Heavy Civil & Utility Contractor, 35-Year Pacific Northwest Public Infrastructure Specialist

$16.0M

Revenue

$1.4M

SDE

6.2x

Multiple

Subscribe Free

Read the full deal writeup

Get Free Access

Already a member? Sign in

Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 35-plus year heavy civil and utility contractor operating in a major Pacific Northwest market (Washington), self-performing earthwork and water, storm, sewer, and electrical infrastructure work. Its project record spans watermain replacement, sewer rehabilitation and bypass operations, natural drainage, roadway restoration, lighting and EV-charging installations, and emergency repairs on aging systems. Customers are primarily municipal utilities, water and wastewater districts, transportation infrastructure owners, and general contractors on school and commercial projects. The company runs with roughly 45 full-time employees and a $1.8M self-performed equipment and vehicle fleet included in the sale.

The business did $16.02M revenue in 2025 at a normalized EBITDA of $1.435M, and 2026 earnings stepped up materially to $1.943M normalized EBITDA for Jan-Aug at a 17% margin. That margin step-up already carries the cost of an expanded management tier, including a GM who joined in 2025 and a senior project manager who absorbed a co-owner's duties. Work is bonded and won project by project rather than under recurring contracts, with current bonding capacity of $15M single and $25M aggregate and awarded work-in-progress running into 2027.

The moat here is the hard-to-replicate public-agency qualification stack: performance and payment bonding, agency pre-qualification, a documented 35-year project record, and crews equipped for deep, live-system, environmentally sensitive excavation. The flip side is customer concentration, with meaningful current-year revenue tied to its three largest public-agency customers. The ideal buyer is a strategic utility or heavy civil operator, a regional construction platform, or a PE-backed infrastructure roll-up with the working capital and surety capacity to carry public work.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is improving in the right direction: 2025 normalized EBITDA was $1.435M on $16M revenue, and 2026 is tracking to $1.943M at a 17% margin with the expanded management cost already absorbed. If the 2026 run-rate holds, the 6.23x multiple on trailing cash flow is really closer to low-4x forward, which is a far more attractive entry for a contractor of this quality.
The moat is regulatory and reputational, not just operational. Public infrastructure work requires performance and payment bonding, agency pre-qualification, a documented project record, and crews capable of deep, live-system excavation, which is why incumbents with 35-plus years of history win repeat awards and the emergency-repair calls. That barrier protects pricing and keeps new entrants out far better than most trades.
Demand is structurally durable and non-discretionary. The work is driven by replacing and upgrading aging water, sewer, and stormwater systems plus transportation and school-site capital spending, all funded by public owners that keep spending through downturns. Federal and state infrastructure dollars provide a multi-year tailwind under this exact scope.
The deal comes with real self-performance capacity on day one. The $1.8M equipment and vehicle fleet (excavators, loaders, dump trucks, vac trailers, shoring, road plates) means a buyer can bid and execute bonded utility work immediately without a fleet build-out. The awarded work-in-progress running into 2027 gives visible, bonded backlog to underwrite against.

How to improve it

Prioritize estimating depth in the first 90 days. The GM who joined in 2025 is already being developed toward bidding, so formalize that handoff with documented estimating playbooks and dual-ownership of bids to cut reliance on the departing owner. More estimating capacity directly translates into more bid volume and revenue.
Attack customer concentration deliberately. With current-year revenue meaningful across just three public agencies, build a pipeline that adds new municipal and district relationships so no single owner can swing earnings. Diversifying the award base also makes the business far more financeable and re-sellable at a higher multiple.
Push bonding capacity to its ceiling. The company holds $15M single and $25M aggregate capacity, so work with the surety and a strategic parent to bid larger and more technical water, sewer, storm, and school-site packages. Winning bigger self-performed scopes leverages the existing fleet and crews without proportional overhead growth.
Expand the electrical and electrification niche. The business already self-performs lighting and EV-charging installs for transportation owners, which is a growing, higher-margin public scope. Lean into that specialization to differentiate from pure earthwork competitors and capture electrification capital budgets.
Formalize the emergency-repair channel. The 35-year record on emergency repairs of aging systems is high-margin, relationship-driven work where response speed decides who gets the call. Build a 24/7 dispatch and standing-rate agreements with key agencies to convert that reputation into more predictable recurring call-out revenue.
Tighten working capital and WIP management. Public-agency work ties up cash in retainage and progress billings, so install disciplined billing cadence, change-order capture, and retainage collection to free capital for bonding. Better cash conversion materially raises the return on the equity invested.
Negotiate the affiliate lease terms before close. The yard and office are expected to lease from a seller affiliate at $15,000/month NNN, which directly hits EBITDA, so lock a market-rate, long-term lease with renewal options or evaluate buying the real estate separately. Controlling the operating facility protects against future rent step-ups.

Diligence notes

Validate the 2026 EBITDA step-up rigorously. The jump from $1.435M in 2025 to a $1.943M run-rate in 2026 is the whole investment thesis, so trace it to signed contracts, completed WIP margins, and verify the normalization adjustments and the fully-loaded cost of the new management tier. Confirm whether the uplift is sustainable mix and pricing or a handful of unusually profitable jobs.
Quantify customer concentration precisely. Pull revenue by agency for the last three years and the current WIP, since meaningful concentration in the top three public owners is a direct valuation and risk issue. Understand the renewal dynamics and whether those agencies are on master agreements or purely project-by-project bids.
Stress-test bonding and surety transferability. The $15M single / $25M aggregate capacity is tied to the current ownership's financials and track record, and the listing explicitly notes bonding, licenses, and certifications are subject to buyer qualification. Confirm a buyer with adequate net worth and surety relationships can inherit or rebuild equivalent capacity without a gap in bid eligibility.
Inspect the equipment fleet and deferred maintenance. The $1.8M fleet is central to day-one self-performance, so get a third-party appraisal, review maintenance logs, and confirm the final included-asset list and any near-term capital needs. The listing flags that maintenance needs are subject to confirmation in diligence.
Review the backlog quality and margin. WIP runs into 2027, but verify estimated costs-to-complete, change-order exposure, and liquidated-damages risk on each awarded job. Fixed-price public work can erode fast if bids were tight or jobs run long, so confirm the backlog carries real margin.
Assess key-person and transition risk. The owner still leads estimating and bid decisions, and a co-owner's duties were only recently absorbed by a senior PM, so confirm the depth of the management bench and secure the owner's transition and estimating handoff in the deal terms. Retention of crews and the GM is critical given the specialized labor required.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →