BACHER & WOLF is your partner for all aspects of buying and selling companies and for successful succession solutions or exit-strategies.
Our success is based on our large network, the personal support we provide to our clients, as well as our commitment and sure instinct. – We are persistently committed to your interests and find the investor or target with the perfect strategic fit for you.
Our structured investor processes create added value for our customers.
Take advantage of our expertise:
Together with our client, the company’s employees and the potential investors, we strive to achieve the best possible solution, with enthusiasm, expertise and perseverance. Lean M&A consultancy creates value.
The BACHER & WOLF services focus on finding investors for companies with complex shareholder structures, barriers to growth, insufficient returns, in the course of restructuring or insolvency or that require liquidity in the short term.
Project reports
Overview of selected example projects by Bacher & Wolf
Sale of a successful company for individualized robot cells and automation solutions
The company’s customer base covers the entire spectrum of the German manufacturing industry, in particular the automotive sector. With around 100 highly qualified engineers and skilled workers, the company achieved an operating EBIT of over 10% at the time of the investor process.
The client was the founder of the company who, after twenty years of growth, wanted to realize his long-planned retirement by selling his shares with the help of Bacher & Wolf. It was important to the managing partner to identify interested parties with the best possible strategic fit, who would take the growth course to a higher level and for whom the purchase represented a particularly high added value that justified the high purchase price expectation.
M&A advice in all phases of the sales process
A particular requirement of the client was that the investor process should not only be strictly confidential, but also completely anonymous in the initial stages in order to avoid unrest among the workforce and in the market.
Bacher & Wolf organized a tailor-made sales process according to the client’s wishes. This included all steps from preparing the sales documents, identifying and approaching potential interested parties, negotiating NDAs, setting up a data room, visiting the production facilities, due diligence, reviewing and negotiating the offers through to closing.
From an extensive longlist, 9 interested parties ultimately submitted purchase offers. After examination, detailed negotiations were conducted in parallel with a selection of the most suitable interested parties.
Purchase price 38% above original expectations
After six months, the intensive investor process led to the successful sale of the company to one of the interested parties. In addition to capital, this investor brought a high level of strategic potential, which will enable the successful further development of the company and secure jobs in the long term. A soft exit over several months was agreed with the founder to ensure an optimized handover of the company, including business contacts, etc. In addition, a purchase price was paid that was 38% higher than originally expected, ensuring that the seller was highly satisfied with the investor process.
The project in brief:
Why Bacher & Wolf?
Contact: duesseldorf@bacherwolf.de Phone: +49-211-74958882
Sale of a traditional company in the food industry out of insolvency in self-administration
The sold group of companies is a long-standing pioneer and innovation driver in the food sector with annual sales of over EUR 120 million and a large workforce at several production sites in Germany and abroad.
In addition to the food service industry and bulk consumers, customers in the B2B sector include food retailers in particular, to whom a wide range of products are supplied via private labels and own brands. In some areas, the company is the market leader in Europe.
Excessive sales orientation with a wide variety of products and the processing of even the smallest orders led to a complexity that was difficult to manage and articles with weak or negative contribution margins. In the context of filing for insolvency under self-administration, Bacher & Wolf was commissioned to support the company’s turnaround with the help of an investor process and recapitalization by a buyer to be found.
Liquidity bottleneck initially jeopardizes the sales process
The particular challenge of the international sales process led by Bacher & Wolf was to maintain ongoing production and meet delivery obligations despite the tight liquidity situation. The latter was also of great importance for the parallel sales negotiations, as the listing with the key players in the food retail sector was a core asset of the client.
This was resolved by negotiating a loan for working capital financing with one of the prospective buyers, which in return granted him exclusivity for some time in the sales negotiations as preferred bidder and enabled him to carry out due diligence.
Buyer continues to run the company and preserves jobs
The buyer used the period of exclusivity to prevail over the other interested parties with a convincing acquisition concept, which enabled the continuation of the German operations and the preservation of jobs as part of an asset deal.
Bacher & Wolf organized a tailor-made sales process according to the client’s wishes. This included all steps from preparing the sales documents, identifying and approaching potential buyers, negotiating NDAs, setting up a data room, inspecting the production facilities, due diligence, reviewing and negotiating the offers through to closing.
The project in brief:
Why Bacher & Wolf?
Contact: duesseldorf@bacherwolf.de Phone: +49-211-74958882
Sale of a wholesale and retail company with a store network to a strategic investor
The company sold is a wholesale and retail company for high-quality, professional non-food products with a network of stores and a central warehouse.
The product range of the stores is aimed at both discerning private B2C consumers and professional B2B users and comprised around 5900 different items at the time of sale, of which between 2500 and 3500 are presented in the individual stores. The full range is sold via the company’s internet platform.
Excessively rapid growth and a change in strategy combined with the establishment of complex organizational structures led to a tight liquidity situation, so that Bacher & Wolf was commissioned to find a strategic investor at short notice to acquire the company and its branch network as part of an asset deal.
Valuation of the branch locations as a particular challenge in the sales process
Within a short period of time, Bacher & Wolf identified and approached over 100 potential buyers. This resulted in 14 potential buyers, a good third of whom came from neighboring European countries and were particularly interested in acquiring the branch network.
The majority of the leased stores are located in highly frequented inner-city
locations in medium-sized cities and have a sales area of between 60 and around 90 square meters. In larger cities, the store network also includes larger stores on the outskirts of towns and cities with more than 100 square meters of space.
The evaluation of the store locations by the interested parties proved to be a
particular challenge in this investor process. To this end, Bacher & Wolf
conducted numerous road shows to the individual stores for selected interested parties over several days during opening hours to enable them to form their own impression of the value of the locations.
International strategist with a perfect fit takes over all store locations
Despite the complexity of this investor process, the company, including its store network and central warehouse, was sold to a European bidder within just over three months, who ultimately prevailed over two other potential buyers. This bidder is already successfully active in the same sector in neighboring countries. The acquisition was a perfect fit and enabled him to expand quickly into Germany – without having to spend a long time building up his own branch network.
Bacher & Wolf organized a tailor-made sales process according to the client’s wishes. This included all steps from the preparation of sales documents, identification and approach of potential buyers, negotiation of NDAs, setting up a data room, inspection of the production facilities, due diligence, review and negotiation of offers through to closing.
The project in brief:
Why Bacher & Wolf?
Contact: duesseldorf@bacherwolf.de Phone: +49-211-74958882
Continuation of a mechanical engineering company in its fourth generation by a strategic partner
Now in its fourth generation, the company is an established specialist in the manufacture of machine components used in various industries and application areas.
Founded in 1900, the machine manufacturer has more than one hundred years of experience, technologies, tools and established customer relationships. With an export share of 85%, the client is a world-renowned company and counts renowned industry giants among its international clientele, for example in the automotive sector or textile processing.
High number of international interested parties makes pre-selection necessary
Due to an unresolved management succession issue, Bacher & Wolf was called in and entrusted with the search for a strategic partner to maintain and continue the company.
The large international customer base led to a large number of expressions of interest from many countries and necessitated a complex selection process. The aim of this process was to minimize the number of company visits in order to save the client’s management capacities and avoid unnecessary unrest within the company. In this process, the seriousness, financial strength and strategic fit of the respective interested parties were examined as thoroughly as possible before they were included on the shortlist of the investor process.
Investor process solves unresolved succession problem
After intensive negotiations and a weeks-long bidding process between investors from India, China, the USA and Germany, the offer from an interested party from the same federal state won out. Its overall package of purchase price and acquisition concept best matched the owner family’s vision for the continuation of their own company. In addition, the acquirer is also family-run and its positioning is a perfect strategic fit for successful joint business development.
Bacher & Wolf organized a tailor-made international sales process according to the client’s wishes. This included all steps from preparing the sales documents, identifying and approaching potential buyers, negotiating NDAs, setting up a data room, visiting the production facilities, due diligence, reviewing and negotiating the offers through to closing.
The project in brief:
Sale of a family-run mechanical engineering company in its fourth generation
M&A advice for the sell-side
International investor process makes pre-selection process necessary
Buyer with high fit succeeds and continues family business
Why Bacher & Wolf?
Contact: duesseldorf@bacherwolf.de Phone: +49-211-74958882
Sale of a specialist for the general overhaul and maintenance of large machines to a strategic partner
Despite consistently high customer demand and a good reputation in the industry, the company was suffering from its heavy dependence on major projects. The absence of a firmly planned project suddenly put the company in a precarious situation and led to the commissioning of Bacher & Wolf.
In view of the steady influx of orders, it quickly became clear that the expertise of the employees and the high quality of the work were highly valued by well-known customers. The search for a strategic partner therefore quickly became the focus of further efforts, and an investor process was commissioned.
M&A process delivers solution options within a few weeks
Within just a few weeks, the Düsseldorf team from Bacher & Wolf succeeded in presenting the company with a selection of potential partners with a good strategic fit and financial strength.
After many discussions and negotiations with numerous interested parties, it was ultimately the acquisition concept of a company that has specialized in solutions in the field of customer-specific industrial electronics, among other things for more than 30 years that was convincing. In the future, joint resources can be used and strengths pooled so that the client can be brought back into the profit zone and back on the road to success in a short space of time.
Investor processes create added value
Bacher & Wolf organized a tailor-made sales process according to the client’s wishes. This included all steps from preparing the sales documents, identifying and approaching potential interested parties, negotiating NDAs, setting up a data room, visiting the production facilities, due diligence, reviewing and negotiating the offers through to closing.
The project in brief:
Why Bacher & Wolf?
Contact: duesseldorf@bacherwolf.de Phone: +49-211-74958882
On behalf of an owner-managed company in the automotive supply industry, Bacher & Wolf was initially tasked with identifying cooperation partners in Europe and Germany in particular. The aim was to drive forward the client’s international expansion on the one hand and to expand its own position on the domestic market with the help of a European brand to be acquired on the other. After identifying European companies with a high strategic fit and interest in cooperation, Bacher & Wolf was mandated to carry out the further implementation steps on the buy-side.
Successful acquisition of a business unit and initiation of an international cooperation leads to a win-win situation
Following in-depth analyses of the shortlisted targets, the client decided to enter into negotiations with an automotive supplier from southern Germany.
In the course of the subsequent cooperation initiation, Bacher & Wolf took over and accompanied the entire negotiations up to the successful signing of a cooperation agreement between the two companies.
The advisory activities included holding management meetings at executive and specialist level, financial due diligence, the development of an acquisition concept with transaction structure, LOI and the indicative offer for a business division.
For the two cooperation partners, the high strategic fit with complementary strengths resulted in a win-win situation and a sustainable improvement in their competitive position in the competitive automotive sector and enabled a realignment.
The project in brief:
Why Bacher & Wolf?
Contact: duesseldorf@bacherwolf.de Phone: +49-211-74958882
We specialize in fast national and international investment processes, and we find investors, buyers, cooperation partners, silent and active partners – new sources of equity for companies – also for insolvency administrators. Through years of being active on the market, we have built up numerous international contacts to private investors and atypical buyer groups who are willing and able to recapitalize companies.
Our process management is transparent, fast and simple – you needn’t fear endless paper-wars from us. What we do offer is live reporting from our database, our own electronic data room, accounting services for preparing figures and a network of expert interim managers with a track record of getting the job done.
We quickly find the right target for the investment strategy of national and international investors. This can mean complete company acquisitions or joint ventures, with goals such as entering markets, expanding existing market shares, marketing or using technologies.
After jointly analyzing your search profile, we present you with a selection of suitable companies, approach them for you if desired, and accompany the entire investment process. Our international competence team finds the right person for you to contact – in English, German or Chinese.
As for our operating activities, we offer sector expertise in the fields of automotive, commercial, mechanical and electrical engineering, telecommunications services and construction. This combination enables BACHER & WOLF to efficiently develop concepts for finding potential investors.
We are a flexible team, always looking for better solutions and new developments. We have sound academic qualifications and many years of experience in leadership positions in corporations, small businesses, consulting firms and investment banks. This means we have the necessary background for handling complex corporate transactions.