The single most useful thing an FM owner can grasp before a sale is that there is no one buyer. From the conversations I have, most owners picture a single acquirer, usually a larger rival. In reality there are four distinct buyer types active in 2026, each with a different motive and a different price logic. Knowing which one your business fits changes how you prepare and what you emphasise.
One: The Private Equity Backed Platform
At the top of the market sit the PE-backed integrated platforms. The clearest example is OCS, now a Clayton, Dubilier & Rice portfolio company following the 2023 combination with Atalian Servest at roughly £2.5 billion enterprise value, running around 135,000 employees globally and still acquiring.
Platforms buy for scale, geographic coverage, self-delivery capability and a route into new client sectors. They want businesses with management depth and systems that can absorb further acquisitions, so they tend to be most interested in larger, well-run operations. If your business has a strong second-tier management team and the infrastructure to be a regional hub, this is your buyer.
Two: The International Bolt-On Group
Large national and international groups make bolt-on acquisitions to add specialisms to contracts they already hold. Mitie has kept up a steady bolt-on programme through 2025 and into 2026, adding Marlowe's testing and inspection division in 2025 and Elteamvest in April 2026 among others. Bidvest Noonan, which acquired Nexgen Group in 2024 and migrated the brand in 2025, is another active consolidator.
These buyers are adding a capability, in M&E maintenance, cleaning, grounds or compliance services, to an existing client base. For them, the attraction is a specialism they can plug into contracts they already run. A focused, well-accredited single-specialism business often reads more clearly to a bolt-on buyer than a sprawling generalist one.
Three: The Institutional Investor
Institutional investors are the newest and, this year, the loudest. In June 2026 Investcorp agreed a majority stake in Smart Managed Solutions, an M&E maintenance specialist with over £100 million revenue and more than 30 per cent annual organic growth, in a deal reported to be worth more than 200 million dollars.
Funds like these back high-growth, compliance-led specialists where recurring revenue is visible and growth is organic rather than acquired. They usually take a majority or significant stake and keep the existing management in place to keep building. If your business is growing strongly on recurring, statutory work, you are the profile they screen for.
Four: The Adjacent Trade Buyer
Trade buyers from adjacent sectors complete the map. Security groups, M&E contractors and property services firms buy FM revenue to widen what they can offer their existing clients. The attraction is cross-sell: a maintenance book they can plug into a client base they already serve.
These are often the buyers that value a regional, single-specialism business most highly, because it fills a specific gap in their offer. A modest business in the right niche can matter more to a trade buyer than a bigger one in the wrong one.
What This Means for You
Prices across all four have held in the 4x to 7x EBITDA range for established businesses with multi-year contracts, rising to 6x to 10x for larger operations with blue-chip rosters and long terms. Those are market observations, not a promise for any one business. Where you land is set long before negotiation, by contract quality, client mix and which buyer you are the best fit for. That map, and the four forces behind it, is set out in full in my August market briefing for FM owners.
Not sure which buyer type your business fits? A free, confidential valuation is the place to start, at facilitiesmanagementbusinessforsale.co.uk/valuation.html. No obligation.
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