Support Services

Our support services sector team combines an extensive range of experience across the consulting, recruitment, aviation, warehousing, transport, freight, rolling stock and ports industries. 

Members of our advisory team have worked in an operational, management or advisory capacity for a wide variety of companies in this broad sector, including:

The following 3 graphs will give private business owners a broad indication of the value of their business:

1. The Enterprise Value to EBITDA* multiples on which comparable listed companies are trading

At the end of H2 2019, the global, all market average Enterprise Value to EBITDA multiple for listed Support Services companies was 13.2x.† This was slightly down compared to the previous six months but up on the previous year, when listed Support Services  companies were trading on a multiple of 12.9x. Within the Support Services sector, trading multiples varied between 11.9x and 18.3x across the range of sub-sectors. Smaller businesses generally traded on lower multiples.

* EBITDA is Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation
† Note, the Enterprise Value to EBITDA multiples above are for listed businesses. By comparison privately owned businesses are generally valued at a discount. Listed company data was accurate at 10/01/2020.

2. The multiple of EBITDA paid by acquirers of comparable businesses

The average multiple† of EBITDA* paid globally in Support Services transactions has  remained fairly steady over the past few years.It currently stands at 11.4x. When reviewing these multiples we break out businesses in the range $5-150m, as they tend to have unique attributes which affect their valuation. Smaller businesses have generally been sold on lower multiples.

* EBITDA is Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation
†Note, the transaction multiples above are calculated from raw historic data. This typically understates profits and therefore valuations actually achieved are generally at lower multiples of “normalised” profits.

3. The volume of M&A transactions and acquisitions

In H2 2019, there were 3,230 transactions globally in the Support Services sector. This is up on the preceding 6 months, when there were 2,930 transactions. The number of transactions per 6 months has remained fairly consistent over the last 6 years, suggesting there remains plenty of interested buyers in the market.

For further information as to how these valuations and statistics are computed, and their impact on your transaction, please contact us.