High Complexity Clinical Lab with Real Estate, Miami CLIA Lab Since 2005

$2.0M

Revenue

$950K

SDE

12.6x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is an established, fully certified high complexity clinical laboratory operating in South Florida since 2005, sold together with its purpose-built 5,500 square foot commercial facility in Miami. The lab serves physician practices, medical offices, assisted living facilities, and home healthcare providers across the Miami-to-West Palm Beach corridor, offering a broad routine testing menu plus in-house and mobile phlebotomy, courier support, and specialized reference-lab collaboration. It operates on recurring referral relationships, a loyal base of ordering physicians, and a long list of Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance contracts.

The economics are notable: roughly $2M in revenue produces about $950K in EBITDA, a 47% margin that reflects owned-outright lab equipment, favorable reagent economics, and low leasing and capital needs. The $12M asking price breaks out as $7M for the business and $5M for the real estate, so the operating multiple is closer to 7.4x EBITDA with a hard-asset floor underneath. The existing CLIA license reportedly permits expansion to seven additional Florida locations, which is the real strategic prize here for an acquirer with distribution.

The buyer pool is narrow by design: a strategic lab operator, a healthcare platform, or an investor comfortable with reimbursement-driven revenue. The combination of a scarce purpose-built facility, insurance panel access, and a licensed, willing-to-stay team offers continuity that is hard to replicate from scratch in this market.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is strong on paper, with roughly $950K EBITDA on $2M revenue implying a 47% margin, driven by owned equipment and favorable reagent economics. Reimbursement-based revenue tends to be sticky because once a lab is in a physician's workflow and on the right insurance panels, orders recur automatically. The key question is how much of that margin is real operating profit versus owner add-backs, since SDE was not disclosed.
Durability comes from the regulatory moat and insurance contracts. A high complexity CLIA license plus an extensive Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial payer panel is expensive and slow to assemble, which deters new entrants. The lab license itself permits expansion to seven additional Florida locations, a licensing head start that a competitor cannot simply buy off the shelf.
Diagnostic lab testing is genuinely recession-resistant because physicians order labs regardless of the economy and much of the demand is Medicare and Medicaid driven. The customer mix of physician practices, assisted living facilities, and home health providers skews toward chronic and elderly care, which is demographically growing in South Florida. Testing volume does not evaporate in a downturn the way discretionary spending does.
The owned real estate is both a continuity asset and a floor on downside. A purpose-built 5,500 square foot lab facility with walk-in coolers and specialized infrastructure is scarce in this market, and the listing values it at $5M of the $12M price. A strategic buyer who can push volume through the existing license and panel has real operating leverage with fixed facility and equipment costs already covered.

How to improve it

Attack route density and home phlebotomy coverage immediately, since the fixed cost of couriers and collectors is already in place. Adding stops per route and signing more assisted living and home health accounts drops incremental testing straight to the margin line. This is the fastest near-term revenue lever without new real estate or licensing.
Pursue the seven-location expansion the existing license permits, starting with Broward and Palm Beach where referral relationships already exist. Each satellite collection site expands the physician funnel while centralizing high-complexity testing at the Miami facility. Sequence this carefully to match reimbursement contracts and staffing, but the licensing optionality is the single biggest value creator here.
Audit and renegotiate the payer contract mix within the first 90 days, since reimbursement rates vary widely across Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care, and commercial PPOs. Shifting volume toward higher-reimbursing test codes and payers, and dropping unprofitable panels, can lift margin materially. Confirm no payer concentration or at-risk capitated arrangements that could swing revenue.
Add higher-margin specialty and send-out testing that the current menu underweights, such as molecular, genetics, and toxicology panels ordered by concierge and post-acute providers. These carry stronger economics than routine chemistry and hematology. Build or deepen the reference-lab relationship to capture margin on tests sent out today.
Install formal account management and a sales motion targeting independent physician practices and multi-location medical groups. The listing admits growth is available simply through better account coverage, which signals the current approach is passive and referral-dependent. A disciplined outbound effort to physicians is cheap relative to the EBITDA it can generate.
Separate the real estate into a leaseback structure to clarify true operating economics and potentially free capital. Owning the building inside the deal muddies the operating return; a market-rate lease isolates lab profitability and gives the buyer flexibility to recapitalize the property later. This also makes a future resale of either the operations or the real estate cleaner.

Diligence notes

Reconcile the financials carefully, because EBITDA of $950K on only $2M of revenue is a 47% margin that is high even for a lab, and SDE was not disclosed. Pull three years of tax returns, payer remittance reports, and the full test volume and reimbursement detail to verify the earnings are sustainable and not inflated by one-time or owner-related items. A lab with a single large referring group or payer can be fragile.
Scrutinize payer and referral concentration, since the entire value proposition rests on insurance contracts and physician referral sources. Identify what percentage of revenue comes from the top five referring physicians and top payers, and whether any are at risk of leaving post-sale. Also confirm Medicare and Medicaid billing compliance, as lab billing is a high-audit, high-clawback area.
Validate regulatory standing including the CLIA high complexity certificate, Florida clinical laboratory license, proficiency testing history, and any past inspection deficiencies or corrective actions. Confirm the license genuinely permits the claimed seven additional locations and understand the conditions attached. Any lapse or sanction here can halt operations entirely.
Appraise the real estate independently to test the $5M allocation, since $5M for 5,500 square feet implies roughly $900 per square foot, which is aggressive and needs market comps. Overpaying on the real estate portion directly inflates the blended multiple. Confirm zoning, environmental compliance for a lab facility, and the condition and remaining life of the owned equipment included in the sale.
Confirm the team's willingness to stay in writing, because a lab depends on licensed medical technologists who are hard to replace and legally required to operate. Identify the lab director arrangement, since high complexity labs require a qualified CLIA lab director, and verify whether that role transfers or must be re-recruited. Loss of key licensed staff post-close is a material operating risk.
Understand why the owner is selling and the true level of owner involvement in generating referrals and running compliance. If the physician relationships are personal to the seller, revenue may erode during transition despite the offered handover period. Negotiate an earnout or seller note tied to revenue retention to protect against referral attrition.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →