Sector valuation multiples for listed companies
A valuation multiple relates the value of a company to one of its aggregates. EV/EBITDA relates enterprise value to EBITDA, EV/Sales relates it to revenue, and the P/E relates the share price to earnings per share. Beta measures something else entirely: how sensitive the share is to movements in its market.
These multiples are those of listed companies. Transposing them as they stand to a private SME overstates its value: an illiquidity discount has to come off and, where relevant, a size discount, and the aggregate has to be comparable in the first place. An EBITDA multiple only compares with an EBITDA adjusted for its non recurring items.
Hectelion publishes here the data it uses in its own work: thirteen sectors, 102 listed European companies, each named with its country and ticker. The filters select a sector, the search finds a company, and the band gives the median, the mean and the interquartile range of the panel on display. Nothing is estimated: a company without reliable data is left out rather than approximated.
Who are these multiples for?
Finance teams of SMEs and mid caps
Owners and shareholders preparing a sale
Advisers, auditors and valuers
What is a sector multiple for?
A sector multiple serves three purposes: placing an order of magnitude before any work is commissioned, corroborating a value obtained by another method, and bringing objectivity to a discussion where each side quotes its own number. It does not conclude. A value is built on the company’s accounts, its prospects and its financing structure, and the multiple then confirms or contradicts what that work produces.
An order of magnitude
The sector median, applied to your adjusted EBITDA, gives you in a minute the range within which the discussion will take place. It is where a reflection starts, not where it ends.
A named panel
Every company in the panel is named, with its country and its listing market. A multiple whose panel cannot be checked is worth nothing in a negotiation: the other side has to be able to trace the same companies as you.
A dated source
The data carries its date, and the aggregates are trailing twelve months. A multiple without a date does not hold up: market levels move, and last year’s reading describes a different market from today’s.
Facing a buyer
Facing a buyer, a bank or a departing shareholder, the gap is argued on two grounds: the panel retained and the aggregate the multiple applies to. Holding a named and dated set of data changes the nature of that conversation.
Stated limits
A panel of eight to ten companies does not describe a whole sector, and the observed range matters as much as the central figure. A company whose aggregate is close to zero produces a three figure multiple that says nothing: those values are excluded, and the table says so.
Going further
A value that can be put to a third party calls for a written engagement and a review of the accounts. This data tells you where you stand and on which items the gap will be argued, which is enough to decide whether an engagement is warranted.
How to read a sector multiple
step 1
The right sector
Pick the sector on the activity actually carried on, not on the registered activity code. A company that installs and maintains compares with installers, not with the manufacturers of what it fits.
step 2
The right aggregate
EV/EBITDA compares with an EBITDA adjusted for non recurring items and for management paid at market rates. EV/Sales only serves for want of anything better, and the P/E assumes a comparable financing structure.
step 3
Mean or median
The mean reads without effort and works when the multiples in the panel sit close together. As soon as the spread widens, a single extreme value moves it: the panel is then poorly put together, or the sector mixes business models, and the median describes the centre better.
step 4
The discounts to apply
A private company cannot be sold in a day on an organised market: an illiquidity discount applies, and a size discount where the panel is materially larger than the company being valued.
step 5
The step to equity value
An EBITDA multiple gives an enterprise value. Equity value follows by deducting net debt and dealing with the non operating items, and that step is often where the largest misunderstandings arise.
step 6
The cross check
A multiple on its own does not make a value. Set it against a cash flow approach and, where comparable transactions exist, against what buyers actually paid.
Listed multiples, sector by sector
Every company is named, with its country, its listing market and its multiples. Below each median, the interquartile range gives the dispersion of the panel: tight, and the sample holds together; wide, and it mixes different models, where the median alone is not enough. Filter by sector, search for a company, or sort a column by clicking its header.
How were these panels built?
These panels start from something we see in every file: everyone quotes sector multiples and almost no one names the companies behind them. A multiple whose panel stays invisible cannot be checked, so it cannot be argued.
The thirteen sectors are those we meet in our engagements. Each holds seven to ten listed European companies, selected on the activity they actually carry on and on a size that allows comparison with an SME or a mid cap, not on an activity code. The largest capitalisations in a sector are deliberately left out where their model no longer has anything in common with that of a mid sized company. Six companies belong to two activities and therefore appear in two panels.
The table is served as it stands by the page: the filters, the search and the sorting run in your browser. You enter nothing, and nothing is sent to Hectelion.
Who maintains this data?
This data is maintained by Aristide Ruot, founder of Hectelion SA, an independent French and Swiss corporate finance firm specialising in valuation, financial due diligence and mergers and acquisitions.
The panels come from real engagements: valuations of SMEs and mid caps, purchase price allocations, impairment tests, valuations of intangible assets for transfer pricing purposes. They are the same panels we use in our work, not a list assembled for the occasion.
He writes the code, the automation and the market data routines himself. This page is the direct extension of that combination: command of valuation methods, and the ability to make them verifiable.
That origin explains a bias: the page would rather show a limit than a flattering figure. A value excluded rather than an absurd multiple, a range rather than a single point, a dated source rather than an unspoken convention.
What these multiples do not tell you
Not the value of your company
A sector multiple is not the value of your company. It describes what the market pays today for a set of listed companies, not what a buyer would pay for yours. A value that can be put to a third party calls for a written engagement and a review of the accounts. This page creates neither an engagement nor an advisory relationship.
A share price, not a deal price
A share price rewards a minority holding, immediately liquid, in a company that publishes audited accounts. A change of control is not priced on the same terms, and comparable transactions show levels that differ from trading multiples.
No discount applied
No discount is applied in the table: the multiples are those of listed companies, gross. Illiquidity, size, dependence on the owner manager and client concentration are dealt with afterwards, case by case, and that is where most of the gap is decided.
Where multiples come in
Business valuation
Startup valuation
Premiums and discounts in valuation
Intangible asset valuation
Purchase price allocation
EV/EBIT or EV/EBITDA
Our methodological standards
This data follows the same rules as our engagements, starting with panels built on the activity the companies actually carry on. Each ratio shows its median, its mean and its interquartile range, because one does not replace the other: on a tight panel the two converge and the mean reads more simply, on a dispersed panel the mean is moved by a single value and the median holds better. No statistical trimming is applied beyond the bounds set out below: on eight to ten lines, an outlier test removes information rather than noise.
Enterprise value is the one published by the source, that is market capitalisation plus net debt. Aggregates are trailing twelve months, so they run beyond the last closed financial year. EV/EBIT relates that enterprise value to operating profit over the same window. The betas shown are levered betas, as observed on the share.
An exclusion rule is applied and disclosed: a negative multiple, or one outside sensible bounds, reflects an aggregate close to zero rather than a high valuation. Those values are removed from the table and from the median, and the row stays visible marked n/a. No value is reconstructed or smoothed.
One principle governs the whole: a multiple places, it does not conclude. It is set against a cash flow approach and, where they exist, against comparable transactions. This page constitutes neither a valuation within the meaning of the IVSC standards, nor investment advice. Page updated on 11.11.2026. Market data as of 11.11.2026, panels composed on 08.08.2026, source Yahoo Finance.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, and you need to know which one you are quoting. A trading multiple is read off a share price, that is, off the exchange of minority blocks. A transaction multiple is read off a price actually paid to take control of a company.
The two do not overlap: taking control is not paid for like a minority holding, and a trade buyer factors in synergies that a stock market investor does not have. A sound valuation looks at both, and states which one it retains.
The foot of the table carries two dates: that of the market data, and that of the panel composition. The aggregates are trailing twelve months, so they run beyond the last published financial year.
Those dates are the only reference to rely on. A multiple without a date does not hold up in a discussion: market levels move, and last year’s reading describes a different market from today’s.
Because the available value cannot be used. Two cases arise: the data is missing at source, or the resulting multiple has no economic meaning.
A negative multiple, or one above 100 × for EBITDA and the P/E, reflects an aggregate close to zero rather than a high valuation. Those values are excluded from the table and from the median. The row stays visible, because the company does belong to the panel, but no value is reconstructed or smoothed.
An EBITDA multiple gives an enterprise value. Equity value follows by deducting financial debt net of cash, then dealing with the non operating items: a building not used in the business, investments, surplus cash, provisions that behave like debt.
This step is where the largest misunderstandings arise in a negotiation. Two parties can agree on the multiple and on EBITDA, and still stand 30 % apart on the share price because they do not classify debt the same way.
Beta measures how sensitive a share price is to movements in its market. A beta of 1 describes a share that tracks its index, a beta of 1.5 one that amplifies its moves, a beta of 0.5 one that dampens them.
The betas shown here are levered betas, as observed on the share: they therefore also reflect the company’s gearing, and two companies in the same business can show different betas for that reason alone. Within a panel, a beta well above the others often signals heavier debt, or a thinly traded share whose price moves in jumps.
A normalised EBITDA. The listed companies in the panel report normalised accounts, with management paid at market rates and no personal expenses. Applying their multiple to a reported EBITDA that has not been adjusted distorts the result.
The usual adjustments cover the remuneration of the owner manager and of related parties, rent paid to a property company within the group, non recurring charges and exceptional income. Rent matters all the more because a company that leases its premises does not compare, without care, with one that owns them.
The mean has the advantage of being immediately understood, and it works when the multiples in the panel sit close together. That is the usual case in a homogeneous sector, and it is what most practitioners use.
It becomes misleading as soon as dispersion widens: on eight to ten companies, a single extreme value moves it by several points. A wide spread points to two things worth checking, a panel that is poorly put together, or a sector that mixes different business models. The median then describes the centre better.
Both are shown side by side, with the interquartile range to settle it: tight, and the mean is enough; wide, and it no longer means much.
Not as it stands. A share price rewards a minority holding, immediately liquid, in a company that publishes audited accounts and has permanent access to the capital markets. None of that is true of an SME.
The transposition calls at the very least for an illiquidity discount and, where the panel is materially larger than the company being valued, a size discount. Dependence on the owner manager and client concentration are then handled case by case.
These three multiples do not measure the same thing:
- EV/EBITDA: enterprise value over EBITDA. The most widely used, because it is independent of the financing structure and of depreciation policy.
- EV/Sales: enterprise value over revenue. Useful when EBITDA is low, negative or not meaningful, but it ignores profitability.
- P/E: share price over earnings per share. It bears on the value of the shares, so it reflects the company’s debt and tax position.
An enterprise value multiple never compares directly with an equity multiple. Confusing the two makes net debt disappear from the reasoning.
A multiple relates the value of a company to one of its aggregates. Saying that a sector trades at 10 × EBITDA means the enterprise value of the companies in the panel is about ten times their EBITDA.
It is a market shorthand, not a valuation method on its own. It places an order of magnitude and corroborates a value obtained another way, typically by discounting future cash flows.
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