2.9× the typical asking price of a small business for sale in Europe, as a multiple of its yearly profit. In the US it's 2.6×.
We read more than 67,000 ads for businesses for sale on 16 European marketplaces and set each asking price against the profit and revenue the ad gives.
- More than 67,000
- ads read on 16 European marketplaces
- Nearly 63,000
- running businesses still for sale
- More than 11,000
- with an asking price and a yearly profit to compare
Key findings
- Small businesses for sale in Europe ask a median 2.9 times their yearly profit, against 2.6 times cash flow in the US.
- In the same industries, European asks run 17% above American ones. 14 of the 24 industries we can compare ask more in Europe.
- Where the ad adds the owner's pay back into profit, the closest match to the US measure, Europe asks 2.8 times, against 2.6 in the US. On EBITDA, Europe asks 3.0 times and the US 3.2.
- Against revenue, European ads ask 0.73 times a year's sales, against 0.59 in the US.
- 60% of the European sellers who say why they're selling name retirement.
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France sets the European number.
98% of the multiples come from French ads, where sellers publish the profit next to the price far more often than anywhere else. Counting each of the 4 countries the same gives 3.0 times. The dashed line is the US.
- Germany: median 3.4×, middle half from 1.7× to 4.4×
- Belgium: median 3.0×, middle half from 2.0× to 4.2×
- France: median 2.9×, middle half from 2.2× to 3.8×
- United Kingdom: median 2.2×, middle half from 1.5× to 3.6×
fulkersonadvisors.com
Each row is a country with 30 or more ads that give a price and a yearly profit. The band is the middle half of its ads and the dot the median. The US line is cash flow, which includes the owner's pay.
The kind of profit changes the answer.
European ads give profit in different ways. Set each kind against the US figure it matches.
- Profit with the owner's pay: 2.6× US, 2.8× Europe, +9%
- EBITDA: 3.2× US, 3.0× Europe, −7%
fulkersonadvisors.com
The first row sets European profit with the owner's pay added back against US cash flow, which includes it. The second sets EBITDA against EBITDA, on US listings that give it.
Why the kind of profit matters.
US listings report the seller's discretionary earnings, the profit before the owner pays themselves. A buyer who runs the business takes that pay out of it, so each dollar is worth less than a dollar of profit after a manager's wage.
48% of the European ads with a multiple give EBITDA or the French EBE, which is after wages but often before the owner's own pay in a sole trader's business, and 42% add the owner's pay back. Where we compare Europe with the US, we keep each kind against its match. These are asking prices, not the prices the businesses sell for.
14 of 24 industries ask more in Europe.
The same industries, side by side. Restaurants, cafés and bars make up 64% of the European ads with a profit to compare.
- Restaurants: 2.3× US, 2.8× Europe, +22%
- Bars, pubs and nightclubs: 2.6× US, 3.2× Europe, +21%
- Cafes, bakeries and delis: 2.5× US, 2.6× Europe, +2%
- Convenience stores: 2.1× US, 3.0× Europe, +43%
- Quick service restaurants: 2.7× US, 2.7× Europe, 0%
- Hair salons and barbershops: 2.0× US, 2.0× Europe, 0%
- Grocery stores: 2.6× US, 2.6× Europe, −1%
- Clothing and accessory stores: 2.6× US, 2.1× Europe, −18%
- Auto repair shops: 2.7× US, 2.8× Europe, +6%
- Catering companies: 2.3× US, 2.6× Europe, +13%
- Plumbing and construction contractors: 2.7× US, 3.0× Europe, +13%
- Nail salons and beauty studios: 1.8× US, 2.2× Europe, +26%
- Flower shops: 2.3× US, 1.9× Europe, −15%
- Car dealerships: 2.7× US, 3.1× Europe, +15%
- Furniture stores: 2.6× US, 2.5× Europe, −5%
- HVAC and electrical contractors: 3.0× US, 2.9× Europe, −2%
- Liquor stores: 2.9× US, 2.8× Europe, −3%
- Wholesale distributors: 3.3× US, 3.8× Europe, +15%
- Metal fabricators: 3.2× US, 3.3× Europe, +2%
- Equipment rental businesses: 3.5× US, 3.2× Europe, −10%
- Websites and e-commerce businesses: 2.9× US, 2.8× Europe, −4%
- Sign makers, machine shops and fabricators: 3.2× US, 3.5× Europe, +9%
- Landscaping and lawn care businesses: 2.7× US, 2.9× Europe, +8%
- Mediterranean restaurants: 2.1× US, 2.9× Europe, +39%
fulkersonadvisors.com
Industries with 30 or more European ads that give a price and a profit. The US medians are from our study of US businesses for sale.
Against revenue, 5 of 10 countries ask more than the US.
Ads that leave out profit still tend to give revenue, so more countries show up here. European ads ask 0.73 times a year's sales, the US 0.59.
- Portugal: median 0.9×, middle half from 0.5× to 1.6×
- United Kingdom: median 0.8×, middle half from 0.4× to 1.5×
- France: median 0.7×, middle half from 0.5× to 1.0×
- Switzerland: median 0.6×, middle half from 0.4× to 1.0×
- Germany: median 0.6×, middle half from 0.4× to 0.9×
- Italy: median 0.6×, middle half from 0.4× to 1.3×
- Belgium: median 0.5×, middle half from 0.3× to 0.8×
- Denmark: median 0.4×, middle half from 0.3× to 1.1×
- Finland: median 0.4×, middle half from 0.2× to 0.7×
- Sweden: median 0.4×, middle half from 0.3× to 0.5×
fulkersonadvisors.com
Each row is a country with 30 or more ads that give a price and a yearly revenue.
Retirement leads the reasons to sell.
The share of sellers who give a reason and name retirement, by country.
- France
- 68%
- Austria
- 63%
- Germany
- 58%
- Finland
- 52%
- United Kingdom
- 49%
- Spain
- 47%
- Italy
- 42%
- Switzerland
- 40%
- Sweden
- 39%
- Belgium
- 38%
- Netherlands
- 35%
- Denmark
- 18%
- Portugal
- 16%
fulkersonadvisors.com
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How we did it
We read the ads on 16 business-for-sale marketplaces in Europe from October 30 to November 1, 2026, 67,421 pages in total, through a proxy service and within each site's robots.txt and crawl delay. Sites that ask for permission before reading, or that turned us away, aren't in the study.
Jev, a model from TypeSafe that answers questions with a probability, read each ad in its own language. In one pass it answered what the ad offers (a running business, a lease, premises, a franchise unit or a stake), whether it's still for sale, which written amount is the asking price, the profit and the revenue, what kind of profit it is and over what period, whether the price includes the property, where the business is, why the owner is selling and which industry of the US study it belongs to. Code only listed the amounts written on the page, so every amount Jev picked is one the ad states.
62,595 ads are running businesses still for sale. An ad posted twice with the same text counts once. They come from France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Finland, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark, Austria, Ireland, Czechia and Estonia, among others.
A multiple is the asking price divided by the yearly profit, in the same currency. As in the US study, we left out multiples below 0.3 or above 20 and ads whose price includes the property, which leaves 11,497. Prices or profits given as a range are left out. The headline counts profit with the owner's pay or one-off costs added back, EBITDA or the French EBE as reported, and profit that doesn't say which kind. Operating, pre-tax and net profit are left out of it. A typical ask is the median. French ads give 98% of the multiples, so we also took the median of the 4 country medians, which counts each country the same: 3.0 times.
The like-for-like gap compares the median in Europe and in the US for each of the 24 industries with 30 or more European multiples, and averages the ratios weighted by the European count. Price to revenue is the asking price divided by a year's revenue, kept between 0.05 and 10 as in the US study, 28,213 ads. Prices or revenues given as a range are left out of it.
The US numbers are from our study of US businesses for sale, read on September 24, 2026: 2.6 times cash flow on 20,975 listings, 3.2 times EBITDA on 3,657 and 0.59 times revenue on 27,105. Prices in other currencies were converted at the European Central Bank's rates of October 30, 2026.
To check the reading, a second model, OpenAI's GPT-6-Astra, read a sample of ads from every country without seeing Jev's answers. Weighted back to every ad, the two agree on whether an ad gives a multiple, and on the multiple within 5%, for 99% of ads.
These are asking prices, not the prices the businesses sell for. Ads are as they stood when we read them.
The CSV has one row per ad, with its country, industry, the kind of profit it gives, its asking multiple of profit and of revenue in bands, and the reason for selling. It's free to use under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to Fulkerson Advisors.
Cite this study
Fulkerson Advisors (2026). What small businesses for sale ask in Europe: 62,595 ads, October 30 to November 1, 2026. https://www.fulkersonadvisors.com/research/small-business-multiples-europe
The charts and the CSV are free to use with a link to this page.
The data is also on Zenodo, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23852687.
Questions
What multiple do small businesses sell for in Europe?
Small businesses for sale in Europe ask a median 2.9 times their yearly profit, with the middle half between 2.2 and 3.8. These are asking prices, and businesses usually sell for less than they ask.
Are businesses cheaper in Europe than in the US?
Not by their asking prices. In the same industries, European ads ask 17% more for each unit of profit than US listings ask for each dollar of cash flow.
What is a typical EBITDA multiple for a small business in Europe?
Ads that give EBITDA, or the French EBE, ask a median 3.0 times it. US listings that give EBITDA ask 3.2 times.
What do small businesses in France ask?
French ads ask a median 2.9 times yearly profit. Restaurants, cafés and bars make up 64% of the French ads with a profit to compare.
How much is a small business worth compared with its revenue in Europe?
European ads ask a median 0.73 times a year's revenue, against 0.59 in the US.