Analyze M&A Transactions and Trends

How to Analyze Aerospace, Defense, and Government M&A Trends and Multiples

Please note that to access the tools listed below, you must have a HigherGov Leader subscription. If you are interested in learning more, please schedule a demo.

Analyzing M&A Transactions

Finding Transactions

There are two primary ways to search for M&A transactions on the HigherGov platform:

The Search Bar at the top of every page. Best if you are looking for a specific transaction.
The M&A Transaction search (Capital Markets --> M&A Transactions in the sidebar or here). Best if you want to filter for transactions based on characteristics like sub-market served, number of employees, date, or transaction multiples.

Transactions can also be found through the Search All tool.

The HigherGov transaction database covers M&A transactions for companies that serve the Aerospace, Defense, and Government (ADG) sectors for both federal and state and local markets.

Analyzing Transactions

Target / Buyer

If available, the target and buyer will have links to their respective HigherGov Awardee pages. On the Awardee page, you can analyze many key characteristics that drive acquisition decisions as well as valuation and valuation multiples such as the percentage of set-side awards, key customer agencies, access to contract vehicles, etc.

Because many M&A transactions do not align cleanly with government award entity reporting (for example, carve-out transactions) and some covered companies will not have federal registrations (for example, state and local contractors and commercial aerospace companies), not all targets and buyers will have linked Awardee pages. If you need help finding additional information on a buyer or target, please contact us via the chat.

Transaction Financials

Provides transaction financials including revenue, EBITDA, and transaction multiples, if they were disclosed. For comparability across transactions, transaction financials are presented on a trailing 12-month basis before accounting for any synergies or tax attributes.

Similar Recent Transactions

Lists similar recent transactions with disclosed financial metrics. Similar transactions are determined based on the target company's target market and related characteristics.

Analyzing Trends

To access M&A transaction analysis tools go to Explore --> Analysis in the sidebar and select the M&A link at the top or click here.

Multiple Analysis

Create a custom M&A transaction trend analysis by selecting the following options:

Category: Analyze transaction valuations by sub-market
Multiple: EBITDA or Revenue multiples
Statistic: Median or Average

Three types of charts are available:

Bar: Shows the median or average multiple per year
Bubble: Shows the median or average multiple by year with the size of the bubble determined by the total number of transactions in that year
Bubble Spread: Shows the distribution of transaction multiples by year with the size of the bubble determined by the number of transactions with that multiple (note that the Statistic option is not relevant for this chart type)