Sell your business
Sell your HVAC business to people who run one themselves.
We buy 40% to 100% of owner-managed heating, ventilation and air conditioning businesses with £1m to £80m revenue. Your engineers stay, your name stays on the vans, and your maintenance customers keep dealing with the people they know.
No NDA at this stage. No accounts required. No obligation.
Who buys HVAC businesses
Who buys HVAC businesses in the UK?
Verdani Capital is a UK operator-led acquirer that buys 40% to 100% of owner-managed HVAC businesses with £1m to £80m revenue, keeps the brand and the engineers, and runs them for the long term. The other buyers you will meet are usually trade consolidators and private equity backed groups.
An HVAC business is worth what it is because of a few dozen people and a few hundred customer relationships. The engineer who knows which chiller on which roof always trips in August. The facilities manager who rings you, not the helpdesk. Those things do not survive a buyer who sees your company as a line in a roll-up.
We own and operate HVAC businesses ourselves. Rossair, a building services business trading since 1973, is the platform company for our HVAC group. Scott Adams, who leads our HVAC portfolio, scaled Southern UK’s largest independent HVAC contractor from £20m to £80m. When we read your accounts, we read them as people who have priced a planned maintenance tender and chased a late retention.
That matters on the day, because an operator knows which risks are real and which are just unfamiliar. It matters more afterwards, because we are still the ones running the business in ten years’ time.
Due diligence, in plain terms
What a buyer looks at in an HVAC business
Every buyer applies a multiple to sustainable earnings. These four things decide whether that multiple sits at the top or the bottom of the range.
PPM contracts that renew year after year are worth more than one-off installs. A buyer wants to see renewal rates, contract terms and how much reactive work those contracts pull through.
A stable team of qualified engineers is the hardest thing to replace. Tenure, F-Gas and Gas Safe coverage, and an apprentice pipeline all count.
Heavy reliance on one facilities management company or one main contractor is a risk a buyer will price. A broad base of direct clients is worth more.
Project work brings retentions, long payment terms and the odd final-account dispute. Clean job costing and a sensible debtor book make the earnings believable.
Want to know where your business sits? Get a free business valuation.
After completion
What happens to your team, your name and your customers
They stay. In 99% of our acquisitions the brand, the name and the team are retained, and the business keeps trading as itself.
In a share sale your engineers keep the same employer, the same contract and the same terms, because the company they work for does not change. The vans keep their livery. Your apprentices finish their training with the people who started it. The maintenance contracts stay with the company that holds them.
Owner dependence is the issue we see most often in HVAC. The owner holds the key accounts, signs off every quote and is the last line of escalation at 9pm on a Friday. We do not treat that as a reason to walk away. We agree with you how those relationships are handed on, over a period that suits you and your customers, and we put in the operational support that lets a second tier of management grow into it. We also bring operational resources to grow the business and to streamline its operations, systems and processes, as well as the capital.
Read more about who we are and why we buy this way.
More than capital
The operational resources behind every HVAC 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.
The full detail, including how we structure partial sales, is on how we buy businesses.
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
Every buyer type suits someone. This is how they typically differ for an owner-managed HVAC business.
| What happens to | Verdani Capital | Trade consolidator | Private equity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your name and brand | Kept in 99% of cases | Often merged into the buyer’s brand | Usually kept, sometimes rebranded for a platform |
| Your engineers and office team | Retained, by design | Overlapping roles are often cut | Usually kept, with cost targets in the plan |
| Your involvement | Your choice: stay, step back gradually, or go | Usually a short handover, then out | 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 we already own and run on our portfolio page.
Straight answers
Selling an HVAC business, answered.
How much is my HVAC business worth?
Most owner-managed HVAC businesses are valued as a multiple of sustainable EBITDA. Where you land depends on how much of your revenue comes from planned maintenance contracts, how reliant the business is on you, and how concentrated your customers are. A real figure needs three years of accounts.
Who buys HVAC businesses in the UK?
The main buyers are trade consolidators, private equity backed groups and operator-led acquirers such as Verdani Capital. Verdani buys 40% to 100% of HVAC businesses with £1m to £80m revenue, keeps the brand and the engineers in place, and runs the business for the long term alongside Rossair, its HVAC platform company.
Will my maintenance contracts transfer if I sell my HVAC company?
In a share sale, yes, in almost every case. The company that holds the contracts does not change, only its owners do. Some contracts contain change-of-control clauses, so we read them early and, where a customer needs to be told, we agree the timing and the message with you so the relationship stays with the people who built it.
What happens to my F-Gas and Gas Safe registrations after a sale?
They stay with the business. Company certificates such as F-Gas are held by the trading company, and individual engineer tickets belong to the engineers, who stay in post. Some schemes ask to be notified of a change of ownership. We deal with that paperwork as part of completion so your certification never lapses.
Can I sell my HVAC business and keep working in it?
Yes. Most owners who sell to Verdani keep equity and stay involved. Some stay on as managing director, some move to a part-time role looking after key customers, and some step back over an agreed period. The role you want is written into the heads of terms before anything is signed.
How long does it take to sell an HVAC business?
Most Verdani deals complete in 8 to 14 weeks from the first conversation. There is no auction and no investment committee. The people you meet on the first call are the people who decide, which is what keeps it quick without cutting corners on due diligence.
Do you buy underperforming HVAC businesses?
Yes, where we already operate in the sector, and HVAC is one of them. Verdani has turnaround experience and runs Rossair, an established building services business, so we can put real operating support behind an HVAC company that has lost its way. An underperforming HVAC 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