What multiple do serial acquirers really pay for small companies?

Which serial acquirers disclose what they pay?

Few do, and none discloses every deal. Judges Scientific, a UK-listed group of instrument businesses, publishes stock exchange announcements for its acquisitions, usually with the price and the target's adjusted profit. Lifco, a Swedish group, publishes aggregate consideration and acquired profit in its yearly acquisition note. Addtech reports aggregate consideration and an estimate of the acquired businesses' full-year operating profit, but no per-deal prices (Addtech year-end report 2025/26). Constellation Software states that a number of acquisitions were completed and gives total consideration, not per-deal prices (Constellation Q4 2025 release).

So a table of "what serial acquirers pay" can only use a few named examples. That is a small sample and it leans toward one company. Read it as evidence of a range, not as a market average.

What do the disclosed deals show?

• Heath Scientific, 29 May 2020 (Judges): £5.3M cash initial consideration, plus an earn-out of up to £2.0M. Adjusted EBIT was £879,000 for the year to 30 April 2019. £5.3M / £0.879M = 6.0x (Judges announcement).
• Rockwash Geodata, 28 June 2024 (Judges): £2.25M cash initial, with a maximum of £6M. The earn-out is set at six times adjusted EBIT for 2024, or 2025 if higher, less the £2.25M. Judges disclosed only that Rockwash had slightly positive EBITDA in 2023 and £0.1M of EBIT in the first four months of 2024, so no multiple can be computed (Judges announcement).
• Magsputter (owner of Teer Coatings), 15 August 2024 (Judges): £12.3M cash initial, set at six times adjusted EBIT plus an independent valuation of the property the business owns. Adjusted EBIT was £1.74M for the year to 31 January 2024, after notional rent on that property, and net assets were £6.0M. The operating business was priced at 6.0x by construction; including the property, £12.3M / £1.74M = 7.1x (Judges announcement).
• Lifco, 2025 (16 businesses): consideration SEK 4,141M, of which SEK 596M was not yet paid because of put and call options. The note reports SEK 268M of EBITA added since consolidation and SEK 329M more if consolidated from 1 January 2025. SEK 4,141M / (268 + 329 = SEK 597M) = 6.9x. Lifco does not report that ratio; it is my arithmetic and assumes the two figures add to a full year (Lifco year-end report 2025). Estimated annual sales of the acquired businesses were about SEK 2.2bn, so the price was about 1.9x sales.
• Addtech, year to 31 March 2026 (nine businesses): consideration SEK 2,056M, of which SEK 387M was not yet paid. Addtech estimates that, had all the deals been completed on 1 April 2025, they would have added about SEK 220M of operating profit. SEK 2,056M / SEK 220M = 9.3x, my arithmetic, not a figure Addtech reports (Addtech year-end report 2025/26).

Constellation's president's letter withholds acquisition detail by design, saying it limits the information it discloses about its acquisition activity (2017 letter).

Why do these differ from broker multiples?

They measure different things. Broker data for small businesses is often priced on seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), which adds back the owner's pay. Serial acquirers quote EBIT or EBITA. An SDE multiple and an EBIT multiple are not comparable; see SDE vs EBITDA. For private-market ranges by size and for the add-on premium, see add-on vs platform multiples and what multiple arbitrage is. I do not repeat those figures here.

What do the disclosed multiples leave out?

• Earn-outs. Heath's 6.0x uses the initial £5.3M. If the full £2.0M were paid, the price would be £7.3M, or 8.3x the same £879,000.
• Profit date. Heath's profit was for a year that ended 13 months before the deal. Magsputter's was for the year to January 2024.
• Adjustments. Judges adjusts EBIT for non-recurring items and its own cost base, and Magsputter's was after notional rent.
• Property and deferred amounts. Magsputter's 7.1x includes the property. Lifco's and Addtech's totals include put/call options or consideration not yet paid.
• Cash and working capital. Judges' Heath announcement allows an extra payment for excess cash, and its Magsputter announcement one for excess working capital.

Worked example (assumptions). A group pays 7x adjusted EBIT for a business earning $1.0M, so $7.0M. The pre-tax yield is 14.3%. At an assumed 25% tax rate it is 10.7% after tax, before growth or integration cost. If the same earnings sit in a group the market values at a higher multiple, the gap is the multiple arbitrage described in the linked article. The test is whether the yield clears your hurdle in the hurdle rate article.

Where these numbers come from: Judges deal terms are from its announcements for Heath Scientific, Rockwash and Magsputter. Lifco figures are from its year-end report 2025. Addtech is from its year-end report 2025/26, dated 20 May 2026. Constellation is from its Q4 2025 release and 2017 letter. The multiples are the site's arithmetic.

Related questions

Is 6 to 9x operating profit the going rate for a small business?

No. It is what these named groups disclosed for a few deals and one year of aggregates. Small owner-run companies often sell on SDE multiples, and larger platforms sell for more. Use these as a reference point, not a price list.

Why do serial acquirers use earn-outs?

Rockwash shows the logic: part of the price was tied to future adjusted EBIT at six times. The seller is paid more only if the profit appears. See earn-outs explained.

Does Constellation pay a different multiple?

Its filings do not say. The president's letters withhold deal-level detail, so any figure attributed to it needs a source other than the company.

What comes next

After you buy at a price like this, the next choice is where the cash goes: Dividend, buyback or acquisition.

Related articles

• What hurdle rate should a serial acquirer use?
• What is ROIC (or ROTIC), and why do serial acquirers obsess over it?
• What's the multiple difference between an add-on and a platform?
• What is multiple arbitrage and how do roll-ups create value?
• Judges Scientific: a tiny AIM listing that became a buy-and-build

Meraki Dealmakers is a service of Meraki Partners, LLC, an advisory firm. It is not a broker-dealer, investment adviser, business broker, law firm or accounting firm. This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.