Pre-exit
Cashing in on business value
Pre-exit means selling part of your shares to a private equity party and then going at it yourself for a few more years with professionals who have a lot of knowledge. You do that because you want to secure a piece of the value of your company but also see a lot of opportunity in the market. What you are basically doing with a pre-exit is getting capital and experts on board who will help you grow your business. This is often done through a buy & build strategy. You get a party on board that has a lot of experience in scaling companies. As an entrepreneur, you do not necessarily remain operationally responsible in the company, but you will work on the company.
Less risk
more value in private
You are thinking about your future and the succession for your business. This is an important step in the entrepreneurial journey. You want to secure your legacy, arrange for succession and increase the company's existence. With a pre-exit, you cash in on some of the value you've built up with your business.
With this, you provide a piece of de-risking now and lay the foundation for a follow-up exit at a later time. By ensuring that the business can continue to grow, you take advantage of new opportunities in the market, transfer your business with positive energy and create more exit scenarios.
You can achieve a pre-exit through a partial sale to a strategic buyer - for example, an industry peer or competitor - or to a private equity party. After the sale, you can continue to grow and exploit opportunities in cooperation with a new strategic party. Your company can then employ a buy & build strategy with the following benefits:
- You grow faster because you add more sales through acquisitions.
- Your customer base is growing. You are likely to have margin expansion as a result, because you can make more sales with the same products and organization.
- A larger organization means less risk and more opportunity for expansion.
It is a process of
progressive insight
We always advise our clients to look at the different options that best suit their needs. For you too, it is important to explore different options to see what you really want. As a business owner, you often already have an idea of what you want, but a sale is often a process of advancing insight where your preferences could change just like that. So we can never say that a pre-exit is a preconceived plan. It can be an insight that arises during an M&A process. It is precisely this awareness that we believe is important and that forms the basis of your choices.
"It feels good to be able to prepare well for big decisions. It leads to better choices."
Our approach?
A pre-exit involves a partial sale to a strategic investor or private equity party. Our extensive knowledge of the market, sectors and personal contacts ensures that we bring several suitable parties to the table. We are in the middle of the market, are a well-known party that has guided many transactions and know which PE firms and strategists might find your company interesting. But the one who knows the most about the market is you. Therefore - besides our excellent network and knowledge of the sector - it is the strength of our cooperation that ensures a successful process.
What do we want to do for you?
Hogenhouck is an entrepreneurial and independent M&A firm, where you as a client always come first. Our mission is to advance entrepreneurs who are building their life's work, both professionally and personally. That is what drives and inspires us. Because at the bottom line, for us, it's not just the numbers that count.
We are entrepreneurs, not bankers. We speak your language and have the right market knowledge. We relieve you as much as possible so you can stay busy with your own business and as little as possible with the M&A process, because it is a very time-consuming affair. Together with the acquiring party and lawyers, we work out the structure and legal documents and guide you through the due diligence that is done by the acquiring party.
What sets us apart is that we understand both sides of the table. After all, we guide both the purchase and sale of businesses. As a result, we bring about deals that work for you, but also for the business owner(s) on the other side, because otherwise no deal will come about either.
