valuation
Transaction multiples are valuation ratios implied by announced or completed M&A deals—usually EV/EBITDA or EV/revenue on the consideration. They price control (and often synergies), and they must be rebuilt from deal terms, not copied from a headline.
Transaction multiples are the ratios implied when a buyer actually paid (or firmly agreed to pay) for a stake. They are the numerical output of precedent transactions: rebuilt enterprise value divided by a reconstructed driver.
Transaction EV/EBITDA = deal EV / target EBITDA (defined as of the deal)
They systematically differ from trading multiples: control, auction heat, synergies, information advantage, and financing windows all sit in the print. A 1–2 turn premium to the tape is common; a 5-turn premium needs a synergy or scarcity story.
Press "deal value" may be equity value, may include earn-outs at the cap, may ignore leases, may double-count JVs. Professional EV includes the stake-equivalent of net debt, leases, NCI, and the probability-weighted earn-out you actually believe—not the PR maximum. If only 70% was acquired, do not treat the implied 100% EV as a vanilla control multiple without reading the shareholder agreement.
Invented announcement: "€40m deal for SafetyCo". Illustration only.
| Adjustment | €m |
|---|---|
| Headline "deal value" (equity) | 40.0 |
| Net debt assumed | 8.5 |
| Earn-out (probability-weighted) | 3.0 |
| Leases not in headline | 2.0 |
| Rebuilt EV | 53.5 |
| Adjusted EBITDA used in CIM vs reported | 5.0 vs 4.4 |
| Multiple on CIM EBITDA | 10.7x |
| Multiple on reported | 12.2x |
Citing "10.7x" without the EBITDA definition is how the next seller over-reaches. Citing 12.2x as "the market" without the earn-out is how the next buyer overpays.
Bankers pitch transaction multiples as proof of "what the market pays". Sponsors should split financial vs strategic prints. Strategics should ask how much of the multiple is cost synergy they uniquely have. Debt packages that assume you can exit at last cycle's transaction multiple are a different, dangerous object.
Small samples, incomplete terms, survival bias (failed processes never print). Cross-border deals embed different labour and tax. Transaction multiples will not tell you the IRR at your leverage and your hold period.
Dazur rebuilds transaction multiples from primary sources when they exist, and labels them "thin evidence" when they do not. We split buyer type on every precedents page. A mid-market owner is not priced by a mega-cap strategic print unless the economics—and the synergy—are truly the same.