Is Private Equity Buying HVAC Companies in Ohio? A 2026 Map for Owners

Yes. Private equity is actively buying HVAC, plumbing, and home-services companies in Ohio right now, and the pace picked up through 2026. This is not a national trend that might reach the state eventually. The deals are already closing in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and smaller Ohio markets, and the firms behind them are some of the largest investors in the country.

If you own a heating, cooling, plumbing, or combined home-services business in Ohio, the question is no longer whether a private-equity-backed buyer will reach you. It is what you do when they call, and whether you understand the market well enough to make the decision on your terms. This report lays out who is buying in Ohio, what they pay, what they look for, how the deals are built, and what your options are whether you want to sell or stay independent.

The short answer, and the proof

Private equity has deployed more than 50 billion dollars into residential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical roll-ups across the country since 2018, and Ohio has become one of the more active states in the Midwest. The proof is in the deals already done here.

Sila Services, backed by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, acquired NEOH, an Ohio platform made up of five operating brands: Simpson Heating & Air, Bonsky Heating & Cooling, Best Heating & Air Solutions, Ultra Clean Duct Cleaning, and Coblentz Plumbing Solutions, along with a training academy. Sila also picked up Ainsley Heating & Cooling, a residential HVAC company in Cortland. In Columbus, Wrench Group acquired Buckeye Heating & Cooling, a shop founded in 1948, and folded it under its Williams Comfort Air umbrella. In the Cincinnati area, a private-equity-backed platform acquired HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, Drains and Electric, a business that had served the region for more than 80 years. And Trades Holding Company, a sponsor-backed operator headquartered in Columbus itself, has been rolling up Mr. Rooter plumbing territories across Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, and north-central Ohio.

Crain’s Cleveland Business reported the same thing local owners are seeing firsthand: investors and their bankers say plumbers, electrical contractors, roofers, and especially HVAC service providers are in high demand. The capital is here, and it is buying.

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Who is actually buying in Ohio

Most of the money buying Ohio home-services companies comes through combined-trades platforms, businesses that bundle HVAC, plumbing, and electrical under one owner. A handful of names show up again and again.

Sila Services

Backed by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and acquired from Morgan Stanley Capital Partners in late 2024 at a reported value near 1.7 billion dollars, Sila has made Ohio a clear target with the NEOH and Ainsley deals. Its model adds local brands to a Midwest and Mid-Atlantic footprint while keeping the existing names and teams.

Wrench Group

Backed by Leonard Green & Partners, Wrench runs a national set of brands and has been deliberate about building density in the markets it enters. Its Columbus acquisition of Buckeye is the kind of established, decades-old local shop these platforms prize.

Trades Holding Company

Headquartered in Columbus, Trades Holding consolidates Mr. Rooter and related franchise territories. Several of its Ohio add-ons were completed as part of the founders’ succession planning, which is the single most common reason these deals happen.

The national platforms circling

Beyond the buyers already inside Ohio, the largest consolidators in the trade are expanding outward and will reach the state’s better shops. Apex Service Partners, backed by Apollo at a reported 10 billion dollar valuation and more than 100 brands, is the fastest acquirer in the industry. Champions Group sold to Blackstone in early 2026 at roughly 2.5 billion dollars and about 18.5 times earnings. When platforms trade at those numbers, the pressure to keep buying local add-ons never stops.

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Why Ohio, and why now

The buying is not random, and it is not a fad. It runs on a set of forces that do not turn with the season.

An aging owner base. A large generation of trade-business founders is reaching retirement with no clear successor. A sale to a well-capitalized buyer solves the succession problem and turns a lifetime of work into liquidity. Many of the Ohio deals above were explicitly framed around succession.

Recurring, predictable revenue. Maintenance agreements, membership plans, and the steady drumbeat of repair and replacement work produce the kind of dependable cash flow institutional investors are built to value.

A fragmented market. Ohio has thousands of independent shops and no dominant statewide brand, which gives a platform years of add-on targets in a single state.

A multiple gap worth closing. A single shop typically sells for somewhere around 5 to 8 times earnings. A platform of those same shops can be worth 17 to 20 times. Capital exists to close gaps like that, and that arbitrage is the engine behind every roll-up.

The numbers confirm the momentum. Industry trackers reported that private-equity add-on activity targeting HVAC service providers rose roughly 88 percent year over year through mid-2025, and that financial buyers now account for about half of all HVAC service transactions, up from roughly a third a year earlier.

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What buyers look for

Not every shop is a target for the larger sponsors. The rough floor for serious platform-level interest tends to be a business with around 3 million dollars or more in revenue, roughly 500 thousand dollars or more in EBITDA, a fleet of about ten or more trucks, and a maintenance or membership base above 20 percent of revenue. Below that, you are usually talking to a smaller sub-platform rather than the sponsor directly, which is not a bad thing, just a different conversation.

Beyond size, the businesses that command premium offers share a few traits. They keep clean financials, ideally on an accrual basis with job-level profitability. They have a real management layer, so the company does not stop running when the owner steps away. They document their processes, from pricebook to dispatch. And they hold a customer base they touch several times a year through service agreements, because that recurring relationship is where lifetime value lives.

If you want to know where your own Ohio business stands against these benchmarks, that is exactly the kind of question an outside market read can answer before a buyer answers it for you.

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How the deals are structured

A private-equity offer is rarely a single check. A typical deal stack runs something like 50 to 70 percent cash at close, 10 to 15 percent as an earnout paid over the next two to three years if the business hits agreed targets, and 15 to 30 percent as rollover equity, meaning you keep a stake in the larger platform.

That rollover is the piece owners understand least and should study most. It is the part that can turn a five-million-dollar sale into eight or more if the platform sells again at a higher multiple. It is also the part that carries real risk, because its value depends entirely on a second exit you do not control. The cash at close is certain. The rollover is a bet on the buyer’s whole strategy. Reading that trade-off correctly is most of the work of selling well.

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If you want to sell, and if you want to stay

There are two honest paths in this market, and both can win.

If you want to sell, the most important move is to know your number before a buyer tells you what it is. These platforms underwrite your business with a financial rigor most owners have never applied to their own books. Walking into the conversation knowing what you are worth, and what is dragging that number down, is the whole game. And because there are many active buyers, not one, competition is your leverage. A single buyer with no rival has no reason to stretch. Several buyers who know about each other will.

If you want to stay independent, understand what actually happens when a platform absorbs five local names into one, as Sila did with NEOH. The market does not get less competitive. It gets better funded. The shops that survive and thrive are not the ones who out-work the platform, because the platform has more trucks, more techs, and more capital. They are the ones who stay visibly the local, trusted, independent choice, the name a homeowner finds first and believes. The independents who lose are rarely out-worked. They are out-marketed and invisible in search and in the AI tools homeowners increasingly use to choose a contractor, while the capital moves in around them.

That is the quiet truth under the whole consolidation wave. Demand in Ohio is firm right now, with home turnover at a multi-month high and the summer cooling season driving service calls. The work is there. The question is who the homeowner finds when they go looking, and that is a contest an independent can still win, but only on purpose.

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Frequently asked questions

Is private equity really buying HVAC companies in Ohio?

Yes. Private-equity-backed platforms have completed multiple HVAC, plumbing, and home-services acquisitions in Ohio, including Sila Services buying the five-brand NEOH platform and Ainsley Heating & Cooling, Wrench Group buying Buckeye Heating & Cooling in Columbus, and a backed platform acquiring HELP in the Cincinnati area. Local business press has reported the trend directly.

Which private equity firms are buying Ohio HVAC and plumbing companies?

Active buyers in or expanding into Ohio include Sila Services (backed by Goldman Sachs Alternatives), Wrench Group (backed by Leonard Green & Partners), Trades Holding Company (headquartered in Columbus), and Heartland Home Services. Larger national consolidators such as Apex Service Partners and the Blackstone-owned Champions Group continue to expand and reach the state’s stronger shops.

How much do private equity firms pay for an HVAC company?

Individual shops generally sell in the range of 5 to 8 times EBITDA, while large platforms trade much higher, around 17 to 20 times. Offers are usually structured as a mix of cash at close, an earnout, and rollover equity rather than a single payment, so the headline number and the cash you actually receive can differ significantly.

How big does my Ohio HVAC business need to be for private equity to be interested?

Serious platform-level interest usually starts around 3 million dollars in revenue, roughly 500 thousand dollars in EBITDA, about ten or more trucks, and a maintenance or membership base above 20 percent of revenue. Smaller businesses can still sell, typically to regional sub-platforms rather than directly to the largest sponsors.

Should I sell my HVAC company to private equity or stay independent?

Both can be good outcomes. Selling makes sense if you want liquidity or a succession solution, and your leverage comes from knowing your true value and letting multiple buyers compete. Staying independent can also win, but only if you remain the visibly local, trusted, easy-to-find choice in your market, because the consolidation makes that visibility more valuable, not less.