If you're starting to think about the future of your business — what happens to your team, your customers, your name — you're probably already suspicious of the usual options. You should be. There's a better one.
Have a confidential conversation →It's probably not a crisis that brought you here. More likely, it's a quiet question that won't go away.
You've built something real. A business with a name people trust, a team who've given you their careers, customers who rely on you, systems you've refined for decades. You're not burnt out — or maybe you are, a little. Either way, you're starting to think about what happens to all of it when you step back.
And when you're honest with yourself, most of the obvious paths feel wrong.
Private equity will smile at your numbers, load the business with debt, restructure the people they see as overhead, and sell it again in five years. They'll tell you they're different. They all say that.
A trade buyer means your business gets absorbed. Your name disappears into a larger entity. Your team becomes a list of redundancies. The things that made your business yours become inefficiencies to someone who already has a version of them.
A broker process means your financials go to thirty strangers, your staff find out before you're ready, and you spend six months in a negotiation designed to extract leverage from you at every stage.
Passing it to the kids is only a plan if they actually want it. Most of the time, if you're honest, they're not ready. And you know it.
There is another option.
We buy businesses like yours — profitable, owner-led, industrial or commercial, with a team and a reputation and a track record — and we keep them. Not for a fund cycle. Not until the market improves. Permanently.
We don't restructure. We don't rebrand. We don't replace your management with our people. We don't send consultants. We don't do any of the things that turn a great business into a cautionary tale about what went wrong after the sale.
What we do is simple: pay a fair price, close properly, and let the business keep being the business.
We're not looking for a diamond in the rough. We're looking for businesses that are already excellent.
The size that gets overlooked — too big for individual buyers, too small for institutional PE. That's our sweet spot.
Consistent, growing, proven. Not a hockey stick. Steady and compounding.
Engineering, trade services, technical distribution, specialist trades, professional services with recurring revenue. If you serve a defined market and do it better than anyone else — that's exactly what we're looking for.
If you've built a team that could run things day-to-day — even if you're still deeply involved — we want to talk.
We buy directly from owners. We don't buy from PE firms or intermediary vehicles.
No single customer representing more than 20% of revenue. If you have a concentration, worth a conversation — but we weigh it carefully.
No auction. No data room sent to twenty buyers. No pressure.
You reach out. We talk — by phone, video, or coffee. No NDA required at this stage. Nothing formal until you want it to be. You learn about us; we learn about you.
If it feels like a fit, we'll ask to understand your business properly — not to find problems, but to understand what makes it work. We sign an NDA and move at your pace.
We make one offer, clearly. We don't lowball to anchor. We don't renegotiate in due diligence unless something material surfaces you didn't tell us. You'll know where you stand.
Lawyers do their work, money moves, the business carries on. With you if you want to stay involved. Without you if you're ready to step back. We follow your lead.
Management stays. The team stays. The brand stays. The customer relationships you've spent years building stay.
We don't arrive with a hundred-day plan. We don't install a new CFO. We don't "optimise" anything in the first year except our own understanding of the business.
What you built continues. The legacy you've spent decades creating remains intact — under stable, permanent ownership, with the resources to keep growing.
We've never sold a business we've acquired. We're not starting now.
"We acquired Tubman Heating in 2024. It was founded in 1984. It has 45 people and four decades of reputation in Auckland's industrial and commercial boiler and burner market. That reputation is intact. The team is intact. We intend to keep it that way."PermaTech
Yes. Completely. We don't tell anyone you've been in touch. The first conversation is just a conversation — nothing is exposed until you're ready.
No. You're welcome to have one if you prefer, but you don't need one to talk to us. We work directly with owners.
Rarely, and never without good reason. We acquire businesses because they're already well-run. Our model depends on management teams continuing to do what they're good at.
They stay. That's not a reluctant promise — it's core to how we work. Your people stay with the business they know, with the culture they helped build.
Almost every PE fund now has a permanent capital story. Almost none of them mean it — they still have LPs, they still have exit incentives. PermaTech is a private holding company with no external investors and no fund lifecycle. When we say we hold forever, that's the structure, not the marketing.
We typically pay 3–5x EBIT for businesses that meet our criteria. We're transparent about that from the first conversation. We don't offer 7x to win the deal and renegotiate in due diligence.
From first conversation to close: typically 3–5 months. We don't drag it out. We don't use process delays as leverage.
That's fine. Most of the people we talk to aren't sure yet. The first conversation isn't a commitment to anything — it's just information. You'll come away knowing more about whether this is even the right path for you.
Every acquisition starts with a confidential chat. No obligation, no process until you're ready.
If this feels like it might be the right kind of conversation, reach out. It stays between us until you decide otherwise. No obligation. No broker. No process you didn't ask for.
— Chuck Slogrove and Joel Surges, PermaTech