Sell or Acquire an Automotive or Transport Business

If your workshop, fleet, logistics or transport operation is worth $1M–$50M+

  • Confidential sale, merger or acquisition pathway
  • Senior broker led from first call to settlement
  • Access to off market buyers & exclusive listings
  • Transaction strategy + deal structuring support

Book a Confidential Strategy Call

Paid appraisals and valuations available if required.
Your details remain confidential.

  • Confidential
  • Australia-Wide
  • Senior-led
  • Valuation-Led Negotiation
  • Buyer Screening

Why owners in Automotive & Transport are moving now

Demand has shifted from “nice-to-have” to “must-run” infrastructure: freight, fleets and service capacity. In the ABS Australian Industry release (2023–24), the Transport, postal and warehousing industry recorded a 3.5% ($8.2b) lift in sales and service income, with road transport up 5.3% ($4.4b) and postal/courier pick-up and delivery up 12.0% ($2.5b).

Meanwhile, the automotive services market remains highly fragmented (tens of thousands of operators), creating a steady pipeline of consolidation opportunities for buyers seeking scale and systems.

Overlay those tailwinds with tightening cashflow conditions — ASIC-reported corporate insolvencies in 2024–25 were the highest level since 1999–2000 — and you have a market where preparedness and timing matter.

At the same time, the regulatory and operating environment is changing fast:

  • “Right to repair” reforms have increased access to service and repair information for independent repairers, supporting competitive servicing and improving transparency in diagnostics.

  • The domestic freight task has shown long-term growth, with road and rail dominating domestic freight activity — underpinning strategic interest in logistics assets and networks.

  • Strategic capital is still active in transport and logistics (recent large proposals highlight ongoing appetite for quality assets).

Who we help

Whether you’re selling, buying, or merging, we specialise in privately held businesses across:

  • Mechanical workshops, auto electrical, tyre & service chains

  • Panel beating / smash repair and accident-repair networks

  • Fleet maintenance, heavy vehicle servicing and parts distribution

  • Transport operators (general freight, refrigerated, specialised, last-mile)

  • Warehousing, 3PL, courier, and logistics service providers

The problems that kill value (and how we prevent them)

Owners don’t lose money at the sale — they lose it before the sale.

Common value leaks we see in Automotive & Transportation:

Margin compression and cost drift

Fuel, labour, parts and subcontractor costs can move faster than pricing, especially without tight job costing and a KPI rhythm buyers can trust.

Customer concentration and contract fragility

A few key fleet or B2B accounts can dominate revenue. Buyers will haircut value if contracts are informal, short-dated, or margin-light.

Workshop capacity constraints

Technician shortages, rostering gaps and throughput bottlenecks limit EBITDA even when demand is strong.

Compliance, chain-of-responsibility and safety risk

In transport, compliance systems (maintenance records, fatigue management, NHVR obligations, incident reporting) directly affect buyer risk perception and bankability.

“Owner-in-the-centre” dependency

If the owner quotes every job, manages every driver issue and holds key customer relationships, buyers price the risk — and push harder on terms.

Our valuation-first method (built for serious buyers)

A valuation isn’t a guess — it’s a defendable story backed by data.

We build an evidence-led value narrative using:

  • Normalised EBITDA / SDE (owner adjustments explained and documented)

  • Working capital and capex reality checks (fleet, hoists, tooling, premises)

  • Customer and contract quality analysis (tenure, renewal, margin by account)

  • Benchmark validation using ATO small business benchmark ratios where relevant (e.g., panel beating and smash repairs; machinery/equipment repair ratios) to sense-check performance.

  • Industry context from national statistics to support the investment thesis for buyers.

Outcome: a valuation range and sale strategy you can defend in due diligence — not a number that collapses at the first buyer meeting.

What you get when you engage Wyse Advisory

A structured, confidential process — from value strategy to signed deal.

  • Deal positioning: sharpen the “why buy this” story (contracts, systems, moat, growth levers)

  • Market approach: curated buyer list (trade, private equity, search funds, HNW) and staged outreach

  • Negotiation: protect price, terms, and your future (earn-outs, vendor finance, restraints, handover)

  • Due diligence management: keep momentum and reduce retrade risk

  • Close and transition: clean handover plan that protects staff, customers and continuity

Frequently Asked Questions

Typically $1M–$50M+ value, including owner-operated and management-run businesses.

Most buyers start with normalised EBITDA (or SDE for smaller owner-operator models), then adjust for risk (contracts, systems, concentration) and capital needs (fleet/tooling). Final price is shaped by competition and deal terms.

Confidentiality is built into the process: staged disclosure, NDAs and controlled information release.

Yes — we run acquisition search, target outreach and due diligence support for buyers.

Ready to know what your business is worth — and how to increase it?

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