M&A
Succession is rarely just a transaction. It is about people, responsibility and a business that has to keep running.
Most successions start too late. With two to three years of lead time you can compare options, make the business less dependent on you and negotiate calmly. Under time pressure you take what is available.
Family, management buy-out, external manager or a sale to a strategic or financial investor — each route has different consequences for price, tax, liability and for what remains of the company. We lay the options side by side before a direction is fixed.
Discretion matters especially here. Unsettled staff and clients damage a business more than any negotiation round.
Building blocks
Emotionally obvious, economically demanding. Valuation, fairness between siblings, provision for the retiring generation and the question of whether the successor genuinely wants the role.
The existing team takes over. Needs a fair valuation without conflict of interest, workable funding and often a vendor loan as a bridge.
Strategic or financial investor. Usually delivers the highest price and the cleanest break — but requires a full process with due diligence and a warranty catalogue.
The single biggest value driver before any succession: a business that works without the owner. Second management tier, documented processes, distributed client relationships.
Process
What should stay, what may change, what matters to you personally.
Family, MBO, MBI, sale — with consequences for price, tax and liability.
Numbers, structure, management tier, contracts. Often the longest stage.
Depending on the route: approach, negotiation, funding, contracts.
Communication to staff, clients and banks — at the right moment.
Advisory agreement, handover phase, a clean break on the agreed date.
From live mandates
When clients, suppliers and decisions hang on one person, every buyer applies a discount. That dependency can be reduced substantially in two years.
Both hurt. We fix the communication plan at the start and stick to it, even when the process slips.
Questions
A first conversation clarifies the options and the timeline — confidential and without obligation.
