We will find the targets that correspond to your strategy

Project definition: objectives, anticipated methods

Understanding the growth strategy of acquirers

An important step in a group’s development, external growth can meet various objectives: reaching a critical size, expanding its catchment area, acquiring specific know-how, enriching its product/service offering, or gaining access to an additional pool of human resources.

Faced with these diverse motivations, we strive to understand, through our preparatory exchanges and meetings, the history of your group, its DNA, its current situation, and your ambitions. Our thorough understanding of these elements will enable us to be more efficient in our subsequent research.

Defining the profile of the sought-after company

Once the need is qualified, our teams will support you in defining a precise set of specifications detailing the main selection criteria for targets (business lines, geography, size, profitability, etc.). At the same time, we ensure if necessary, its financial coherence by estimating the amount of your investment envelope. Finally, we take the time to understand your operational organization, your corporate culture, and your integration philosophy to ensure that they match the expectations of the sellers.

Identification and direct approach of selected target

Identify and validate a list of targets

Based on this initial understanding of your project, we submit a preliminary list of companies that may match your search. We discuss and validate the relevance of this list together before initiating the approach phase with these targets.

 

Contact validated targets and present the project

Subsequently, our teams get in touch with all the validated targets to present, during a meeting with our sector expert, the development project you are carrying while remaining anonymous at this stage regarding your identity. This initial exchange allows us to assess the target’s interest in considering a merger project with your group and to gather initial key elements about the target.

Preparation of a presentation memorandum for targets interested in the project

Develop a documented presentation of selected targets

After signing a confidentiality agreement between the stakeholders, we reveal your identity to the target interested in the project and collect operational and financial information from them.

 

Here, our objective is to provide you a comprehensive view of the target through a clear and detailed presentation (the “information memorandum”), allowing you to make a quick decision.

Determine an initial valuation of targets

In addition to the information memorandum, our teams perform an initial valuation of the target. In this way, our Experts verify that the financial expectations of the sellers are in line with market standards and the current situation of the target company. Furthermore, our regular exchanges with the target allow us to understand the desired conditions for the transaction’s realization and guide you towards the preferred takeover scheme to adopt (schedule, degree of involvement of sellers in the future project, etc.)

Validation of mutual interest between the acquirer and the targets

Select the most relevant targets

Based on the provided documentation and an initial valuation range, we discuss together the relevance of continuing or not the acquisition process with each target. In this way, you select a shortlist of targets you wish to meet during a first presentation meeting.

Organize presentation meetings

For each selected target, we organize a presentation meeting for you, with one of our Experts present. This is an opportunity to improve your knowledge of the target, present your development plan in detail, and ensure that a joint project can emerge in the short or medium term. This is a crucial step where human encounters will often guide the outcome of the transaction.

Assistance in decision-making on target selection and support in developing a takeover offer

Select the most relevant targets

After allowing you to meet the target and providing you with our impressions, we jointly select the projects on which you wish to position yourself and prepare a first offer.

In parallel, our teams can carry out additional analysis work by collecting new elements from the target to support you in your decision-making.

Draft a convincing offer

Draft a convincing offer

We pursue two objectives here: to align the target’s expectations with your offer and to avoid any future pitfalls that could break off the discussion. Thus, our Experts use their experience to propose comprehensive (covering all the specific terms of the transaction) and pragmatic LOI projects.

Presentation of the offer to the seller and negotiation of terms

Present the offer to the selected targets

Once the draft letter of intent has been approved by you, we present it to the selected targets. We answer their questions and take the time to convey your operational intentions through the sometimes cumbersome legal formalities of the LOI.

Our role is to reassure the target about your intentions while continuing to defend your interests.

Negotiate your interests in the best way

This is followed by a back-and-forth between potential sellers, the acquirer, and our teams, with numerous exchanges and proposals for amendments in order to reach an agreement on all the terms of the transaction. Throughout these discussions, our teams defend your interests to achieve the signing of a letter of intent under the best conditions.

Assistance with the audit and signing of acquisition documents

Coordination of audits

Following the signing of the letter of intent between the two parties, the audit phase begins. Our teams set up a secure virtual storage space (“data room”) where all the information provided by the target is collected and subsequently submitted for verification by the auditors. We play a coordinating role here, acting as a liaison between the various stakeholders to maintain good momentum and facilitate the smooth conduct of due diligence.

Finalize the transaction

Once the audit period has been completed, our teams support your legal advisors by providing a critical and pragmatic perspective on all the legal documentation related to the acquisition (sale contract, asset and liability guarantee, shareholders’ agreements, etc.).

We then remain by your side in the final negotiations concerning specific clauses of the sale documents until the conclusion of the transaction.