TESTING, INSPECTION CERTIFICATION, COMPLIANCE CONSULTING & CALIBRATION
M&AOUTLOOK REPORT 2025 & RED SWAN PARTNERS BUYER RANKING
TESTING INSPECTION CERTIFICATION COMPLIANCE CONSULTING CALIBRATION
Unlocking TIC+
A New Industry Perspective
The TIC Council defines TIC as 'Testing, Inspection, and Certification', but Red Swan Partners has enhanced this definition to reflect the sector’s rapid evolution. TIC+ expands beyond these core pillars to include: Assurance, Compliance, Consulting, Training, and Calibration - key services that are increasingly integral to the industry’s most active players.
Red Swan Partners introduced TIC+ not to redefine the market but to provide a sharper, more strategic lens for investors seeking opportunities and companies considering an exit. By identifying the most engaged and acquisitive buyers, TIC+ serves as a crucial framework for understanding the forces shaping future M&A activity.
While TIC+ seeks to expand the traditional definition, we have also sought to better refine it by the exclusion of certain activities that while part of current TIC players are more closer linked to other industry sectors.
As such TIC+ does not include:
• Pure-play digital service providers, pharma development firms, clinical research organizations (CROs) and diagnostic companies, despite some overlap with TIC buyers. • Non-core TIC players, where TIC+ services make up only a minor, peripheral part of their broader business, making them unlikely to pursue sustained M&A in the sector.
By refining the TIC+ definition, Red Swan Partners delivers clearer market intelligence - empowering stakeholders with the insights needed to navigate and capitalize on this dynamic landscape.
2024 M&A
By Talal Yousef CEO Red Swan Partners
As the TIC+ sector evolves, shifting strategies and market trends raise key questions about its future:
• Why are European consolidators shifting their gaze toward North America?
• What can we learn from recent divestments and failed deals?
• Could a mega merger be on the horizon following the collapse of the SGS/BV deal?
• What new possibilities await TIC+ players in 2025?
MARKET OVERVIEW
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TOP 5 in TIC+ Buyers Ranking
Rank Movement
Full list on page 12
The TIC sector is undergoing a major transformation, driven by shifting investment priorities, technological advancements, regulatory changes, and continued industry consolidation. While 2024 saw a slight increase in deal activity, 2025 is expected to reignite momentum, with major industry players and private equity-backed platforms intensifying their pursuit of acquisitions.
Beyond traditional consolidation, the market is seeing a growing focus on cybersecurity and AI-driven compliance solutions. As regulations tighten and businesses adopt AI-powered risk assessments, these areas are becoming key battlegrounds for investment and innovation.
To provide a clearer, more strategic view of M&A trends, we have introduced TIC+, a framework that captures the sector’s evolving priorities and investment strategies. This report also analyzes historical deal activity, highlights emerging trends, and ranks the most active TIC+ buyers using Red Swan Partners’s proprietary ranking algorithm. Unlike a simple transaction count, this methodology identifies Active Sustainable Buyers (ASB)—those with a long-term, strategic focus on acquisitions—offering sellers and investors a more accurate reflection of the forces shaping TIC+ consolidation.
As the market evolves, understanding who is driving the next wave of consolidation and where the opportunities lie is critical. This report equips sellers and investors with the key insights needed to navigate the changing TIC+ landscape.
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Number of M&A Deals in TIC+ Comparison
THE NEW ELDORADO
With the Trump-era turbocharge expected to boost the US economy, European TIC+ players are turning their gaze westward to capture the gold-dust that has delivered sustained high market growth.
European Buyers Look to North America
This strategic pivot of industry giants like SGS, and Bureau Veritas (“BV”) mirrors the 17th Century search for the mythical gold-laden “Eldorado”. This is of course a logical move given that what has always been a strong market has under Trump-propulsion, just got a whole lot stronger. Additionally, the US TIC+ landscape remains far more fragmented than the well-farmed European counterpart, offering geographical and capability-based consolidation.
This shift isn’t limited to the traditional established giants. European PE-based platform- including Phenna, Tentamus, LRQA, Normec and GBA - are also aggressively expanding their presence in the US. At the same time, US based PE firms are finally waking up to the opportunities that the TIC+ market offers driven by its increased regulation and capex-light nature, which will only serve to further increase the US TIC+ market’s competitive environment.
DIFFICULT HOUSEKEEPING DIVESTMENTS AND SETBACKS?
Stiffer economic conditions in Europe and APAC have inevitably driven greater internal focus on the strategic streamlining of the TIC+ player’s broad portfolios sparking a wave of divestment activity.
During 2024 we saw a spate of divestments including BV’s sale of its food labs to Merieux NutraSciences and Element’s sale of its certification business (NQA) to Kiwa. We would expect this trend to become more regular, given the obvious logic of delivering greater focus and divesting what in many cases are challenged assets to better-owners more suited to develop them.
It was made clear however that not every housekeeping initiative goes to plan, with SGS’s 2023 sale of its Agro business to Eurofins collapsing during 2024 after SGS’s newly appointed CEO decided against completing the deal. It is indeed unusual for a bilaterial deal of this nature to fall through, since it is expected that both parties are committed to overcome whatever deal obstacles arise. The fact that SGS cited a renewed interest in this sector with a commitment to future M&A activity, has clearly sullied the waters with Eurofins who claim to be taking legal action against them to resurrect the deal.
Companies are offloading underperforming assets to specialized operators, a trend that’s quickly becoming the norm
While divestments offer a path to focus and value creation, execution challenges can derail even well-intended deals.
It is hoped however, that this example does not dampen interest in this important value creating activity, which surely would have been demonstrated at scale, had the SGS & BV mega-merger taken place, since their sprawling portfolios would have demanded a pruning of non-core assets via divestments, potentially unlocking a flurry of M&A opportunities for trade-players and PE alike. Indeed portfolio-management, is a fundamental discipline that can be an equal lesson to ambitious financial sponsors to encourage pursuit of a focused portfolio in their buy-build vehicle, rather than on simply growth and flag-planting alone.
DOES SIZE MATTER?
While it is a common mantra in the TIC+ market that “big is beautiful”, this idiom was severely tested by analysts when the market leaders no. #1 and #3 considered a marriage.
Given that Wendel, a 26% investor (with 46% voting rights) in BV, had previously intimated its desire to sell its stake, it is perhaps no surprise that BV were rumoured last year to have had merger discussions with Intertek who has complementary capabilities. A premature leak in
January which forced the announcement that SGS and BV were in advance merger talks, therefore took the market by surprise, and meant that the proposed deal was evaluated by the market before the partners could put forward their strategic justification.
This would mark the largest ever acquisition in the TIC+ sector at equity value of +€30Bn, nearly four times the last largest transaction of €7bn Tamsek (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund) paid for Element Materials in 2022.
BV were rumoured last year to have had merger discussions with Intertek who has complementary capabilities.
The fact that BV’s shares increased by 10% (reflecting likely buyer’s premium) and SGS’s fell by 10% perhaps suggested that the market may have failed to understand the underlying economics of the deal.
Although, the consolidation of TIC+ platforms is the very “meat and gravy” of the sector’s superior growth, this is based on tried and tested arguments of complementary sales synergies and cost efficiencies. The merger of SGS and BV (representing close to 10% of the overall outsourced TIC+ market) however, represented the combination of an already large, broad-based, global and largely similar businesses that will have already leveraged obvious cross-sales opportunities.
The SGS/BV debacle has cleared the path for a potentially transformative mega merger built on better strategic synergy.
While there would be indeed the potential for cost synergies of duplicated group central costs, this would be relatively small, since the greater cost synergy prize would ultimately involve wide-spread laboratory consolidation which typically is more complex and challenging due to its major disruption (internally and externally) and therefore over a much longer-term.
Without a clear justification of what exact gap was being filled or value generated, observers interpreted, that given Wendel’s desire for an exit, SGS were not prepared to see their nearest rival marry another competitor, and so pushed for the mother of all deals, regardless of the inconsistencies to what they had delivered to the market in their existing growth plan. Ultimately after just over 1 week of market dissension, SGS & BV decided to call a halt to their merger talks, citing not unexpectedly, a range of problems around governance, location of HQ, extent of synergies and divisional structure.
Clarity in strategic fit is key for any future mega merger to succeed.
They both committed to instead refocus on, what to be fair, has been their already impressive independent growth plans involving healthy organic growth, cost-reduction plans, and a revitalised M&A strategy, which has seen both increase their ranking in the TIC+ M&A players (see below). Whether the leak of the merger, simply prejudiced the parties ability to drive through the necessary negotiations or whether it provided clarity on the challenges that they would face, remains open as to it being a missed opportunity or a bullet dodged!
TIC+ consolidation will favor strategic mergers, with BV-Intertek, PE mega-mergers, or a rising Chinese player as key possibilities.
What this means for the future TIC+ market remains unclear. While it would suggest that future scale mergers of similar broad platforms are unlikely, there clearly remains plenty of scope for different types of scale deals where the strategic justification is better understood (i.e. where the sales are more complementary or combining of an inspection with a testing business). What is clear is that Wendel still desires an exit for its stake and may see BV ultimately clean the dust off it’s past discussions with Intertek, which would create a more understandable fit, than SGS.
In the dynamic world of TIC+ there remain many potential scale options, which we may see in the future, including a mega-merger between PE-backed global buy and build TIC+ players (Phenna, Tentamus, Normec , Alcumus, Amtivo etc.) and the emergence of a large Chinese players such as CTI, is likely another strong possibility.
OUTLOOK FOR
2025
2025 is on track to become a pivotal year for mega deals, as fresh alliances and strategic reorientations redefine the TIC+ market.
After the slight increase of activity in 2024 (see next section), 2025 is expected to bring the larger deals back to the market and with SGS & BV once again now free agents to buy as they please, there will be no lack of interest for the scale PE-backed platforms expected to come such as PACE, ATS and Certified in the US and GBA in Europe. With the major European strategic and PE players now looking to the US with envious eyes, we expect a marked increase in deal activity in North America, to drive towards a greater parity between Europe’s historic dominance in M&A activity.
Beyond traditional consolidation, the market will also see a heightened focus on cybersecurity and AI-driven compliance solutions. As regulation tightens and businesses increasingly rely on AI-powered risk assessments, these sectors will emerge as key battlegrounds for investment and innovation.
The TIC+ space continues to remain an attractive prospect, since its fundamental driver of regulation and the criticality in securing peoples live and future is undiminished. The remaining fragmentation of the outsourced TIC+ market continues to satisfy the growth demands of the existing listed, private and financial sponsors, will undoubtedly continue to attract fresh financial sponsors desperate to deploy their increased capital, and will keep the TIC+ M&A sector both dynamic and exciting.
REVIEW OF 2024 DEAL ACTIVITY
TOP ACQUIRING COMPANIES 2024
These numbers were publicly reported, and it is expected more deals are completed but not announced.
Eurofins retains its leading spot in TIC+ activity although it’s tally of 31 transactions is more than half that of its FY22 high of 65. This slow-down within Eurofins is predictable given its historic high level of acquisitions activity which have largely achieved its scale Life Science platform with future deals only providing geographic fillers or capability extensions. That being said, they have had set-backs both with the collapse of the SGS Agro acquisition and its acquisition of JS Hamilton being blocked by the competition commission.
Trescal, the global leader in calibration services, announced the acquisition of 15 calibration companies in 2024 throughout Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas and increased its ranking by 2 places.
UK based Phenna backed by Oakley Capital continued its aggressive growth strategy and reduced by 1 to number 3 position after completing 8 deals. With Phenna’s +60% weighting in the UK, they are seeking to broaden their global presence and are scaling up their M&A teams to target both US and Europe.
Eurofins - Slowing, But Still on Top
Inflexion’s backed UK buy-build start-up Celnor which only started late in 2023 delivered 15 transactions, focused on Compliance and Geo & Built Environment, and so climbed 17 places to achieve the 4th spot. Certania backed by Greenpeak and Summit Partners similarly were also busy with 15 transactions, focusing on its Life Science centric strategy, with deals including Dutch based Triskelion and climbed 23 places to achieve the 5th spot. The emergence of these players so quickly into the top of the big-buyer’s league table reflects the remarkable ability of such PE platforms to quickly deploy their PE backer’s capital in their chosen sectors and aggressively consolidate the still fragmented marketplace. It is against this ambitious investment strategy of financial sponsors that the more traditional listed TIC+ need to work hard to compete against.
Total Deals
Others 9 Deals
APAC 23 Deals
North America 84 Deals
Europe 146 Deals
Socotec’s acquisition tally was reduced to 9 in the year, seeing it drop 3 places to 6th with their focused M&A strategy perhaps reflecting them nearing the end of their current PE vesting by Cobepa and CD&R.
SGS who publicly heralded an aggressive return to M&A delivered 11 transactions and improved its ranking by 9 places to 7th place. Dutch platform Normec, which was refinanced by is PE backer Astorg increased its acquisition strategy with a healthy 10 deals, improved its ranking by 3 places to 8th place. With Astorg recommitting to its investment, Normec has more than quadrupled in size over the past few years, thanks to an aggressive acquisition strategy, putting it right up there with the leaders in overall M&A activity
PE-backed platforms are rapidly climbing the big-buyer league table
Applied Technical Services backed by Odyssey Investment Partners has steadily built its US-based platform with some 33 transactions over the last 4 years. As it approaches the end of its investment cycle, with an exit expected in 2025, its reduced 5 deals saw it drop its ranking by 4 places to 9th place.
The promised reboot of Bureau Veritas’s M&A engines, delivered 10 transactions and saw it climb 9 places to 10th spot, with more expected in 2025.
FY24 highlighted a dynamic mix of strategic consolidations and bilateral trades
Scale deals during FY24 included ALS, ranked 14 acquired Wessling Group, a German life sciences group. Bridgepoint re-invested into the TIC+ sector through the acquisition of Capita’s 75% of Fera Science, the UK government expert in agriculture, food and environment value chain. Acuren the leading US provider of NDT and critical asset integrity services was sold to a new Admiral a publicly-listed acquisition vehicle formed to undertake acquisitions. Apave ranked 13 in our table acquired IRIS NDT a global specialist in non-destructive testing and inspection.
Other noteworthy deals during the year which reinforced the potential opportunity for bilaterial trades between TIC+ players during the year involved Kiwa’s who with 4 deals was ranked fifteen, acquired the select certification businesses of Element Materials, who themselves in the past were prolific in their acquisition strategy but with only one deal have fallen out of the top 25 ranking. Merieux NutriScience bulked up geographically in its core competence by acquiring the global food testing division of Bureau Veritas, while Eurofins acquired the loss-making Spanish Clinical Diagnostic business of Synlab.
GEOGRAPHIC DEALTRENDS
Europe N.America APAC LATAM & SA MEA
Deals number
It can be seen from the left trends that Europe while plateauing in volumes remains the major arena for TIC+ deal activity at 56%. The US is climbing at 32%, but as noted above we see this as a key growth area.
DEAL TRENDS: EUROPE
Focusing on key national markets in Europe, the UK remains the leader, accounting for 18% of global deals (32% of EU deals), followed by Germany (10%) and the Netherlands (6%).The fact that such mature markets continue to grow in both volume and weighting is largely down to the very active PE-backed players in these territories such as Phenna and Celnor in the UK, Certania and GBA in Germany and Normec in Netherlands. As previously noted all these PE-players have stated their growth ambitions in US, so we may see a different trend develop in the future.
Total Europe Deals :
Others 30 Deals
France 9 Deals
Italy17 Deals
Netherlands 17 Deals
Germany 26 Deals
UK 47 Deals
Percentage of Total Deals in Europe
TIC+ BUYER RANKING
Active Sustainable Buyers
Rank Movement
Targets sorted by FY24 Rank
Red Swan Partners, as a TIC+ centric sell-side advisor, is delighted to share historical buyer activity in the TIC+ marketplace to help potential sellers understand the TIC+ Buyer Universe and optimize their exit strategies.
Additionally, we have ranked the most active players in the TIC+ Buyer’s Universe using our proprietary algorithm, which evaluates each buyer’s likelihood to acquire based on their publicly stated M&A strategy, market activity, and available funding.
Unlike a simple transaction count, this ranking identifies Active Sustainable Buyers (ASB)—those with a long-term, strategic acquisition focus—offering a more accurate reflection of buyer behavior in the evolving TIC+ landscape.
Leadership in the TIC+ sector
10th-12th June 2025
Marbella – Spain
What to Expect:
Panels led by seasoned experts.
Interactive roundtables for deep dives into key topics.
Networking sessions, including evening activities in a luxury setting.
Check the full Schedule
Who Will Attend:
Current/Future/Former CEOs, COOs, CMOs, and private equity investors in mid-sized TIC+ companies, with diversity across industries and regions to encourage a broad exchange of ideas.
Check our speakers
Learn from the Best
Meet the pioneers and thought leaders who shaped the TIC+ sector.
How will market consolidation, AI disruption, and geopolitical challenges reshape the TIC+ industry? What are the best strategies to navigate these challenges and achieve market leadership and growth in TIC+?
The TIC+ sector is experiencing rapid transformation, and this exclusive retreat offers you an unparalleled opportunity to gain actionable strategies for navigating these changes.
Join us for three days at a luxury resort in Marbella, Spain, where industry leaders will gather to tackle the most pressing issues facing the TIC+ sector today.
EXPERT TIC+ ADVISORS READY TO CHALLENGE AND GUIDE MANAGEMENT TO OPTIMISE AND REALISE VALUE.
WHAT WE DO
EXIT READINESS ASSESSMENT
"Value Assessed"
DIGITAL MATURITY ASSESSMENT
"Value Enhanced"
GROW YOUR BUSINESS
"Value Added"
SELLYOUR BUSINESS
"Value Realised"
Consulting with Courage: We do not hesitate to offer clear and honest feedback based on our deep industry expertise and assessment of best practices.
Sector-Specific Expertise with a Proven track record: We offer tailored M&A strategies that ensure our advisory services are both relevant and impactful.
Access to a large pool of buyers: We know global TIC+.
Uncompromising Quality: Our endorsement confirms rigorous assessment, value optimisation and
straightforward transaction pathways, streamlining and expediting the process.
Operational Agility: Our commitment to agility ensures we never miss a deadline, maintaining the highest standard of delivery
MEET THE RED SWAN PARTNERS
We are a dynamic team of individuals who have come together from all around the world to form Red Swan Partners. We have all worked in the Testing, Inspection, Certification, Compliance, Consulting and Calibration TIC+.
We have varied areas of expertise and partner together to change lives.
CEO
Advisory Board Member
Operating Partner
Business Associate
Fractional Chief
Marketing Officer
Marketing
United Kingdom
Spain
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