Cintas’ $5.5 Billion UniFirst Deal Awaits Completion of Regulatory Reviews
Key Facts
Cintas and UniFirst announced a definitive agreement on March 11, 2026, under which Cintas will acquire UniFirst at an enterprise value of approximately $5.5 billion. The deal had not closed as of October 26, as it remains subject to completion or waiver of regulatory reviews and customary closing conditions. Under the agreement, UniFirst shareholders will receive $155 in cash and 0.7720 shares of Cintas for each share they own. The companies valued the combined consideration at $310 per share, based on Cintas’ closing price of $200.77 on March 9, 2026. Cintas said the mix of cash and stock provides a foundation for combining operating capabilities and expanding services, while the actual closing date remains subject to the regulatory process.
Cintas expects to realize about $375 million in operating cost synergies within four years of closing the deal. The company said the savings would come from a plan to combine processing capabilities, route networks, service infrastructure, supply chains and technology investments. It added that bringing together these complementary assets would create operating efficiencies and expand service capabilities. The combined company also expects to offer products and services to about 1.5 million business customers in North America. These figures put the expected scale of the operational expansion at the heart of Cintas’ stated rationale for the deal, alongside the consideration offered to UniFirst shareholders.
The deal follows previous attempts by Cintas to buy UniFirst that did not result in an agreement. Cintas disclosures show it approached UniFirst on February 7, 2022, with an offer of $255 per share. On November 8, 2024, it made another offer of $275 per share, which UniFirst rejected on November 27 of that year. UniFirst’s board described the current consideration in proxy materials as an 18.0% premium to the company’s closing share price on March 9, 2026, the last trading day before the merger agreement. This sequence provides context for the negotiations that preceded the definitive agreement, with the terms of the previous offers differing from the cash and stock consideration in the current deal.
The companies’ financial results provide context for the deal before closing. UniFirst revenue in the third quarter of its fiscal 2026 rose 3.9% year over year to $634.4 million, compared with $610.8 million in the year-earlier period. Net income fell to $19.9 million from $39.7 million a year earlier, and the quarter’s results included $20.7 million in costs related to the proposed merger. In fiscal 2026, Cintas reported revenue of $11.26 billion, versus $10.34 billion in the previous fiscal year. Cintas diluted earnings per share also rose 11.6% to $4.91, and the company said it expects the deal to be accretive to earnings by the end of the second full year after closing.
In the U.S. process, the companies received a request for additional information from the Federal Trade Commission on June 11, 2026. On October 2, they confirmed substantial compliance with the request and agreed with the commission not to complete the deal before December 11, 2026, unless the commission notifies them in writing that it has closed its investigation before then. In Canada, the companies received a supplementary information request from the Competition Bureau on July 2, then confirmed on September 29 that they had completed their response. These proceedings remain among the conditions to closing, while Cintas continues to expect the deal to close before the end of calendar 2026. The filing shows that the company’s expected timing remains subject to satisfaction or waiver of the closing requirements, while the timing agreement with the U.S. commission sets the earliest contractual closing date unless the investigation is closed early.
The companies’ shares closed on October 23, 2026, at $224.1 for Cintas and $281.29 for UniFirst. Those prices came months after the deal was announced in March and therefore do not, by themselves, measure the market’s reaction at the time of the announcement. The announced consideration of $310 per share remains calculated using Cintas’ March 9 price, not its October closing prices. Looking ahead, Cintas said it still expects to complete the deal before the end of 2026, subject to customary conditions. However, the agreement with the Federal Trade Commission bars closing before December 11 unless the commission closes its investigation in writing before then.