M&A · Industrials · Services-Personal Services
Cintas Corp to acquire UniFirst Corp
Announced Mar 11, 2026 · Pending May 11, 2026
Deal value$5.50BEV $5.50B
Premium18.0%To unaffected price
EV / Adj. EBITDA16.8x2.2x EV / Revenue
ConsiderationCash and stock$310.00 per share
Transaction
- Acquirer
- Cintas Corp (CTAS)
- Target
- UniFirst Corp (UNF)
- Buyer type
- Strategic
- Offer price per share
- $310.00
- Enterprise value
- $5.50B
- Status
- Pending May 11, 2026
Deal protections
- Break fee (target pays)
- $213M · 3.9%
- Reverse fee (buyer pays)
- $350M · 6.4%
- Go-shop
- No-shop
- Financing
- Committed · Morgan Stanley, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Wells Fargo
Advisors
- To the acquirer
- Morgan Stanley
- To the target
- Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan
Sector context · Industrials
- Comparable deals
- 95 in the prior 24 months
- Premium
- 18.0% vs. 35.0% sector median
- EV / Adj. EBITDA
- 16.8x vs. 10.7x sector median
- Break fee
- 3.9% vs. 2.5% sector median
Timeline
- AnnouncedMar 11, 2026
- Proxy filedMay 11, 2026
- Definitive proxyMay 11, 2026
- Shareholder votePending
- ClosedPending
Valuation · fairness opinions
Precedent transactionsJPMorgan$215.50$260.00
Discounted cash flowGoldman Sachs$186.00$257.00
Future share priceGoldman Sachs$160.00$218.00
Precedent transactionsGoldman Sachs$216.00$260.00
Premiums paidGoldman Sachs$185.00$243.00
Offer $310.00
Implied value per UniFirst Corp share by analysis, from JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs · DCF discount rate 7.5%–8.5%.