Assigning your business

YOU ARE THE OWNER OF A BUSINESS WHICH YOU WANT TO SELL.

Our role as merger & acquisition consultants primarily involves the consideration of the options which are available to you, the anticipation of their human, asset-related and fiscal impact, and the provision of advice. This phase of reflection and early development is of primary importance to the success of your preferred option.

Factors for successful assignment :

Applying the correct procedure

Selecting the right mode of assignment

The ability to highlight the value of the business

Conducting the transaction process through to its finalization

(timing and pacing).

In an assignment operation, it is essential to be proactive, to assume a position of strength, to pursue the correct timing and to operate in complete confidentiality.

The assignment of your business is both a marathon and a sprint. It may take between 4 and 12 months to complete an assignment operation under ideal conditions, i.e. in a calm and unrushed manner.

Selection of the consultant who will be your partner in this process is critical. They will allow you to save time, and focus your energies on the correct running of your business.

Relations of confidence and cooperation in complete confidentiality thus established will allow you to manage this operation with greater assurance, and to make the right choices. Appointing a consultant in an assignment operation provides you with a partner who will manage and control the progress of negotiations, prepare you for meetings, collaborate with your experts (accountants, legal experts…), etc.

Following a phase of reflection and preparation, we support you in the roll-out of every phase in the transaction: validation of options, preparation of the presentation dossier, evaluation of the company, contact of potential purchasers in complete confidentiality, conduct of negotiations and consultation on funding, right through to the finalization stage, all in close collaboration with your other accounting and legal advisers.

Our experience as company directors, and thereafter as consultants for mergers & acquisitions, delivers the benefits of accessibility, responsiveness, pragmatism and expertise.

External growth / Build-up

This strategy can also provide an effective means of expansion through the development of related businesses, and fostering different organizational structures which may be more effective than those already in place.

The strategy of growth through acquisition permits more rapid progress.

Key factors for success

An ambitious project, defined as part of an explicit and realistic strategy

A proactive approach

Acting in tandem with the consultant for the generation of values.

EURODEALS supports the director in the definition of their strategy, and organizes a competition watch for the maintenance of continuous awareness of potential opportunities, and the initiation of approaches to directors. Our experience shows that the best acquisition strategy is an industrial strategy and that, regardless of the economic scale of the target business to be acquired, it is the benefits of the transaction which are of prime importance, and the complementary nature of the target in technical, commercial or logistical terms.

The role of the director is then to ensure the effective integration of staff teams, and to complete the acquisition in accordance with the overall strategy adopted.

EURODEALS acts as a consultant, both for build-up strategies financed by investment funds, and for financially-independent owners of SMEs who wish to expand through external growth.

Fundraising/OBO

YOU OWN A BUSINESS…

How to sell your business, while owning it at the same time.

The leveraged buy-out (or LBO) market for businesses is strongly expanding in France, at a time when economic growth is still waiting in the wings.

LBOs now account for 2/3rds of capital investment transactions.

Whereas major corporate groups have, in many cases, suspended their acquisitions policy, and stock market flotations are still a rarity, certain business owners need to be aware that there is an alternative to the sale of their company or a market flotation: this alternative is a capital investment, with assignment, in the form of an OBO (Owner Buy-Out).

An OBO operation

A pro-active approach and an ambitious project

Delivering a profitable company

A buy-out with a leverage effect

A combination for the generation of value.

The OBO is a form of LBO in which the operation for the buy-out of the company involves the owner themselves. The OBO fulfils two objectives: the delivery of an ownership-based solution and the financing of growth.

Conducting an OBO involves the opening-up of your corporate capital to a capital investor, thereby permitting:

        I – The generation of liquidity from a proportion of your shares, and those of any partners (up to 74%, while retaining a majority shareholding);

II – The reinforcement of the capital and reserves of your company, and the acquisition of the requisite resources for expansion.

At the initial stage, the role of EURODEALS involves the validation of the feasibility of an OBO (strategic and financial criteria, qualification of share-owning directors, etc.), the definition of the outlines of the operation (minority or majority shareholding, etc.), and the provision of assistance in the preparation of an ambitious and credible 3 – 5 year business plan.

We then select the capital investors who are likely to be interested by the purpose and scale of your project, who are then compared competitively. We help you to select the most appropriate partner (in terms of philosophy, management package, entry price, terms of repayment, accretive arrangements, calibration of the leverage effect, breakdown of capital, fiscal integration, the Charasse amendment, etc.).

It is important that you select your future partner in full knowledge of the facts. We will introduce you to a number of investors, who may have different styles and approaches.

Ultimately, what will really count, above and beyond quantitative parameters for the operation, is that a partnership of this type should be based upon a strong reciprocal co-optive approach between you and the investor.

Fundraising/MBO

YOU ARE A MANAGER…

Backed-up and qualified by dint of experience, you want to buy-out a business and are looking for a financial partner.

The role of EURODEALS

This involves the validation of your project, and specifically the selection of a potential target business for a LBO (economic, strategic, financial and managerial criteria, and criteria associated with the context and structure of share ownership).

We can also help you in the selection of a target business which matches your search criteria (size, sector, etc.).

We help you to define the outlines of the operation, and to develop a 3/5 year business plan which is both ambitious and credible. The business plan represents the cornerstone of any LBO operation (in terms of strategic and financial criteria, etc.).

We then validate your qualifications and the feasibility of the operation, by contacting the current owners of the target business, with whom we initiate preliminary discussions. We then embark upon the search process for capital investors who are liable to have an interest in the purpose and scale of your project.

We undertake the competitive comparison of the capital investors selected.

We help you to select the most appropriate partner for your project (in terms of their partiality for the project, management package, values, etc.), and who are most likely to form an effective partnership with yourselves.

It is important to be able to choose your partner, and it is therefore important to meet a number of different investors, who may have different styles and approaches.

Ultimately, what will really count, above and beyond quantitative parameters for the operation, is that a partnership of this type should be based upon a strong reciprocal co-optive approach between you and the investor.