M&A Advisory · Sell-Side
Thinking About Selling Your Company?
Most founders sell one company in their lifetime. The decisions made in the first 90 days of a sale process — who you approach, in what order, and how you frame the opportunity — determine most of the outcome. This is what you need to know before you start.
The most expensive mistake founders make is starting a sale process without preparation.
We have advised on over 52 transactions across Europe, North America, and Asia. The businesses that achieve the strongest outcomes — not just in price, but in deal structure, buyer fit, and post-close outcomes — are the ones that ran a disciplined, competitive process with the right preparation.
The ones that struggled approached the wrong buyers first, ran bilateral negotiations without competitive tension, or entered a process before the business was ready to withstand scrutiny. By the time they realised, significant value had already been left on the table.
This page explains how the process actually works, what determines what your business is worth, who the buyers are, and what a genuinely well-run sale looks like. If you are seriously considering a transaction, read it before you make any calls.
What determines what your company is worth
There is no single multiple that applies to your business. Valuation is a function of multiple interacting factors — and understanding them is the first step to maximising your outcome. Here are the eight that matter most.
Company Size
A €10M EBITDA business and a €2M EBITDA business are in fundamentally different markets. Larger businesses attract more buyers, create more competitive tension, and consistently command higher multiples. Size is the single biggest driver of where in the range your business lands.
Revenue Quality
Recurring revenue — subscriptions, long-term contracts, repeat customers — commands a significant premium over project-based or transactional revenue. Buyers pay for predictability. A business where 70% of next year's revenue is already visible is worth materially more than one starting from zero each January.
Growth Rate
Buyers pay for the future, not just the present. A business growing at 20% per year will achieve a different multiple than one that has been flat for three years, even at the same EBITDA level. Growth justifies a buyer's forward assumptions and reduces their risk.
Customer Concentration
If your top three customers represent 60% of revenue, every serious buyer will flag this as a risk — and price it accordingly. Well-distributed revenue across many customers is a significant valuation driver. It is worth addressing before you run a process.
Management Dependency
Buyers are acquiring a business, not a person. If revenue, relationships, or key decisions are entirely dependent on the founder, buyers will either discount the price or structure the deal with substantial earnouts to retain the founder post-close. A business that runs well without you is worth more.
Debt & Capital Structure
Enterprise value and equity value are different things. Debt on your balance sheet reduces what shareholders receive at closing. The structure of that debt — covenants, maturities, convertible instruments — also affects how buyers model the transaction. Understanding your capital structure before entering a process is essential.
Sector & Market Dynamics
Technology businesses consistently command higher multiples than industrial ones, not because one is better than the other, but because buyers assign different growth assumptions and capital-light characteristics to different sectors. Your sector — and where it sits in a buyer's strategic priorities — materially affects value.
Margin Profile
EBITDA margins above 20% consistently attract premium buyer interest. High-margin businesses signal pricing power, operational discipline, and scalable economics. Margin expansion potential — where buyers can see a credible path to higher margins — is equally compelling.
The honest answer on valuation: A number on a page cannot tell you what your business is worth. The actual figure depends on which buyers are in the market when you run your process, how well your opportunity is positioned, the competitive tension you generate, and factors specific to your situation that take a proper assessment to understand. If you want a real answer, that is a conversation.
What a proper sale process looks like
A well-run M&A process is not a series of conversations with interested parties. It is a structured, competitive process designed to create genuine tension among qualified buyers — which is the mechanism that drives price and improves terms.
Phase I
Preparation
4–6 weeks
- Business and financial analysis
- Valuation benchmarking
- Buyer universe identification
- Preparation of CIM and financial model
- Management presentation development
Phase II
Market
4–8 weeks
- Targeted outreach to qualified buyers
- NDA management
- Distribution of marketing materials
- Initial management meetings
- Indication of interest collection
Phase III
Negotiate
4–8 weeks
- Management presentations
- Due diligence facilitation
- Letter of Intent negotiation
- Maintaining competitive tension
- Final bid process
Phase IV
Close
6–12 weeks
- Purchase agreement negotiation
- Working capital structuring
- Regulatory coordination
- Closing mechanics
- Fund flow and completion
Total timeline: typically 5–9 months from engagement to closing, depending on deal complexity, buyer due diligence requirements, and regulatory considerations. Well-prepared businesses with clean financials consistently close faster and at better terms.
Who buys companies like yours
Understanding the buyer landscape is critical to running a good process. Different buyer types have different motivations, different valuation frameworks, and different implications for what life looks like after you close.
Private Equity
PE funds acquire businesses to grow them and exit within 3-7 years. They are highly sophisticated, process-oriented, and move quickly when interested. They typically look for businesses with strong management teams, defensible market positions, and clear paths to value creation. PE buyers often pay strong prices but negotiate hard on terms.
Strategic Acquirers
Corporates acquiring complementary businesses. They can justify higher prices than financial buyers because they see synergies — your customers become theirs, your technology integrates with theirs, your team fills a gap. Strategic buyers move more slowly, require more internal approvals, and represent both the highest potential prices and the most complex processes.
Family Offices
Increasingly active in direct acquisitions, particularly in the €20M–€150M range that falls below institutional PE thresholds. Family offices tend to take longer-term views, are less focused on aggressive leverage, and often provide founders with more flexible deal structures and post-close autonomy.
Management Buyouts
Where your existing management team acquires the business, typically backed by a PE fund or debt financing. MBOs provide continuity and are often preferred by founders who care about cultural preservation. They work best when management has the operational depth to run the business independently and can demonstrate that capability to lenders.
Why use an M&A advisor — and what to look for in one
The most common question founders ask us is whether they need an advisor at all. The honest answer is that you do not — but without one, you are negotiating against buyers who do this for a living, with access to market data you do not have, in a process they have run dozens of times.
A good advisor does four things that consistently improve outcomes: they prepare materials that make your business compelling to the right buyers; they run a competitive process that creates genuine tension; they negotiate on your behalf with full market context; and they manage a process that can consume enormous management time if not properly handled.
The difference between a business broker and an M&A advisor is material. Brokers typically list businesses and wait for inbound interest. Advisors run outbound, competitive processes targeting specific qualified buyers — which is the mechanism that generates premium outcomes.
When evaluating advisors, the questions that matter most are: who will actually work on my transaction day-to-day, what is their experience in my sector and deal size, and how many buyers will they actually reach?
52+ transactions facilitated
Our team has advised on transactions across Europe, North America, and Asia — from €15M to €1.8B in transaction value, spanning technology, healthcare, manufacturing, real estate, and financial services.
4,600+ institutional relationships
Private equity funds, family offices, strategic acquirers, and credit funds across all major financial centres. We do not rely on a handful of existing relationships — we reach the full relevant universe for your transaction.
Senior bankers, start to finish
Every mandate is led by a senior advisor — VP level or above. You will not be passed to junior staff after the pitch. The same senior professionals who engage with you are the ones who execute your transaction.
Conflict-free
We have no lending relationships, principal investments, or trading activities that create conflicting interests. Our only objective is achieving the best outcome for our clients.
Where we advise
M&A dynamics vary significantly by geography — buyer landscapes, valuation norms, regulatory frameworks, and deal structures differ meaningfully between markets. Select your location for market-specific guidance.
United Kingdom
United States
Your city not listed?
We advise businesses globally. If your market is not shown above, reach out directly — geography is rarely a constraint on what we can do for you.
Sector-specific guidance
Buyer appetite, valuation frameworks, and deal dynamics vary significantly by sector. Select yours for guidance specific to your industry.
Ready to have a frank conversation about your options?
Initial consultations are confidential, complimentary, and without obligation. We will tell you honestly what we think your business is worth, what a process would look like, and whether now is the right time to run one.