Sell your business
Sell your engineering business to people who run one.
We buy 40% to 100% of owner-managed mechanical, electrical and general engineering businesses with £1m to £80m revenue. We understand work in progress, skilled labour and customer relationships because we run an engineering business ourselves.
No NDA at this stage. No accounts required. No obligation.
Who buys engineering businesses
Who buys mechanical, electrical and general engineering businesses in the UK?
Verdani Capital buys 40% to 100% of owner-managed engineering businesses with £1m to £80m revenue, keeps the name and the team, and runs them for the long term. Larger engineering groups and private equity backed platforms are the other buyers you are likely to meet.
An engineering business is hard to value from the outside. The profit sits inside live jobs, stage payments, materials on order and the skilled people who turn a drawing into a finished installation. A buyer who does not understand that will either overpay and claw it back in the legals, or underpay to cover risks they cannot read.
We run engineering ourselves. Rossair has been delivering mechanical and electrical engineering since 1973 and is the platform company for our HVAC and M&E group. Whether your business is mechanical, electrical, fabrication, maintenance or general engineering, we know what a healthy job costing report looks like, and we know the difference between a project that is genuinely in trouble and one that is waiting on a final account.
That lets us give you a straight answer early, and keep it straight all the way to completion.
Due diligence, in plain terms
What a buyer looks at in an engineering business
Earnings are the starting point. These are the things that make an engineering buyer confident in them.
How much of the year’s work comes from customers you have served before, and how much depends on winning new one-off projects.
Live jobs, the margin they were priced at, stage payments received and materials committed. Tidy job costing on every project makes this quick.
Recurring maintenance, service or support contracts steady the numbers and support a higher multiple than project work alone.
Design engineers, project engineers, supervisors and skilled trades who can win and deliver work without the owner in every meeting.
Want to know where your business sits? Get a free business valuation.
After completion
What happens to your team, your name and your customers
Your team stays, your name stays and your customers keep dealing with the people they know. We retain the brand and the team in 99% of our acquisitions.
Customers buy from engineering firms they trust. Your accreditations, your approved supplier positions and the relationships your engineers have built are a large part of what we are buying, so we protect them. Apprentices finish their time, skilled staff keep their roles, and the company keeps its ISO, NICEIC, Gas Safe or equivalent registrations because the company itself does not change.
The typical engineering owner is still the chief designer, the lead estimator and the person customers ring when a job goes sideways. We plan that handover with you. Some owners want to keep pricing the big jobs for a few years. Others want to hand over quickly. Both are fine, and both are written down before you sign. Alongside the capital, we bring operational resources to grow the business and to streamline its operations, systems and processes.
More on our approach on the about Verdani Capital page.
More than capital
The operational resources behind every engineering business we buy.
Verdani is an operating group, so a business that joins us gets people, systems and finance behind it from day one: operators who have scaled businesses in these trades, a group services company that provides management support and resource, in-house IT and cyber security, and finance leadership that builds the reporting a growing business needs.
Sales leadership, cross-selling across the group, framework and tender support, and bolt-on acquisitions funded and run by us.
Scott has led teams of 500+ and scaled a contractor from £20m to £80m. Job costing, scheduling, fleet, procurement and margin discipline, improved from experience rather than from a consultant’s deck.
Operational technology, IT and cyber security through Verdani Solutions, and the finance systems and monthly reporting we put in so decisions are made on real numbers.
Verdani Services Limited provides management and resource across the portfolio: HR, compliance, accreditations, insurance and back-office, so your team can concentrate on the work.
None of it is imposed. We agree with you what the business needs, and the team keeps running the business. Meet the people who do this on the team page.
The process
How the sale works
Three steps, from a confidential conversation to completion, usually in 8 to 14 weeks.
A confidential conversation
No NDA at this stage, no pressure, no financial information needed. We get to understand your business, what you want out of the next few years, and whether there is a natural fit.
Valuation and heads of terms
We ask for three years of accounts and produce an honest valuation. We propose the deal structure, the ownership split and your role after completion, before anything is signed.
Completion
Experienced M&A solicitors and our own in-house deal team move it through. You deal with the same people from the first call to the final signature.Most deals complete in 8 to 14 weeks.
Read the detail on how we buy businesses, including how we structure a partial sale.
Selling in a different sector?
We buy across the trades we operate in ourselves. Start with the guide for your sector:
Fundable. Backable. Verifiable.
Why owners trust us with what they built.
Everything below can be checked. Companies House filings, a trading group you can visit, and named people you can call.
- Track record
- 32 completed acquisitions over 12 years, across HVAC, M&E, Renewables and Construction.
- Trading group
- £25m group revenue and £3m group EBIT across operating companies, not a shell or a special-purpose vehicle.
- Legal entities
- Verdani Capital Two Limited (13658177) and Verdani Services Limited (11718358), both filed at Companies House.
- Investor partners
- Private investors who want a good return on their money and want to own business assets across our sectors, as equity, secured debt or a blend.
- Funding
- Acquisitions are funded by a network of private investors and lenders alongside group cash flow, structured as equity, debt or a blend to suit each deal.
- Pipeline
- A live pipeline of acquisition opportunities in HVAC, M&E engineering, Renewables and Construction at every stage from first conversation to heads of terms.
- Named people
- Lee Smith and Scott Adams lead every deal personally. The people you meet are the people who decide.
- Professional execution
- Experienced M&A solicitors and an in-house deal team, with the structure and timetable set out in writing at heads of terms.
Your options
Selling to Verdani vs a trade consolidator vs private equity
How the main buyer types typically differ for an owner-managed engineering business.
| What happens to | Verdani Capital | Trade consolidator | Private equity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your name and brand | Kept in 99% of cases | Often absorbed into the group name | Usually kept, sometimes rebranded for a platform |
| Engineers and office staff | Retained, by design | Design, estimating and back office often merged | Usually kept, with cost targets in the plan |
| Your involvement | Your choice: stay, step back gradually, or go | Usually a short handover | Often required to stay and hit targets |
| Timeline | 8 to 14 weeks typically | Varies with the buyer’s integration plans | Often longer, with committee sign-off |
| Who decides | The people on your first call | A corporate development team and board | An investment committee you rarely meet |
| Exit horizon | Long-term hold, no planned resale | Long-term, as part of a larger group | Typically a sale within three to seven years |
See the businesses in the group on our portfolio page.
Straight answers
Selling an engineering business, answered.
Who buys engineering businesses in the UK?
Engineering businesses are bought by larger engineering groups, private equity backed platforms and operator-led acquirers such as Verdani Capital. Verdani buys 40% to 100% of mechanical, electrical and general engineering businesses with £1m to £80m revenue, keeps the name and the team, and runs them alongside Rossair, its mechanical and electrical engineering platform company.
How much is my engineering business worth?
Most owner-managed engineering businesses are valued as a multiple of sustainable EBITDA. Businesses that depend on a handful of one-off projects sit lower. Those with repeat customers, maintenance or service contracts, in-house design capability and a management team that runs the work without the owner sit higher. A real figure needs three years of accounts and a look at work in progress.
How are work in progress and long-lead materials treated when I sell?
They are part of the working capital in the deal. A buyer will look at jobs in progress, stage payments received against them, stock and materials on order, and any retentions owed. We agree a fair normal level of working capital up front, so you are paid for the work you have done and nobody is surprised at completion.
Will my engineers and skilled staff stay after the sale?
Yes. We buy engineering businesses because of the people who design, price and deliver the work. In a share sale their employer and their terms do not change. Where a key engineer or manager is critical, we often agree a way for them to share in the future of the business so they have a reason to stay for the long run.
Can I sell part of my engineering business and stay on as director?
Yes. Verdani buys anywhere from 40% to 100%. Many owners sell a majority stake, take cash out, keep equity and stay on as a director while a second tier of management grows into the day-to-day. The role and the timetable are agreed in the heads of terms before anything is signed.
Do you buy underperforming engineering businesses?
Yes, where we already operate in the sector, and mechanical and electrical engineering is one of them. Verdani has turnaround experience and runs Rossair, an engineering business trading since 1973, so we can put real operating support behind a company that has lost its way. An underperforming engineering business is worth a conversation. Outside the sectors the group already trades in, we only buy profitable businesses.
Start here
Have one honest conversation. Decide from there.
Tell us about your business. We will give you a straight view on whether there is a fit, and what a partnership with Verdani could look like for you.
- No NDA at this stage and no obligation
- Completely confidential. Nothing goes further
- You will speak to Lee or Scott, not an analyst
- We reply within one working day
Prefer to talk? Call 020 3475 5475
or email info@verdanicapital.co.uk
or message us on WhatsApp