities of TIC companies are:
- Testing: This involves both laboratory and field testing. For example, medical tests in a laboratory or food and agricultural produce tests to ensure the highest quality and compliance with safety standards
- Inspection: A few sectors are highly regulated, such as marine, aviation, industrial, energy, and more. Companies in these sectors are legally required to undergo periodic inspections and audits of their activities, which accredited TIC companies carry out.
- Certification: Certification bodies attest against globally recognized standards, such as ISO 9001 for management systems and HACCP for food safety. TIC companies are authorized to issue these certifications to their clients after ensuring all the requirements for the certificate are met.
- Compliance: Regulatory and quality audits, EHS and management-system consulting, and the platforms that hold the evidence trail (the added C when the sector is written TICC). Unlike certification, this work advises the client rather than attesting to a standard, which is why accreditation rules keep the two apart.
The services of TIC companies are needed across all sectors. The biggest uses of TIC services are in oil and gas, building, construction, engineering, food and agriculture, life sciences, transportation, aerospace, marine, renewable energy, business management, automotive, and industrials. Like most industries, these sectors rely on TIC services to consolidate risk and compliance data streams and ensure compliance with regulations.
Why is the TIC sector attractive for M&A?
TIC M&A deals happen for a few reasons: consolidating market share, buying niche technical capabilities, or entering new geographies and end markets.
By acquiring specialized TIC firms, larger companies can diversify their portfolios, leverage synergies, and achieve economies of scale, thereby driving growth and profitability through operating leverage.
Private equity investors are particularly interested in the TIC sector because it offers opportunities for ‘buy-and-build’ strategies, meaning acquiring several smaller companies and growing their combined business value. They do so by cross-selling more TIC services to the same customer base or optimizing costs.
If you own a TIC company and are planning an exit in a few months or years from now, you need to know who can acquire your business. In the following section, we have mapped the top acquirers in TIC.
Furthermore, the mission-critical nature of TIC services means they are indispensable for client businesses’ operational continuity and reputation management, ensuring sustained demand, a feature loved by PE investors in TIC space.
How compliance services change the valuation case
Compliance services sit around the test itself: regulatory and quality audits, EHS and management system consulting, and the software platforms that hold the evidence trail. In a sale process this mix matters for three reasons. Compliance revenue is more often recurring, because audits and subscriptions renew on a cycle rather than being won test by test. It is less capital intensive than laboratory testing, so more of the EBITDA converts to cash. And it attracts a different buyer set, because consulting and software acquirers compete for the same asset alongside the TIC majors. Sellers with a meaningful compliance line should expect the buyer list, and the multiple discussion, to reflect it. Our decade of TIC M&A deal data shows how steady that buyer demand has been.
Top acquirers in the TIC industry
The TIC M&A landscape is dominated by listed strategic companies such as Bureau Veritas, Eurofins, Intertek, SGS, and others. Those have diversified services, international operations and a recognizable brand. Their clients are multinational corporations that require a wide variety of services across the globe, so M&A is one of the major ways they develop their service and geographical offering.
Overview of most active acquirers in the TIC industry
Privately held groups are also among the most recognizable market players: some, such as Normec Group, are backed by private equity, while Apave and the TUV organizations are majority-owned by associations and foundations.
From our conversations with buyers and sellers in the TIC segment, we at Aventis see an ongoing consolidation wave in the TIC sector, with smaller niche players being absorbed by the larger ones. Due to the competition for the deals among many buyers, the valuations are currently particularly attractive to the sellers.
Some of the largest acquirers in the TIC industry over the past decade include:
1. Eurofins Scientific SE
Company overview: Eurofins Scientific SE provides worldwide analytical testing and laboratory services, specializing in ensuring product safety, composition, authenticity, and regulatory compliance across multiple industries. The company is headquartered in Luxembourg and employs around 65,000 people. Eurofins has made close to 380 acquisitions over the past decade, more than any other buyer in the sector.
Recent acquisitions: Medical testing, water testing and inspection, pharmaceutical inspection, and microbiology testing companies
2. SGS SA
Company overview: SGS SA provides worldwide inspection, testing, and verification services across various industries. The company is headquartered in Switzerland and employs more than 100,000 people. SGS has completed close to 100 acquisitions over the past decade.
Recent acquisitions: Pharmaceutical testing and inspection, security systems evaluation, clinical testing, and environmental testing laboratories
3. Bureau Veritas
Company overview: Bureau Veritas is a world leader in laboratory testing, inspection, and certification services. Founded in 1828, the Group has more than 83,000 employees located in more than 1,600 offices and laboratories worldwide. Bureau Veritas has completed around 60 acquisitions over the past decade.
Recent acquisitions: Electrical testing and inspection, building certification, management consulting and certification, and chemical testing companies
Private TIC company valuations
For a privately owned TIC business, the clearest guide to value is what buyers have paid for similar companies. The table summarizes 2,841 acquisitions of TIC companies since 2015, split into inspection, testing laboratories and certification. Each subsector links to a page with segment-level multiples, the factors that move value and who is buying.
| Subsector | Deals since 2015 | Median EV/EBITDA (deals) | Median EV/Revenue (deals) | Median deal size (deals) | Private equity share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inspection companies | 1,376 | 9.5x (25) | 1.6x (63) | $15.0M (127) | 60% |
| Testing laboratories | 1,271 | 10.1x (24) | 2.4x (72) | $13.4M (128) | 42% |
| Certification bodies | 194 | 11.8x (5) | 2.0x (7) | $6.7M (27) | 41% |
| All TIC deals | 2,841 | 9.9x (54) | 1.8x (142) | $13.4M (282) | 50% |
In EBITDA terms, the first band covers firms with up to about $6M of EBITDA.
Listed TIC company valuations
The ten largest TIC companies globally are profiled separately.
Now that you know TIC is a growing segment for M&A activity, a logical next question if you own a TIC business would be, “What is the value of my TIC company?”. This section deals with answering this very question. If your business is mainly inspection, our inspection company valuations break the multiples down by inspection segment, and our NDT valuation multiples cover non-destructive testing firms. If it is mainly laboratory testing, our testing laboratory valuations break them down by kind of laboratory. If it is mainly certification, our certification body valuations compare ISO, product and food certifiers. Firms that work alongside TIC have their own pages too: environmental consultancies, geotechnical engineering firms, safety training companies, health and safety consultancies and sustainability and carbon consultancies.
TIC companies operate under a fairly simple business model. They have a streamlined approach (especially in management system certification or other TIC subsectors where there is minimal need for testing labs and instruments) to deliver quality services and ensure regulatory compliance across diverse industries.
TIC represents an attractive sector for strategic buyers and private equity investors due to its potential for M&A activity, market growth drivers, and opportunities for platform synergies and arbitrage. The stable, contract-based revenue streams from diverse industries provide predictable and reliable income, further enhancing the appeal for investors. This makes it easy to value the company based on its profits (multiples valuation) or forecast future cash flows (DCF method).
TIC company valuation: EV/EBITDA
We started with a sample of 10 publicly traded testing, inspection, and certification (TIC) companies as a benchmark for valuation. The sample is now eight companies. Applus Services dropped out when it was delisted following a buyout by Amber EquityCo, and Marlowe followed when Mitie completed its acquisition of the business in August 2025.
As of August 2026, the median valuation of a publicly traded TIC company was 14.0x EV/EBITDA.
However, in private TIC M&A deals, the valuations paid usually include a private company discount that considers the higher risk of private markets, the illiquidity premium, and the lack of comprehensively reported data only made available and analyzed during a transaction’s due diligence phase.
Starting in 2017, the valuation of Testing, Inspection, and Certification companies began to rise, peaking at 17.5x EBITDA in October 2017. This was likely driven by increased market optimism, a pull-forward effect on sales, digital transformation, and growth prospects in the TIC sector.
The growing need for companies to comply with regulatory standards and obtain certifications for quality, safety, and environmental sustainability further drove demand for TIC services. This trend was particularly pronounced in the pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, automotive, and electronics industries.
However, the valuations fell sharply to 12.5x by March 2020, reflecting the market’s reaction to the economic uncertainty brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced client spending on TIC vendors, as evident by the slowing revenue growth during this period.
The pandemic dip proved short lived. The deeper de-rating came later: multiples slid through 2022 and bottomed at 10.3x in October 2023, as higher interest rates compressed valuations across business services. The sector has since recovered steadily, and at 14.0x it is now trading slightly above its own decade average
.Over the last decade, the long-term average valuation of a TIC company was 13.9x EV/EBITDA. That figure reflects the largest listed diversified groups, not private businesses. Private companies trade below these listed levels, and the discount grows as size and liquidity fall. In private deals the all-TIC median is 9.9x EV/EBITDA (54 deals), with the multiple driven by scale, breadth of accreditation, how much of the revenue recurs, customer concentration and how well the business runs without its owner. Structure matters too, since earn-outs and deferred consideration shape how much of the headline number is actually received at completion.
Revenue growth
Before 2020, the TIC sector had benefited from secular tailwinds driven by digital transformation initiatives and heightened regulatory and quality standards. This effect accelerated demand for TIC services as companies sought to ensure compliance and enhance operational efficiency.
The revenue growth of TIC companies slowed down massively from 2020 to early 2021. This was due to customers of TIC vendors reducing their expenditure on testing, inspection, and certification due to business stoppages, supply-chain disruptions, or cost-cutting initiatives, and all of these affected TIC valuations.
However, not all TIC companies experienced a slowdown. Those who served healthcare or pharmaceutical clients experienced higher business volumes and demand during this time.
TIC companies staged an impressive recovery starting from the second half of 2021 when lockdowns were slowly lifted, supply chain disruptions lessened, and clients went back to spending on TIC vendors.
Growth peaked at 16% in mid-2022 and then normalized. Since 2023 the median has run in a 1% to 7% band, and it stood at 5% in August 2026, which is exactly the long-run average for the group. In other words, the sector is back to the steady mid-single-digit organic growth that made it attractive to buyers in the first place, and the swings of the pandemic years now look like an interruption rather than a change of trend.
TIC Valuation drivers: EBITDA margin or Revenue growth
Over the past decade, publicly traded Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC) companies have consistently demonstrated remarkably stable EBITDA margins that can be attributed to the competitive nature of the business, with some significant barriers to entry.
While EBITDA margin is a very important metric for TIC companies, it is not easy to sustain a margin that is abnormal relative to the industry. Across the listed group the median margin has stayed inside an 18% to 22% band for the whole decade, averaging 19%, and it stood at 21% in August 2026. Thus, revenue growth becomes a key valuation driver for TIC businesses.
In our research, we found that given two TIC companies with identical operational metrics and market conditions, the one demonstrating higher year-over-year (YoY) revenue growth will achieve a higher valuation compared to a company with stagnant or declining revenues.
Investors and analysts view revenue growth as a sign of a company’s market demand, competitive strength, and ability to scale. It reflects the company’s current performance and potential, making it more attractive to investors.
Specifically, our analysis found that a 10% increase in the expected two-year revenue growth is associated with an increase of roughly 1.0x in the EBITDA multiple. This multiplier effect underscores how revenue growth expectations can drive considerable value appreciation in the TIC sector.
About Aventis Advisors
Aventis Advisors is a boutique M&A advisory firm advising on transactions with typical enterprise values between $5M and $100M. We run competitive sale processes for owners of TIC businesses and advise TIC groups on acquisitions: we advised Apave on its acquisitions of ISOCERT and De Duurzame Adviseurs, so we know how TIC buyers build their offers. See our TIC M&A advisory.
We believe the world would be better off with fewer (but better quality) M&A deals done at the right moment for the company and its owners. Our goal is to provide honest, insight-driven advice, clearly laying out all the options for our clients, including the one to keep the status quo.
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 your business is worth. If a buyer has approached you, talk to us before you reply, agree a price or sign a letter of intent: we prepare the business, approach the TIC groups and private equity platforms most likely to pay for it, bring their offers to a single deadline and negotiate the terms through to closing. Write to us at marcin.majewski@aventis-advisors.com. The first conversation is confidential.
What is your firm worth?
Send us three numbers: revenue, EBITDA and revenue growth rate. Within two working days we show you in confidence how your firm measures up against 2,841 TIC deals, which buyer groups have acquired firms 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.
Methodology
The private-deal figures cover majority acquisitions of testing, inspection and certification companies worldwide since January 2015, each counted once, in the subsector of its main business.
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. Medians are shown where at least five deals disclose the figure, and ranges where at least ten do. 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.
Listed-company figures come from S&P Capital IQ as of August 2026, for SGS, Bureau Veritas, Eurofins Scientific, Intertek, ALS, Montrose Environmental Group, Mistras Group and UL Solutions. The chart of the most active acquirers combines Mergermarket with each company’s own disclosures, over each company’s own disclosure window, so its counts are indicative rather than strictly comparable.
