Welcome to the second edition of
the Entrepreneurial Buyout Monitor –
a snapshot of the trends and challenges
involved in management buyouts and
buy-ins of SMEs in Belgium from a
practitioner’s perspective.
We captured the opinions of 169 buyout
experts in Belgium – including bankers,
private equity investors, mezzanine players,
family offices, lawyers, brokers and M&A
advisers.
Overall, the results indicate the investment
climate has considerably improved –
as expected from last year’s edition.
The outlook for 2015 remains positive.
The key insights from the survey are:
1) DEAL FLOW IS INCREASING – however,
with higher levels of competition and
more favourable lending conditions, we’ve
also seen higher multiples – especially for
medium sized and larger deals. It’s tougher
to achieve attractive returns, so the deal
origination process is critical.
2) MORE FAVOURABLE DEBT MARKETS – overall
debt multiples increased and the cost of
lending significantly dropped. This was true
for medium sized and larger deals. However,
lending conditions continue to be challenging
for smaller deals – so they may need more
creative deal structures.
3) ALTERNATIVE INVESTORS BECOME MORE
PROMINENT – both family offices and
mezzanine investors become more active in
smaller MBO/MBI transactions.
4) PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTORS NEED A CLEAR
STRATEGY – they need a more focussed
approach to finding opportunities for growth
while cutting costs. And so they must gain a
deeper understanding – and further insights
into the sectors they’re targeting.BD
