Investor Services
PURCHASE OF AN INVESTMENT
Background

Our client was an entrepreneurial family based in Switzerland who already had interests in companies in the tourism and residential real estate sectors in the D-A-CH region as well as in neighbouring countries. At the request of the Investment Committee, additional investments were required to further diversify and secure assets.

Objective

To identify at least 2 target investments (at least 51% of share-holding) with a transaction volume of approx. 20 million EUR. For our client, finding a niche player was desirable. The target companies needed to be head-quartered in the D-A-CH region, although any subsidiaries could be located outside of this region. The business language need to be German or English.

Approach

Syngroup, the consultancy of choice for industry, has an estabished network of European industrial clients built up over 25 years and also serves customers worldwide. Syngroup has in the region of 80 consultants, the majority of who come from industry. Our consultants have experience from across the value-chain and a deep appreciation of the issues and challenges that industry faces, from a shortage of skilled workers to digitalization.

Syngroup is able to perform searches on behalf of clients through its established network and offers a personal approach including an assigned key account manager who will work with you and our network partners. Our aim is to create 1:1 relationships between interested parties who may lack knowledge of the market. We work hard to ensure the transaction progresses smoothly and in a relaxed manner. We always look beyond the transaction towards creating a partnership for the future.

Conducting a thorough, in-depth, examination of target companies is important to us. We leave nothing to chance and will research every aspect of potential targets in detail until we are completely satisfied, ensuring any doubts have been dispelled. For legal and tax issues, our clients can rely on us as responsible and reliable partners.

 

Solution

In this particular case, we were able to indentify 8 target companies that were suitable. Four of these companies were subjected to further scrutiny and finally two companies were selected – one was acquired outright and a 75% stake was taken in the other with an earn-out clause (purchase price paid at a later date depending on performance) for the selling shareholder after 2 years.

The time taken to identify, carry out the necessary research and issue LOIs, was 11 months for both companies. The first company  was identified after 5 months and the second took 11 months. In both cases, we completed due-diligence exercises at the request of our client.

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