Acquisition files pile up, and your team is already stretched
You receive files, the CEO wants targets, the board wants a note. Nobody in your company does M&A for a living, and their number does not justify a hire. I am that M&A manager, part-time, on a monthly fixed fee.
What you are facing, seen from your desk
A file lands on a Tuesday, from an investment bank that wants an answer within two weeks. The CEO has spotted a target at a trade show. The fund on the cap table asks for an external growth plan. All of it on top of the close, the reporting, the legal work.
An investment bank will not take the mandate: the targets are too small or too many, and its success-fee model assumes one transaction, not a pipeline. Hiring is not justified for three files a quarter.
What you need is someone who reads a file the way a fund would, who values, who writes the note the board will read, and who follows you through the negotiation. No team to build, no fees that depend on closing.
Five workstreams, those of an M&A manager
- Screening inbound files - every file read against the same framework: market, figures, asking price, what you have to believe for the price to be true; one page per file, comparable with the others.
- Valuing targets - multiples and cash flows, quantified synergies, the range your board can defend.
- Investment notes - for the CEO and the board: the thesis, the risks, the price, the structure, in pages read in ten minutes.
- The buy-side process - letter of intent, due diligence coordinated with your auditors and lawyers, questions to the target, through to closing.
- Negotiation - what the seller expects, what his adviser will ask for, where the value hides in a price.
Monthly fees, like a senior freelancer
Monthly fees, set in the quote for an agreed number of days and reviewed each quarter against the pipeline; a fixed fee per deliverable when the need is one-off, a note, a valuation.
No success fee: you do not pay more because you buy, and I have no reason to push you to close. It is the model of a senior freelancer in your team, not that of a bank: less of a commitment for you, simple to stop, and one person, the same from the first file to closing.
Locala, a digital advertising company
Since 2026 I have supported Locala’s finance team on its external growth: analysis of targets and inbound files, valuations, preparation of investment decisions. A part-time M&A manager, embedded in the finance team.
Three questions from CFOs
How many days a month?
A rhythm agreed in the quote, according to the pipeline, and reviewed each quarter. An inbound file takes a few days, a target note two; the rest follows the files that move forward.
Can you work with our investment bank?
Yes, and it is often the case: the bank runs the process, I prepare your decisions and hold your side of the table. I never compete with an adviser already in place.
Who talks to the target?
You, or your CEO, for the relationship; I handle the figures, the questions and the documents. The seller sees a structured finance team that knows what it is buying.
A file on your desk this week?
Describe it in full confidence: within 24 hours I tell you how I would read it, and what I would hand back.