Sell a General Contractors business

Owner-operator general contractors businesses trade at 2.5x–4.5x SDE for typical $500K–$3M SDE ranges. At $3M+ EBITDA scale the same operators sell at 4.5x–8x EBITDA. Multiples in this category are ebitda-based and data-sourced from AGC / FMI Construction Industry M&A Report 2025 + IBBA Q4 2024. Where you land in the range is driven by growth trajectory, revenue mix, customer concentration, and management-team depth beyond the owner.

Sundt Construction, Suffolk Construction, PCL Construction, and PE-backed platforms (Wynnchurch, Sun Capital) are among the strategic acquirers. Active buyer archetypes in construction include National contractor / vertical integrator, Construction PE platform, Family office / long-hold. Which of these bids for your business depends on scale — sub-$1M SDE is typically individual or search-fund territory, $1-3M SDE opens up PE platforms and strategics, and $3M+ EBITDA gets full LMM buyer attention.

Commercial general contractors with negotiated-work (CM-at-risk, design-build) revenue mix above 60%, strong backlog visibility, and repeat-client concentration trade at premium — the negotiated book is meaningfully more valuable than pure hard-bid. Beyond the industry-specific factor, the universal drivers in construction are bonding capacity and clean surety-carrier relationship; multi-year project backlog with reputable gcs / owners; union / prevailing-wage workforce where applicable (or explicitly non-union).

General contractors carry substantial project-liability exposure (delay claims, defect litigation) and heavy working-capital retention receivables; buyers scrutinize your claim history and job-cost discipline. Buyers in this category also standardly scrutinize project profitability variance and buried job losses and bonding capacity limits growth. Addressing these in advance in a well-prepared CIM materially reduces retrade risk during diligence.

Typical transaction range for general contractors is $5.0M–$200M in annual revenue. Below that, buyer pool narrows to individual and small-search-fund. Above that, PE platforms and strategics dominate. NAICS code 236220 — buyers screen by NAICS in most deal sources.

From the day you engage a broker to close, expect 6–12 months for a well-prepared business in construction. The prep work — financial cleanup, addbacks documentation, key-employee retention agreements, real estate lease sorting — is where 3-6 months of the timeline hides. Starting that early is what separates a full-multiple exit from a discounted one.