The real question

An acquisition is won or lost before the signature.

The difference is decided before you sign, in what no data room shows.

1 creates value 2 fall short

Barely one acquisition in three truly creates value.

Sources: KPMG, McKinsey and Mercer studies, synthesized in my ESCP thesis “Do M&A create value?”.

The crush clouds judgment

You want to believe it, you play down the weak signals, and you end up paying for a story rather than a reality.

The data room doesn't tell you everything

The numbers are audited, but the key people, the hidden dependencies and the undocumented know-how appear on no spreadsheet. Yet that's where value is decided.

The price rests on a promise

You're paying for a growth thesis. If it doesn't hold, neither does the price. Better to know before you sign than after.

First, your objective

What are you really after?

We assess the target against what you truly want. Sometimes buying the whole company isn't the right answer: a team or a market is enough.

The whole company

Growth, consolidation, vertical integration: you want all of it. The question is whether it will hold over time.

Skills & key people

A team, a know-how, a technology. We make sure what you're really buying is the right people, and that they'll stay.

A market & customers

An access, an installed base, a region. Sometimes the target is worth it mainly for its portfolio, and the rest matters little.

What I assess

Six angles, one clear verdict

A 360° read of the target: no dimension left aside before the verdict.

Market & thesis

Does the promise hold up?

The real market size, its growth, competitive intensity. We check whether the thesis that justifies the price rests on facts, not on a narrative.

Customers & revenue

Is revenue solid and durable?

Concentration, dependencies, recurrence, satisfaction, pipeline. We separate fragile revenue from revenue that will last after the deal.

Operations & numbers

Can the target deliver, and do the numbers hold?

The ability to hold the plan, scalability, the real organization, and a critical look at the business plan and its assumptions. What will actually happen once the cheque is signed.

Hidden risks & dependencies

What time bomb has no one spotted?

The homemade software only one person masters, undocumented know-how, a client or supplier everything depends on. The single points of failure no financial audit reveals, and the red flags to put to the seller.

Key people

Who really runs the business?

The people the value depends on, and who aren't on the balance sheet: will they stay, and on what terms? Integration is won or lost with them, and that's where most acquisitions derail.

Real, capturable synergies

The real, not the theoretical

Which synergies are genuinely capturable, by whom, in how long and at what integration cost. We rule out the slide-deck synergies that never happen, and I know what I'm talking about: I'm the one who captures them afterward if you buy.

I cover the commercial, operational, human and business-plan-consistency angles. The accounting, financial, legal and tax audit remains the domain of your accountants and lawyers, with whom I work hand in hand.

Where value hides

The data room shows the surface. The value lies beneath.

What it shows

The data room

Audited figures
Presentation slides
Contracts
Reporting
Balance sheets

The past, packaged by the seller. Necessary, but it won't tell you whether tomorrow holds.

What it reveals

The field

Key people
Hidden dependencies
Undocumented know-how
Unspoken truths
Real atmosphere

The present and the future, as they really are. This is where value creation is decided.

My method

On the ground, not just in a data room

If so many acquisitions disappoint, it's because it all plays out where the data room doesn't go: in the people. So I go there. I meet the key people, I listen to operations, I see what really runs and what hangs on a single person.

I go on site

A visit is worth a thousand spreadsheets: the real state of the tools, the organization and the mood.

I interview people

Key people, teams, sometimes customers. It's by talking to people that you learn what no document says.

I spot the dependencies

Undocumented know-how, single points of failure, unspoken truths. The real risks come from the field, not the data room.

What you receive

A decision note, not a report that gathers dust

After one week, you have a short summary note and an oral debrief. Not two hundred pages: the essentials to decide, and what you need to take it forward.

The verdict: go or no-go, and why.
The key people, the hidden dependencies and the red flags to watch.
The synergies that are genuinely capturable, quantified.
The questions to ask the seller before signing.
A first draft plan for the first 100 days.

Decision note

Acquisition thesis

Red flags

Questions for the seller

Delivered and debriefed in one week

How it works

One week, three steps

Framing · Day 0

A conversation to understand your thesis, your doubts and the documents available.

On-site audit & interviews · Days 1 to 5

I go on site, I meet the key people and teams, I observe operations and dig into market, customers and numbers.

Verdict · Day 7

Go or no-go restitution in person, summary note, and the right questions for what's next.

Before, and after

Buying? I won't drop you at the signature.

The evaluation is only the start. If the deal goes through, I steer value creation from day 1: PMO, quick wins, synergies and reporting. The same person before and after, no loss at handover.

Discover the post-acquisition support

Why me

I know where value is created, and where it's destroyed

Fifteen years steering strategic plans, commercial reorganizations, on-site audits and post-acquisition integrations. I know the traps, because I've been on both sides of the cheque.

+25%

in revenue

Reorganizing a sales network (Generali): I know how to read a target's real commercial performance.

+500 k€

in identified gains

Five-year strategic plan (Urgo): I assess growth potential, not a promise on a slide.

LBO

seen from the inside

Post-acquisition PMO (Panzani × CVC): I've lived the "after", so I know what to check before.

I didn't label these missions "due diligence". But reorganizing a sales network, building a five-year plan or integrating an acquired company is exactly where you learn to spot what creates, or destroys, a target's value.

On-the-ground approach: at Safetykleen, a multi-site field diagnosis (on-site audit and interviews) before an 8-workstream roadmap. That's exactly how I assess a target.

Private equity & portfolio contexts