Section 04
Acquisition lending is a minority of SBA 7(a) deals but an outsized share of dollars.
Market composition
Where the dollars concentrate
Acquisitions are the dollar-densest deal type in SBA 7(a) lending. In FY25 they were 9.2% of the count and 20.4% of the dollars, with a median loan size of $715K against $157K for existing-business loans. The largest dollar-flow industries are not always the most-discussed categories. Specialty Trades booked more acquisition loans in FY25 than Restaurants, and acquisitions in that cluster grew 56% over the four-year window.
The sections that follow present a scorecard, a cluster heatmap, a growth-versus-volume quadrant, and three named industries that merit closer reading.
| Deal type | Loans | Dollars | Avg loan | Median | Share (count) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Existing / Expansion | 52,398 | $23.23B | $443K | $157K | 62.0% |
| Startup (pre-open) | 12,352 | $7.50B | $607K | $300K | 14.6% |
| New Business (<2 yrs) | 11,945 | $5.07B | $425K | $100K | 14.1% |
| Acquisition / Change of Ownership | 7,765 | $9.20B | $1.18M | $715K | 9.2% |
Cluster heatmap
Where acquisitions cluster
The heatmap shows the top 15 clusters by total FY25 loan count, with intensity normalized within each column so that darker cells identify the leading cluster for that deal type. Restaurants lead startup lending, while Specialty Trades lead both existing-business loans and acquisitions. Miscellaneous Retail carries the amber marker noting the 2022 NAICS reclass.
| Industry cluster | Acquisition | Startup | New Biz | Existing | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants & Food Service | 949 | 2,695 | 1,454 | 4,043 | 9,141 |
| Specialty Trade Contractors | 704 | 573 | 970 | 5,242 | 7,489 |
| Miscellaneous Retail† | 561 | 628 | 803 | 3,006 | 4,998 |
| Manufacturing | 542 | 443 | 659 | 3,334 | 4,978 |
| Administrative & Waste Services | 460 | 732 | 742 | 2,881 | 4,815 |
| Other Health Practitioners | 303 | 671 | 561 | 2,613 | 4,148 |
| Transportation & Warehousing | 188 | 267 | 663 | 2,732 | 3,850 |
| Wholesale Trade | 276 | 143 | 403 | 2,706 | 3,528 |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 204 | 1,360 | 463 | 1,326 | 3,353 |
| Building Construction | 104 | 230 | 429 | 2,538 | 3,301 |
| Management & IT Consulting | 141 | 117 | 446 | 2,411 | 3,115 |
| Personal Care (Salons, Spas) | 139 | 655 | 474 | 1,679 | 2,947 |
| Auto Repair & Maintenance | 329 | 272 | 394 | 1,720 | 2,715 |
| Other Repair & Services | 215 | 464 | 333 | 1,381 | 2,393 |
| Food & Beverage Stores | 478 | 430 | 366 | 1,060 | 2,334 |
Sector quadrant
Four-year sector shift: FY21 → FY25
Each dot represents a 2-digit NAICS sector, plotted by FY25 loan count (log scale) against its four-year growth rate. The upper-right area captures sectors that are both high-volume and still expanding, while the lower-right captures large sectors that have softened since FY21. Sectors 44 and 45 carry amber rings because the 2022 retail reclass moved loans across that boundary and they are most usefully read as a pair.
Growth × Volume — sector table (mobile view)
| Sector | Loans | Growth | $M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Specialty Trade Contractors | 11,227 | +81.9% | 4550 |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 10,519 | +42.1% | 7860 |
| Management & IT Consulting | 8,802 | +67.9% | 3730 |
| Personal Care (Salons, Spas) | 8,772 | +65.9% | 3870 |
| Other Health Practitioners | 8,711 | +31.7% | 5080 |
| Miscellaneous Retail⬤ | 5,028 | +117.0% | 2750 |
| Administrative & Waste Services | 4,823 | +58.9% | 1640 |
| Food & Beverage Stores⬤ | 4,485 | -31.0% | 2790 |
| Wholesale Trade | 3,528 | +21.2% | 2460 |
| Transportation & Warehousing | 3,440 | +10.6% | 1170 |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 3,360 | +114.8% | 1900 |
| Manufacturing (durable) | 2,436 | +1.4% | 1890 |
| Real Estate | 1,716 | -14.0% | 880 |
| Education | 1,465 | +92.5% | 690 |
| Manufacturing (food/textile) | 1,436 | +12.6% | 790 |
| Finance & Insurance | 1,430 | +1.8% | 630 |
| Manufacturing (chemical/paper) | 1,111 | -6.7% | 950 |
| Information & Media | 812 | +58.3% | 320 |
| Agriculture & Forestry | 711 | -14.3% | 540 |
| Postal & Courier | 413 | +15.4% | 260 |
| Mining & Oil/Gas | 141 | +6.8% | 130 |
| Utilities | 110 | +7.8% | 70 |
FY21–FY25 SBA 7(a)+504. Sectors with FY25 count ≥100 shown. Thresholds at n=2,000 loans and 40% growth. (combined, FY21-FY25, n=22, 2-digit NAICS sectors)
Named industries
A steady gainer, a weakening category, and one inversion
The three industry cards below pair a sector showing compound acquisition growth, one with a weakening volume trend, and one where the popular framing has the direction wrong. The quadrant above shows where each sector sits; the cards explain what is driving the movement.
SURGING · FY21-FY25
Specialty Trade Contractors
Specialty Trade acquisitions grew 56% in four years — the fastest-growing acquisition category in the 7(a) book.
HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and roofing are the fastest-growing acquisition category in the 7(a) book. Acquisitions in this cluster grew from 452 in FY21 to 704 in FY25. HVAC alone (NAICS 238220) booked 153 acquisition loans in FY25 at a median $889K. The categories drawing the most conversational attention are not the ones moving the most SBA dollars.
FADING · FY21-FY25
Physician & Dental Offices
SBA-financed physician and dental acquisitions dropped 35% in four years while the SBA book grew.
In FY21 an SBA-financed practice purchase was common; in FY25 they're 35% rarer — even as total 7(a) volume grew. Independent dentists and doctors who want to sell are talking to private-equity roll-ups and hospital systems, not 7(a) desks. Small-practice succession is exiting the SBA ledger.
COUNTERINTUITIVE · FY18-20 vintage, observed through FY25
Transportation & Warehousing
Trucking loans from the 2020–2022 vintage are charging off at 4.25% — nearly 2x the SBA program average.
Transportation & Warehousing (mostly independent trucking) looks boring in the quadrant: +11% volume growth, middle of the pack. But the 2020–2022 vintage — operators who bought rigs at peak spot rates — is now the SBA's biggest loss category. 4.25% chargeoff, above restaurants, construction, and every other >500-loan cluster. Deviation from the FY25 default window is required: chargeoffs peak 3–5 years after origination, so FY25 vintages haven't had time to mature.
Methodology & data
Source: SBA public lending data covering 7(a) and 504 originations. Acquisition loans are identified by SBA’s business-age field value of Change of Ownership — this is an observed flag in the public data, not a proxy.
Year-over-year sector comparisons use 2-digit NAICS to absorb the 2022 retail reclass between sectors 44 and 45; cluster-level views roll 6-digit codes into revenue-meaningful groupings. Size-band shares divide counts and dollars by their respective FY25 acquisition totals. The dollar-weighted median is the loan size at which cumulative acquisition dollars crosses 50%.
The acquisition-lender table ranks the top 15 lenders by FY25 acquisition loan count, with a minimum of five acquisitions and five non-acquisitions required for the rate delta.
Read next
Continue the report
- Section 3 — The Cost of Capital. The pricing backdrop behind the acquisition-vs-non-acquisition rate gap discussed above.
- Section 5 — Who Flips Your Loan. Which lenders retain acquisition loans on balance sheet and which route them into the secondary market.
- Section 6 — The Lender League Table. The full 164-lender league table; acquisition specialists identified here rank differently by total output.
Up next
05Who Flips Your Loan
Some lenders sell nearly every loan they originate; others retain almost everything. The choice helps explain why similar SBA loans price differently.