Insights – Your competitive advantage in M&A transactions

Private equity firms are participating in significant growth in their industry despite macroeconomic uncertainties. While the increasing availability of private capital and the growing focus on ESG are creating new opportunities for private equity investors and companies to generate sustainable impact and superior value, competition for the highest potential targets is also intensifying. The decisive factor in realizing sustainable superior returns in this challenging environment is profound industry and sector expertise coupled with many years of transaction know-how. With our experience from more than 450 transaction projects, we recognize growth potentials that mean a real competitive advantage and navigate our clients as partners and experts safely through possible risks to the top performance of an investment.

Pre-Deal Services: Insights for a better M&A strategy

One of the biggest challenges for private equity investors and strategic buyers is competition among themselves. The dichotomy between the mass of capital to invest and the avoidance of multiple-driving auctions is intensifying. With deep expertise, proprietary insights in our focus industries and access to decision makers and leaders, we provide our clients with a decisive time and quality advantage in sourcing and closing transactions. Our services include:

  • Industry Sector Assessment

    With our proprietary and data-driven approach, we generate insights that, in conjunction with the client’s specific circumstances and competitive advantages, enable a rapid and targeted assessment of the industries and sub-sectors with the highest potential for the client. This creates the fundamental basis for the concretization of strategic investment decisions and translates them into a resilient investment thesis.

  • Target screening

    The decisive factor for top performance is high-quality deal sourcing outside of auctions and the focus of competitors. We help identify new opportunities, systematically evaluate and qualify potential targets and support our clients in the sourcing and ideation process.

    Target screening

  • Investment Thesis

    Investment hypotheses are the central starting point of every investment and the basis for the successful increase in value of an investment. They combine the investment strategy of the fund with the situation of the company in order to increase the value of the investment in the long term. The theses can include both the situation of the company in its environment – technology leader, cost leader, fastest growing – and concrete operational and strategic measures – optimization of the product portfolio leads to increasing margins.

    In any case, however, the theses often lead to very complex questions. We help our clients both in answering these questions, but often also already in setting up, fine-tuning and completing the investment thesis. For the success of an investment, it is not only important to answer all the questions, but to ask the right questions at the beginning.

In-deal services and due diligence: Insights for better investment decisions

Professional and well-executed due diligence is the strong foundation of any good investment decision. Our specialized combination of deal, industry and tech expertise enables us to provide an integrated and comprehensive perspective on the acquisition that enables superior decision-making. With our flexible and individualized approach, we map a wide range of ppotential due diligence configurations: from Selective Focus Checks, Pre Due Diligence and Red Flags Reports to Full Fledge Due Diligence.

  • Commercial Due Diligence (buy-side CDD)

    Gaining deep insights into business models, industries and markets at an early stage is often the decisive competitive advantage in transactions. We help our clients to speak “at eye level” with the top management of the targets, to recognize opportunities relevant to valuation, to identify disruptive risks and to formulate relevant recommendations for action.

  • Tech Due Diligence

    IT-related analyses and risks have a significant impact on a target’s purchasing decision. We support our customers in the context of IT technical due diligence and use a language that is also understandable for all stakeholders. The focus differs, depending on the specific industry or product focus of the target. The product development process, the scalability of the business model from a technical point of view, components of (cyber) security and evaluations of open source licenses are among other things part of the repertoire, as well as a multidimensional evaluation of the identified risks.

    Tech Due Diligence

  • Digital Due Diligence

    In the context of an increasingly digital world, digital channels are more important than ever. As an add-on to commercial due diligence, we evaluate the digitization of customer processes (customer journeys), on the basis of which the corresponding organization is mapped, the digital sales channels, digital customer contact points, the presentation of products and their perception in the market, as well as the digital presence of the company. As a result of these findings, our customers receive actionable recommendations in terms of targeting, multichannel, sales optimization and revenue growth potential.

  • Operational Due Diligence

    In the context of operational due diligence, we analyze the core processes of the company, the operations typology, the process design and other parameters of process management (especially important process KPIs), the corresponding organizational structure and required resources. Based on the findings of the analyses, our customers receive recommendations for the target operating model and maturity level in the context of process automation and digitization, which can both increase performance, achieve an improved allocation of resources, and result in cost optimization.

    Operational Due Diligence

Exit Services (Sell Side Support):

The long-term strategic and systematic preparation of the exit is crucial to realize the maximum exit value of an investment. Our perspective on transformative industry trends, a clear view of core risks, and our deep understanding of the buyer landscape and the highest potential exit route along our three core services enables our clients to execute their business sale effectively, quickly, and with the highest value.

  • Exit strategy and equity story

    Whether for management buy-outs, mergers with a partner, IPOs or the sale of an investment company, we conduct a systematic exit readiness scan and create a custom-fit exit strategy, sharpen a compelling equity story, develop early strategic initiatives for a value-enhancing strategic direction, identify potential buyers and pave the way for a maximum exit return.

  • Commercial Vendor Due Diligence (sell-side CDD)

    Our many years of experience have shown that significant increases in value can be achieved in sales situations if issues requiring explanation are addressed at an early stage as part of a vendor due diligence process in order to answer potential questions from acquirers in advance. Our comprehensive vendor DDs build trust, increase transaction security and lead to faster sales processes with higher returns.

    Commercial Vendor Due Diligence (sell-side CDD)

  • Strategic Review

    A focused Strategic Review enables targeted and efficient discussions with potential buyers and partners. By objectively summarizing the status quo of a company, its business model and divisions, corporate strategy, strategic positioning in the market and competitive environment, and its growth potential, we accelerate the sales process and significantly reduce process costs.