The deal tape
A precedent transactions set answers one question: what did somebody actually pay for a company like this one. Every row here is a US public target that filed a merger proxy or a going-private statement since 2020, with the offer per share, the premium to the unaffected price and the enterprise value multiples read from the filing itself rather than bought from a feed. Choose a sector, an industry code and a size band, and the quartiles above the list are the answer for that cut.
What it is not. Private-company deals, non-US targets and any transaction where no proxy was required leave nothing to read, so none of them are here. Neither are minority stakes or asset sales. Where a cross-check failed, the row still appears and says why, and it is held out of every median and quartile so one bad reading cannot move a number you would quote.
106 deals in this cut, 53 of them safe to take a multiple from and 102 safe to take a premium from. Enterprise value is stated where a balance sheet and a share count could be read at the period end before announcement.
What this cut was bought at
Each measure counts the readings that survive its own cross-checks. Fewer than 4 is a coincidence, not a market.
| Measure | Deals | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EV / LTM EBITDA | 5 | 8.2x | 12.1x | 13.9x |
| EV / LTM revenue | 45 | 0.3x | 0.8x | 1.4x |
| Premium to unaffected price | 59 | 16% | 30% | 43% |
| Premium to 30-day VWAP | 7 | 21% | 34% | 49% |
Read the EBITDA multiple against the revenue multiple before you use either. Where they disagree sharply the target was priced on growth rather than earnings, and the EBITDA line is the one that will not survive a second question.
| Target | Acquirer | Industry | EV | EV / EBITDA | EV / revenue | Premium | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sirius International Insurance Group, Ltd. 2020-08-06 · Public merger · $9.50 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Third Point Re Strategic | Financials | $1.6bn | n.a. | 0.9x | n.a. | DEFM14A Includes stock |
National General Holdings Corp. 2020-07-07 · Public merger · $32.00 a share | The Allstate Corporation Strategic | Financials | $3.8bn | n.a. | 0.7x | n.a. | DEFM14A All cash |
FGL Holdings 2020-02-07 · Public merger · $12.50 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Fidelity National Financial, Inc. Strategic | Financials | $2.3bn | n.a. | 1.1x | n.a. | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Emc Insurance Group Inc 2019-05-08 · Take-private · $36.00 a share Held out of the multiples: no balance sheet at announcement: EV = equity value | Employers Mutual Casualty Company Strategic | Financials | $780m | n.a. | 1.1x | 50% | SC 13E3 All cash |
Emc Insurance Group Inc 2019-05-08 · Public merger · $36.00 a share Held out of the multiples: no balance sheet at announcement: EV = equity value | Employers Mutual Casualty Company Strategic | Financials | $780m | n.a. | 1.1x | 50% | DEFM14A All cash |
Wellcare Health Plans, Inc. 2019-03-26 · Public merger · $120.00 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Centene Corporation Strategic | Financials | $3.6bn | 4.2x | 0.2x | n.a. | DEFM14A Includes stock |
FGL Holdings 2018-09-06 (filed) · Take-private · $0.98 a share | Not named in the filing Unclassified | Financials | -$1.2bn | n.a. | -0.8x | n.a. | SC 13E3 All cash |
Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd 2018-08-27 · Public merger · $42.75 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Highlands Holdings, Ltd. Strategic | Financials | $1.8bn | n.a. | 0.7x | 7% | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Navigators Group Inc 2018-08-22 · Public merger · $70.00 a share | The Hartford Strategic | Financials | $1.9bn | n.a. | 1.4x | 7% | DEFM14A All cash |
Stewart Information Services Corp 2018-03-18 · Public merger · $50.00 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Fidelity National Financial, Inc. Strategic | Financials | $1.1bn | n.a. | 0.6x | n.a. | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Cigna Holding Co 2018-03-08 · Public merger · $48.75 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Express Scripts Strategic | Financials | $14bn | n.a. | 0.3x | n.a. | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Xl Group Ltd 2018-03-05 · Public merger · $57.60 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Camelot Holdings Ltd. Strategic | Financials | $15bn | n.a. | 1.3x | n.a. | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Amtrust Financial Services, Inc. 2018-03-01 · Public merger · $13.50 a share | Evergreen Parent, L.P. Unclassified | Financials | $1.9bn | n.a. | 0.3x | 33% | DEFM14A All cash |
Amtrust Financial Services, Inc. 2018-03-01 · Take-private · $13.50 a share | Evergreen Parent, L.P. Unclassified | Financials | $1.9bn | n.a. | 0.3x | 33% | SC 13E3 All cash |
Infinity Property & Casualty Corp 2018-02-13 · Public merger · $51.60 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Vulcan Sub, Inc. Strategic | Financials | $728m | n.a. | 0.5x | n.a. | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Validus Holdings Ltd 2018-01-21 · Public merger · $68.00 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Not named in the filing Unclassified | Financials | $5.4bn | n.a. | 1.9x | 46% | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Aetna Inc /Pa/ 2017-12-03 · Public merger · $145.00 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Not named in the filing Unclassified | Financials | $49bn | n.a. | 0.8x | n.a. | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Investors Heritage Capital Corp 2017-10-27 · Public merger · $44.75 a share Held out of every statistic: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price; premium of 155%: distressed or misread | Aquarian Investors Heritage Holdings, LLC Strategic | Financials | $47m | n.a. | 0.7x | 155% | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Fidelity National Financial, Inc. 2017-10-19 (filed) · Public merger · $15.00 a share | Not named in the filing Unclassified | Financials | $631m | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | DEFM14A All cash |
State National Companies, Inc. 2017-07-26 · Public merger · $21.00 a share | Markel Corporation Strategic | Financials | $838m | n.a. | 3.6x | 7% | DEFM14A All cash |
FGL Holdings 2017-05-24 · Public merger · $31.10 a share | CF Corp. Strategic | Financials | $2.6bn | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | DEFM14A All cash |
Fidelity & Guaranty Life 2017-05-24 · Public merger · $31.10 a share | CF Corporation Strategic | Financials | $1.2bn | n.a. | 1.0x | 8% | DEFM14C All cash |
OneBeacon Insurance Group, Ltd. 2017-05-02 · Public merger · $18.10 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Intact Financial Corporation Strategic | Financials | $1.8bn | n.a. | 1.5x | 14% | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Allied World Assurance Co Holdings, GmbH 2016-12-18 · Public merger · $23.00 a share Held out of the multiples: consideration includes stock: the cash figure is not the price | Not named in the filing Unclassified | Financials | $1.2bn | n.a. | 0.5x | 18% | DEFM14A Includes stock |
Universal American Corp. 2016-11-17 · Public merger · $10.00 a share | WellCare Health Plans, Inc. Strategic | Financials | $323m | n.a. | 0.3x | 30% | DEFM14A All cash |
How to use a set like this
Cut to the narrowest set that still holds eight or ten deals, then quote the range rather than the median. An interviewer who asks where software takes out will accept a spread and press on a single number, because the single number implies a precision the set does not have. Say which deals sit at each end and why: the top of a range is usually a contested auction or a strategic buyer with synergies, the bottom a controlling holder buying in the minority.
Premiums move with the reference price, not only with the deal. A bidder quotes the period that flatters the offer, so read the premium to the unaffected close beside the premium to the thirty-day average and notice when they diverge.
What each column means
- Enterprise value.
- Offer per share times shares outstanding, plus net debt at the last balance sheet before the merger agreement. It is blank where either piece was missing, and those rows are in the “not computed” band rather than in a size they never earned.
- Premium.
- The offer against the unaffected price, which is the last close before the deal became known. Where the filing states a premium to the thirty-day volume-weighted average, that is shown next to it.
- Deal type.
- A take-private is bought by an affiliate, which is what triggers the Schedule 13E-3 and the fuller disclosure that comes with it. A public merger is an arm’s-length buyer, disclosed through the merger proxy.
- In doubt.
- A cross-check the reading could not satisfy: an equity value far from the fee-table figure, a multiple outside any sane band, or consideration that is partly stock so the per-share cash figure is not the price. The row stays visible, and it is set aside only for the measures the doubt reaches. A cash-and-stock deal cannot price a multiple and still states a premium the filing itself computed, so it counts in one and not the other.
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