APi Group acquires Chubb Fire & Security: price, structure and what it means for fire & life safety buyers and sellers

APi Group Corporation

acquires

Chubb Fire & Security business

Price

$3.1B EV

Cash paid

$2.9B

Chubb revenue

~$2.2B TTM

Employees

~13,000

Countries

17

Preferred equity

$800M (Blackstone / Viking)

Published 24 October 2026 · Deal announced 2021-07-27 · Acquisitions.com Deal Reports

Part of the Fire & life safety guide: buying, selling, valuation and who is buying.

This report is for anyone who owns, buys or plans to buy a fire protection, sprinkler, alarm or life safety services business. APi Group acquires Chubb shows exactly what a big buyer pays for: inspection and service contracts that the law requires. By the end you will know what was bought, how it was paid for, and which parts apply to a business a hundredth of the size.

What did APi Group buy from Carrier?

APi bought Chubb, a fire safety and security services company, from Carrier Global. APi's announcement describes Chubb as "a globally recognized fire safety and security provider" that covers design and installation through monitoring and ongoing maintenance.

The numbers in that release: about $2.2 billion of revenue in the twelve months to 31 March 2021, about 13,000 employees, a sales and service network in 17 countries, and a head office in the United Kingdom. The closing release adds that Chubb serves more than 1.5 million customer sites in Asia Pacific, Canada and Europe.

What APi did not buy matters too. Carrier's release says its global fire and security products business was not part of the sale. Carrier kept the products; APi bought the people who install, inspect and service them. That is the point of the deal, for a small buyer too.

What did APi pay, and how was it financed?

APi paid an enterprise value of $3.1 billion: $2.9 billion in cash plus approximately $200 million of assumed liabilities and other adjustments.

The financing is unusually well documented, because APi filed it with the SEC. The Form 8-K on closing lists four sources for the $2.9 billion of cash:

1. Cash on hand (amount not disclosed).
2. $800 million of 5.5% Series B perpetual convertible preferred stock, sold at $1,000 a share: $600 million to Blackstone funds and $200 million to Viking Global funds.
3. A $1.1 billion seven-year incremental term loan, with Citibank as administrative agent.
4. $300 million of 4.750% senior notes due 2029.

Two details are worth a small buyer's attention. First, the preferred stock came with a board seat: Blackstone nominated David Blitzer as the Series B director. Investor money usually brings a voice at the table. Second, the 8-K says the price was adjusted for working capital against a target and reduced by net debt at closing. A $2 million deal uses the same mechanism, with fewer zeros.

Advisors named: Citi and RBC Capital Markets on the deal, Barclays and Citi on financing, Greenberg Traurig and Kane Kessler as counsel.

Why did Chubb fit APi's strategy?

APi wanted recurring service revenue that the law requires customers to buy. Its co-chair James E. Lillie said it plainly in the announcement: "Importantly, 50%+ of our revenue will be service based with meaningful, statutorily-required, recurring revenue."

Co-chair Sir Martin E. Franklin said the deal "transforms APi into the world's leading life safety services provider". On closing, Lillie described the plan as "concentrating the majority of the business on statutorily-mandated, recurring service revenue".

Fire sprinklers, alarms and extinguishers must be inspected on a schedule set by code. A customer cannot skip the inspection the way they can skip a renovation. That is why APi paid a large cash price for a business Carrier was happy to sell. The buyer and the seller looked at the same contracts and valued them differently.

The 2021 releases give no numeric targets. APi's later "13/60/80" and 2028 targets are covered below, under what has happened since.

What does this deal mean for a small fire & life safety buyer or seller?

The reasons APi paid for Chubb are the reasons a $1 million to $20 million fire protection company gets bought.

Inspection contracts are the asset. APi's words were "statutorily-required, recurring revenue". If you are selling, the share of your revenue that comes from scheduled inspections, monitoring and service agreements is the first number a serious buyer will ask for. If you are buying, price that book, not the installation backlog. Installation is lumpy and competitive; inspection renews.

Buyers prune what does not pay. APi's November 2023 update on Chubb reports "a substantial reduction in our loss-making branches in the international business" and says it is "addressing low-value contracts through increased pricing and pruning". A small buyer should expect to do the same in year one, and a seller should expect the buyer to discount contracts priced below cost. Our guide on adjusted EBITDA covers how those contracts show up in the numbers.

Big buyers keep buying. The list of who is active in this trade, with sources, is in who is buying fire & life safety businesses. If you plan to build a group of inspection-led companies yourself, the financing side is at roll-up funding.

What you cannot copy is the capital stack. A first-time buyer pays with an SBA loan, a seller note and some investor money, one private company at a time. Start at /buy if you are buying your first one. The full picture of the trade is in our fire & life safety guide.

What has happened since, and what should you watch?

APi has filed two updates with the SEC that matter here.

In November 2023 APi raised its Chubb "value capture" target by 25%, from $100 million to $125 million of run-rate savings, at a "1:1, or better, cost-benefit ratio", to finish by the end of 2025. The same release repeats a 2025 target of a 13% or better adjusted EBITDA margin.

On 21 May 2025 APi said "all 29,000 of our leaders rallied behind our 13/60/80 targets", expected a 13% or better margin in 2025, and set 2028 targets: $10 billion or more of revenue, a 16%-plus adjusted EBITDA margin, and 60% or more of revenue from inspection, service and monitoring. Chubb is not named; the targets cover the whole company.

For a small owner, three things to watch:

• Pricing on inspections. APi's 2023 language is "increased pricing and pruning". When the largest buyer in the trade raises inspection prices, local companies gain room to do the same.
• Whether the 60% target holds. If APi reaches 60% recurring revenue, expect every fire & life safety buyer to keep asking sellers for the same split. Sellers who track it now sell more easily later.
• More add-ons. APi's 2028 revenue target is $10 billion or more, with organic growth in the mid single digits. The rest has to come from acquisitions. Whether to sell into that is a question for a lawyer and a CPA, and for an honest look at how much of your revenue renews on its own.