Churchill Aggregate
A strong owner-managed business sold on its own is priced as a small company. Churchill Mergers brings three to six profitable businesses in one sector together and takes them to investors as a single proposition, while each owner carries on owning and running their own company exactly as they do now.
The value gap
The same profit, the same margins, the same quality of earnings. One sells at around three times earnings and the other at closer to eight. The difference is not how well they are run. It is size.
Indicative market ranges, not a forecast. Survey data across the UK and Ireland shows the same pattern: approximately 3.6x at £200,000 of EBITDA against approximately 8.2x at £10m (Dealsuite UK & Ireland M&A Monitor, August 2026). No multiple, buyer or outcome is promised.
Why buyers pay more for scale
An institutional buyer carries broadly the same cost to acquire a small business as a large one. The same legal fees, the same due diligence, the same investment committee, the same integration effort. On a smaller transaction those costs consume the return, so the buyer either declines to look or prices the risk down.
That is why scale is the one element of your valuation you cannot trade your way into on your own. A buyer that will not consider a business of your size will consider several of them together, because the work finally justifies the cheque.
Diligence, legal and committee time cost much the same whatever the target's size.
Customer concentration and owner dependence weigh more heavily in a smaller company.
At combined scale, private equity platforms and consolidators compete rather than decline.
Read this part first
Nobody buys your company. Nobody combines it with anyone else's. You do not share your profits, your customers or your pricing with another business. No operations are joined together, there is no head office and no new chief executive, and no staff transfer anywhere.
It is not a fund, an investment product, a franchise or a partnership.
Three to six profitable businesses in the same sector come into a single group company. That company is owned by the members, one share each, and it does not own any of their businesses.
You keep your company exactly as you hold it today, you hold one special class of share in the group company, and you become a director of it. It meets quarterly to review the combined position.
The structure
The group company coordinates, reports on and markets the group. It does not own the member businesses, and it is not a holding company.
When the group is sold, each owner sells the shares in their own company. The group is not restructured for the sale, which avoids the cost, the delay and the tax that restructuring would bring.
Control
If the group never sells, you still own your business and carry on trading exactly as you do now.
How it works
We look at your numbers and tell you honestly whether a group is realistic in your sector.
A token fee on signing. Small by design: it funds the search and shows every owner is serious.
We map your sector and approach businesses that fit: competitors, or companies in your supply chain.
When your partners are identified and everyone is ready, the group forms and the main retainer falls due.
We form the group company at our cost, run the accounts and report each quarter, then take the group to investors.
Investor conversations typically begin eight to twelve months after a group forms, within an overall programme of around two years. Timings are indicative and depend on the sector and the group.
What Churchill Mergers does
The value your business has today is yours whatever happens. The value above it has to be built, and building it is our job from the first conversation to completion.
A premium is not something a business has. It is something a group is built to earn.
Suitability
Competitively sensitive information is protected by a clean-team process throughout, so no member ever sees another member's pricing, margins or customer list.
Sectors
Aggregation works wherever buyers already pay for scale and consolidation is under way. Our current focus includes:
Our sell-side advisory service and a confidential first conversation are the usual starting points if you are weighing a standalone sale against a group.
Common questions
No. You keep running it and you keep owning it. The group company does not own your business. Your brand, team, customers, pricing and day-to-day decisions stay with you. You hold one share in the group company and sit on its board as a director, and only group decisions, such as whether to accept an offer, are taken together.
No. Nobody buys your company and no operations are combined. Profits are not pooled and customers are not shared. Each business continues to trade under its own name with its own team. The group company exists to coordinate, report and present the group to investors.
In proportion to what each business is worth on the day the group is sold, on the same basis for everyone, agreed in writing before anyone signs. If at sale one business is worth $15m and another $3m, the split between those two is 83% and 17%.
Their share of the proceeds falls with their value. Yours does not. Because allocation is based on value at the date of sale rather than on a percentage fixed at the start, each owner carries their own performance.
No. Your own company files exactly as it does now. The group company has little or no activity of its own and files on that basis. The consolidated results we prepare are management information for the members and for prospective buyers. They are not statutory group accounts.
Because each owner sells the shares in their own company rather than the group being sold as one entity, a buyer acquiring some of the members is straightforward to document. The group agreement sets a floor below which a transaction cannot proceed, and defines how a member left out is treated.
You have paid a retainer. You still own your business, your company is unchanged, and you carry on trading exactly as you did before. Nothing about your ownership is given up at any stage.
Around two years in total, with investor conversations typically beginning eight to twelve months after the group forms. The timetable depends on the sector, how quickly the right partners are identified and market conditions at the time.
Start a confidential conversation
A confidential conversation, at no cost and with no obligation: what your business looks like today, which businesses could sit alongside it, and what a group could be worth. We will also tell you when a group is not realistic in your sector.
Churchill Aggregate is a service of Churchill Mergers. Churchill Mergers is a trading name of Churchill Solutions FZCO. The figures on this page are indicative market ranges and are not a forecast, an offer or advice. No valuation, multiple, buyer, timetable or outcome is promised. Structure and tax treatment depend on individual circumstances and are subject to each owner's own legal and tax advice.
