The fire and life safety protection services market remains resilient despite slow business services dealmaking, with private equity firms continuing transact at elevated multiples. Deals for scaled fire safety platforms are selling at multi-year high exit multiples of 18x to 20x EBITDA, well above the historical lower double-digit range for service-focused markets. Firms including KKR, New Mountain, Gryphon and Riverside Company are pursuing these platforms, which command premiums at the upper end of that range.

According to SIPA private Metrics data, the broader professional services market sees deals from 9.9x to 17.7x EBITDA across percentiles. David Sweet, managing director at JPMorgan focused on commercial and residential services, notes heightened interest in commercial and residential services due to their defensive, revenue-stable nature amid rate hikes and shifting consumer sentiment. He observes a barbell deal pattern: sub-$100 million EBITDA companies offer scale-up potential, while $500 million-plus EBITDA platforms are viewed as public market exit-ready, termed 'battleship defensibility' for their market leadership, regulatory-driven demand, and profitability.

Valuations reaching 18x-20x EBITDA are driven more by business composition—especially recurring revenue, route- and density-based scale, and exposure to testing, inspection, maintenance, and integration—than by size alone. The path to going public is increasingly seen as a base case for larger platforms.