You are selling your company, and you stay in charge
You know your buyers, often better than an adviser would. What you lack is the craft of the document and the process: the Information Memorandum, the valuation a buyer will retain, the letter that frames the offers, the data room, the reflexes of a negotiation. I bring them, at your side, on a fixed fee.
What you are facing, seen from your desk
Your company is worth between one and a few million euros. The investment banks you have met ask for a retainer up front and 3 to 10% of the price on completion, for a process calibrated for companies larger than yours.
You already have two or three natural buyers in mind: a competitor, a partner, a customer. You know how to talk to them. What you do not want is to hand fifteen years of work to an adviser paid at the end, who needs you to sell, to anyone, at any price.
What you need is someone who has run these processes inside an investment bank, who produces the documents, who tells you what is done and what is not, and who stays in his place. Yours is to decide.
Six deliverables, in the order of the process
- Adjustments and valuation - your pay brought back to market rate, non-recurring costs taken out, a normalised EBITDA justified line by line; a value range so that you are not taken advantage of, not a promise.
- Information Memorandum and teaser - the document that tells your company the way a buyer reads it: market, offer, customers, team, figures; an anonymous teaser to open the door without naming you.
- Process letter and timetable - the letter that tells buyers when to submit an offer and what it must contain, so that offers are comparable and arrive on the same day.
- Approach - you talk to the buyers you know, and I prepare you; I approach the others as a trusted third party, and I attend the management presentations.
- Data room and Q&A - the index, the documents, a single entry point for buyers’ questions, every answer checked before it leaves.
- Negotiation - what is done and what is not: earn-out, warranties, transition period, exclusivity; alongside your lawyer, never in his place.
A fixed fee per deliverable, known in advance
Each deliverable has its price, set in the quote before any work starts: the Information Memorandum, the valuation and adjustments, the process letter, the data room, the support through the negotiation. You sign one quote and pay as each deliverable is handed over.
No success fee. An adviser paid at the end needs you to sell, at any price. Paid per deliverable, I only need one thing: that the file holds up in front of the buyer, and that you decide with full knowledge.
If the process stops, billing stops at the last deliverable handed over. What you have paid for stays yours: a file ready for a sale the following year, and the buyers’ feedback on what is missing.
The Groupe Betem MBO, with Parquest
In 2025 I wrote the Information Memorandum and the Management Presentation for the MBO of Groupe Betem, an engineering consultancy with around €55m of revenue, taken over by its management with the Parquest fund. The document a fund read before committing its capital.
Since January 2026, five sale or fundraising mandates for SMEs alongside Auxine Partners: the same deliverables, the same timetable, for owners selling for the first time.
Three questions from business owners
Do I need an investment bank to sell an SME?
Not below a few million euros of value, if you know your buyers and someone runs the process at your side. An investment bank earns its fee when a broad competitive process makes the price: many possible buyers, a value in the tens of millions, an owner who wants to step back.
What happens if nobody buys?
Billing stops at the last deliverable handed over. You keep a file that is ready, a list of qualified buyers and their feedback: what is missing, what to improve before coming back in a year.
Do I have to stay after the sale?
Usually three to six months, to hand over customers and teams; beyond that, the transition is paid by the day. A long earn-out, which makes part of the price depend on results you will no longer control, is negotiated line by line: its rules are set in the letter that frames the offers.
Three tools, three minutes at most
Your valuation, the structure of your Information Memorandum or the guide to selling a business, sent within 24 hours. In French.