Services

"Timing is everything." Not every moment is ideal for selling a company under perfect conditions. External market factors can significantly influence value and marketability: the overall economic situation, global political uncertainties, industry trends, acquisition interest from typical investors, and much more.

Even more important are the internal prerequisites, because only if the company is perfectly positioned at the time of the sale will an optimal result be achieved for the seller.

We will analyze the data with you in advance.

If desired, our team can support you in advance with strategic positioning, pricing, or cost optimization measures.

Transactions with foresight. Values with a future.

M&A consulting: Strategic. Personal. Successful.

From life's work to successful succession.

In close coordination with you, lawyers, tax advisors and management, we manage the entire process – from strategic preparation, company valuation, identification and confidential approach of suitable buyers agreed upon with you, to negotiation and successful conclusion.

The crucial question is: What is YOUR motivation? We know from experience that optimizing terms isn't everything. Will the buyer continue your life's work? Will the culture of your established company be valued even after the transaction? Are your employees in good hands? Will the sale help or strengthen your social reputation?

Unlike typical M&A advisors, we go further: We not only support you in finding the optimal time to sell, but also provide comprehensive advice on the measures we recommend implementing to optimally position the company for a sale.

Experience in management, entrepreneurship, and investment.

One point of contact: From the initial conversation to successful completion.

Confidential advice with a clear focus on your interests and goals.

We support you in analyzing the market environment, potential target companies at home and abroad, and the appropriate strategy for approaching them.

We place particular emphasis on the company's cultural fit. Our experience and statistics show that up to 70% of all acquisitions fail to meet expectations. Only with thorough analysis and a sufficient cultural fit can a transaction be successful even after the purchase.

In close consultation with you, we analyze and evaluate companies willing to sell and conduct the negotiations in your interest until the conclusion.

Especially for young, high-growth companies that could be attractive as technology partners, or for expansions into key foreign markets, strategic investments or joint ventures are often a more effective approach than a complete acquisition. This allows the acquiring company to better leverage the know-how and dynamism of its partners, potentially further enhanced in a subsequent step through a previously negotiated majority takeover.

We support you in finding a partner, assessing their suitability, analyzing their economic situation, and determining a suitable transaction structure.

Management buyouts (MBOs) and management buy-ins (MBIs) are often an attractive way to sell a company. The acquiring MBO manager knows the company, and ideally, the owner has also worked with the management team for many years. Ideally, the manager can continue to run the company independently, in line with the selling owner's vision, and ensure its cultural identity. Depending on the size of the company, a manager's financial resources often preclude a traditional sale with a single purchase price payment. Furthermore, it's crucial to avoid conflicts of interest, as the manager transitions from employee to negotiating buyer.

We help with structuring the financing, e.g. by involving financial investors or banks, and negotiate with management on your behalf.

In dynamic markets, acquisitions enable a rapid response to new developments, technologies, and customer requirements.

Management incentive models are an increasingly used instrument to support employed managers in acting in the spirit of entrepreneurial thinking, beyond salary and bonus models.

Whether sweet equity, phantom stocks, options or profit participation certificates, we analyze your current situation and recommend suitable instruments for your company and its management.

For high-growth or larger companies, a potential IPO is often an attractive alternative for exiting or raising capital.

We analyze your IPO readiness in the current market environment and potential valuations. If the analysis is positive, we negotiate with potential banks on your behalf and advise you on the composition of the consortium. As an objective partner with no consortium interests, we closely support you in all phases of the IPO process.

To finance company growth or acquisitions, we support you with questions about financing options.

On the equity side, there are professional investors who exclusively acquire minority stakes or provide them through other instruments, e.g., profit participation certificates, thereby financially enabling growth.

As debt capital, there are interesting alternative forms of financing besides classic loans from banks, e.g. factoring, profit-sharing loans, the placement of bonds via the capital market, and professional crowd-financing.

We help you select the right solution for your company and guide you professionally through the process to completion.

Expectations after M&A: The key to shareholder trust

Management must therefore communicate much more intensively with supervisory boards and shareholders than with other investments, and explain the risks and the true motives in advance.

It should be recognized that M&A transactions, regardless of size, remain under the scrutiny of shareholders, especially after the transaction is completed. A €5 million acquisition that fails to meet expectations and generates lower returns than planned is almost always viewed far more critically than a €5 million investment in the core business that doesn't perform as expected.

Therefore, great care and caution are recommended, especially with very small acquisitions.

However, avoiding risk through deliberate inactivity regarding M&A acquisitions is also not advisable. Naturally, there are no statistics on how many companies have lost market share and profitability due to inactivity. But given the dynamically growing and rapidly changing economic landscape in all sectors, it is obvious that a single company cannot cover all strategic developments in its industry at all times and will therefore have to continually secure its position through strategic acquisitions in order to maintain and expand its market position.