A confidential way for owners of Singapore event, corporate and contract caterers, and of central kitchens, to understand what the business is worth and explore a sale. Nothing named, and nothing reaches your clients, staff or competitors until you decide.
A private read on your number. No commitment, no call required, nothing on the record.
Most owners we speak to have spent years building what they have. When they start to think about selling, the same three worries surface. We take all three off your plate, in this order.
Catering runs on repeat clients and a small circle of suppliers and competitors who all talk. A rumour of a sale can push a corporate client to re-tender. Nothing carries your name, so clients hear it from you, once the deal is safe.
Most owners guess at their number. We start with a clear, evidence-based view of value and prepare your financials so a buyer pays for what the business is genuinely worth.
A signed offer is the easy part. We run the process to completion, including the awkward steps, so it holds together to the end rather than drifting and dying.
The promise should feel concrete, not like a slogan. Here is exactly how your name, your team and your clients stay protected until you are ready.
Your business is shown only after a buyer has signed an NDA and you have approved them by name.
Early documents carry a reference code, not your name or address, so nothing identifying circulates while interest is being gauged.
You approve every step and every buyer before they learn who you are. The process runs at your pace, never ahead of it.
Catering businesses are valued on normalised earnings, after a market salary for every role you fill and with one-off grants removed. Two caterers with the same profit can sell a turn or more apart, depending on how much of next year’s revenue is already secured.
We normalise your financials so the buyer sees the true earning power of the business, not the owner's personal lens on it.
Multi-year contracts with schools, hospitals, offices or dormitories that can pass to a new owner, corporate clients who order every month and a central kitchen with spare capacity all lift the multiple. We evidence each one with order history and contract terms.
MUIS halal certification has to be applied for again when ownership changes, SFA licences do not transfer in a sale of assets, and the kitchen often depends on a few senior cooks and foreign workers. We plan each of these before a buyer raises it.
Businesses like yours in Singapore typically sell for 2.75x to 3.75x normalised EBITDA.
This is the range for event and corporate catering. Caterers with multi-year contracts that can pass to a new owner, or a central kitchen with wholesale income, sit towards the top, while those that depend on the owner’s relationships sit lower. The upper end, around 5x, usually needs competing buyers and a business that runs without you. These are conservative ranges from Singapore SME transactions, not a valuation.
Food caterers in Singapore, at current prices.
SingStat: Food & Beverage Services IndexIn food caterers. A year earlier: 166 opened, 183 closed.
SingStat: formation and cessation of business entities (ACRA data)From the Singapore Department of Statistics, checked 25 October 2026, and refreshed on the 1st of each month. Industry-wide figures, not a forecast for any one business.
How much of next year’s revenue is already secured, and how much kitchen capacity a buyer gets, decide where in the range a caterer lands. These are the ranges we use, as a multiple of normalised EBITDA.
| Type | Typical range, EV to normalised EBITDA | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Catering, events and corporate | 2.75x to 3.75x, up to 5x | Corporate clients who order every month, halal certification and a delivery fleet. Lumpy event income and one or two large clients pull it down. Try it in the calculator |
| Institutional or contract catering (schools, hospitals, workplaces) | 3x to 4x, up to 5x | Contracts of two years or more that can pass to a new owner. Tendered contracts that end on a change of owner count for much less. Try it in the calculator |
| F&B group with central kitchen, catering or wholesale | 4x to 5x, up to 6x | A licensed central kitchen with spare capacity, plus wholesale or OEM income from other F&B brands. Try it in the calculator |
| Food manufacturing or central kitchen supplier | 3x to 4x, up to 5.5x | OEM contracts, HACCP and halal certification, supermarket listings and a factory lease with years to run. Try it in the calculator |
Acquisitions by listed groups, where the filing disclosed the price. Listed buyers quote a multiple of profit before or after tax, which is a higher number than the EBITDA ranges above for the same price. Each row links to the filing, and there are more on our valuation multiples page.
| Year | Transaction | Price or multiple | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Neo Group takes 51% of a snack brand (RIFI, Crusty’s) | About 3.3x PBT, pre-money | Small cash subscription into the company. |
| 2020 | Koufu buys a bakery and snack group (Deli Asia) | 7.7x PBT; 3.1x NTA | All cash. A larger, strategic target: a ceiling for SMEs, not a typical outcome. |
| 2019 | SATS buys out BRF’s 49% of a food supply business (SATS BRF) | 0.82x NTA | A buyout of a joint-venture partner below book value. A floor for asset-heavy supply businesses. |
| 2018 | Neo Group buys 51% of How’s Catering | About 6.8x PBT (7.2x with earn-out); 2.6x NTA | An S$8m business. A small S$255,000 earn-out depended on combined profit over the three years to March 2021. |
| 2018 | Neo Group buys 51% of Lavish Dine Catering | About 14x NTA after its properties were sold out; loss-making | Priced on brand and clients, not profit. Both properties were sold out of the business before completion, one to the vendors’ own company, and leased back. |
| 2018 | Neo Group buys a further 25.7% of Thong Siek (DoDo) | 9.9x PBT; 3.2x NTA | Part paid up front, part set off against money the vendor owed, and the rest about six months later. |
| 2017 | ABR (Swensen’s) buys 80% of Chilli Padi | 6.5x normalised profit after tax (stated) | Backed by a two-year profit guarantee. The last 20% can be bought later on the same 6.5x formula. |
Listed F&B groups, larger caterers and coffee shop chains buy caterers and central kitchens to secure halal capacity, cut labour per outlet and add corporate clients. We make them compete, quietly.
We check every contract for change-of-control and assignment terms, time the client conversations, and plan the halal, SFA and manpower changes so the order book survives completion.
We run a very discreet sale process, so there is nothing your team can stumble on, and nothing moves without your say-so.
You work directly with Ben from start to finish. No being handed to a junior once the engagement begins.
Our job is a deal that closes, not a listing that lingers for a year. We manage the path from offer to a clean close.
We read the things a generalist broker misses, the dependencies a buyer probes and that quietly cut a price if ignored.
The advisory team behind more than 70 owner-operated transactions across Singapore, now extending the same playbook to established businesses across sectors.
Three years of sales by client, with each contract’s start, end, renewal history and any clause on assignment or change of control. Buyers pay most for revenue that is already secured.
Your MUIS certificate, SFA licences and audit history. Halal needs a new application on a change of ownership, so the timing is agreed with the buyer.
Capacity used today, food cost and labour as a share of sales, and the kitchen and factory lease. Spare capacity is part of what a buyer is paying for.
Who the senior cooks and client managers are, how long they have been with you, and your foreign worker quota position. Key staff on retention terms make a buyer more comfortable.
Event deposits and prepaid packages are owed to clients. A buyer deducts them from the price, so list them before they ask.
Remove grants and one-off spikes from your figures before a buyer does. Kimly stripped out pandemic grants before pricing Tenderfresh, and every serious buyer will do the same.
Start with a short questionnaire by email, under NDA. For a fixed fee, we tell you honestly what your business is worth and what would lift it.
If a sale fits, we agree the approach. If the timing is wrong, we can stay on as your adviser and get the business ready to sell.
Every buyer is NDA-gated and approved by you before anything identifying is shared.
We manage due diligence, licence and lease transfer, and the difficult conversations, through to signing.
Confidentially. Nothing carries your name. Early materials use a reference code, buyers see identifying details only after signing an NDA you have approved by name, and you decide when clients and staff are told. Clients are usually told at or after completion, ideally by you and the buyer together, with a clear message that the food, the team and the service carry on.
It is priced off normalised earnings. Event and corporate caterers usually sell for about 2.75 to 3.75 times normalised EBITDA, and contract caterers with assignable multi-year contracts for about 3 to 4 times, with up to 5 times for the best. A caterer with its own central kitchen and wholesale income can reach about 6 times. Listed groups that bought Singapore caterers paid more on their own measure: Neo Group paid 6.75 times pre-tax profit for How’s Catering in 2018, and ABR paid 6.5 times normalised profit after tax for Chilli Padi in 2017. We give you a valuation in writing, under NDA, for a fixed fee credited against our success fee if you sell with us.
Listed F&B groups wanting kitchen capacity or corporate clients, as in the Neo Group, ABR and Kimly deals; larger caterers and contract caterers; coffee shop and food court chains that want to cut labour in their outlets; and private equity building a larger platform. A halal-certified kitchen with spare capacity is particularly sought after.
Not automatically. MUIS requires a new halal application when ownership or the company registration number changes. SFA food licences cannot be transferred: in a sale of shares they stay with the company, while in a sale of the business and assets the buyer applies for its own. Both shape the deal structure and the timetable, so we raise them with your lawyer and the buyer early, and check with MUIS and SFA before signing.
It affects the structure. The foreign worker quota belongs to the company that employs them. In a sale of shares the company, its staff and its quota stay together. In a sale of the business and assets, staff move to the buyer’s company, which needs enough local employees of its own to carry the work passes. We plan this with the buyer before signing so the kitchen keeps running.
Often, yes. Chilli Padi’s sellers guaranteed S$6m of profit after tax over two years, How’s Catering had an earn-out over three years, and Kimly tied S$4m of the Tenderfresh price to a profit target. We negotiate to keep as much as possible payable at completion and to set targets the business can realistically hit.
Our sale fee is success-based and paid on completion: no sale, no fee. A written valuation is a separate fixed fee, agreed and paid before we start, and credited in full against our success fee if you sign with us within 6 months and the sale completes. The first conversation, a short questionnaire and our written recommendation on which valuation fits are free and carry no obligation.
Clearmere is confidential M&A advisory for owner-operated SMEs, typically S$1m to S$20m in revenue. The lower-mid market the large firms overlook and generalist brokers tend to fumble. You get senior attention on your sale, not a junior and a template.
Ben takes on a small number of mandates at a time, personally. The 70-plus deal record sits with the advisory team and is honest experience across owner-operated Singapore businesses, now being extended to established businesses across sectors.
Your valuation is private, and there is no obligation to sell. If it is not the right time, you keep the report and have told no one.
Start with a short confidential questionnaire by email. No commitment, no call required, and nothing reaches your team or the market until you decide it should.
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