Gimv

In contrast to a decreasing trend on the international mergers and acquisitions market in 2016, the Belgian M&A market has experienced further growth, particularly with regard to medium-sized and smaller deals. The demand exceeds the supply. Although transaction prices are rising, they are still acceptable. Anyone wishing to sell a profitable business these days can easily find a buyer. This can be explained by the fact that bank financing has become easier, as well as increased interest by foreign players in Belgian companies.

Professor Robert Boute invited Bart Cauberghe, Managing Partner & Head Smart Industries from our Chair Partner Gimv, to present the Punch Powertrain project to our full-time MBA students on 17 January. During a 90-minute lecture Bart took his audience on a bumpy and at times hilarious journey, explaining how in just seven years a low-performing supplier of automatic transmissions was turned into a highly attractive company worth 1 billion euros. “Not by financial ‘tricks’, but by operational improvements.”

2015 and the beginning of 2016 were characterised by a pronounced increase in the number of transactions in the Belgian mergers and acquisitions market. Demand is greater than supply, stimulated by easy and cheap access to finance and greater availability of financial resources to investment companies. Furthermore, the persistently low interest rate environment means there is increased interest from family investors, wealthy individuals and foreign private equity funds in Belgian medium-size enterprises. It is therefore not surprising that the prices paid are increasing across all sectors and business sizes. These are the findings from a survey of 142 Belgian mergers and acquisitions experts into their experiences over the past year.

Recent research by Veroniek Collewaert, Professor of Entrepreneurship, has shown that entrepreneurs’ over-optimism towards a possible investor cannot always be put down to an ‘enthusiastic belief in their business’. Sometimes prognoses are deliberately presented in an excessively rosy light. Peter Maenhout, the Head Connected Consumer at our Chair Partner Gimv, the regional investment company in Flanders, explains: ‘Just give us the “raw data” of an entrepreneur who knows his market.’

‘Keep it in the family.’ The time-honoured motto of family companies has applied less and less in recent years, and that includes their funding. All around us we see increasing transparency and openness to the outside world, and family companies today are not immune to this. Recent research in cooperation with our Chair Partner Gimv provides a nuanced picture of family companies and their attitude to private equity.

What happens once a venture capitalist (VC) has decided to invest in a portfolio company or entrepreneur? That’s the question professors Sophie Manigart (Vlerick Business School) and Mike Wright (Imperial College Business School, UK) tackle in their book “Venture Capital Investors and Portfolio Firms”.