Takeover and Participation
In the summer of 2005, a longtime business relation asked me to help in a complicated business case. In a company with two owners, both partners are looking into the possibilities for a buy-out. In the meanwhile, the friendship turned into animosity. For me, it was an interesting opportunity to check my approach in a non-family-owned-business, so I said yes.

Business Case SVT Branding & Design Group

A business friend asked me in the summer of 2005 to help him with my 'Starting to Quit' experience in a complicated case involving a branding and design agency. An attempt to sell the company had failed and both owners were ready to buy each other's shares. The whole situation became highly emotional.

After months of negotiations, emotional outbursts on both sides, deadlocks, proposals that were on and off the table, and letters of intent withdrawn at the last moment, I could finally work out an agreement together with Rik van den Berg of The Financial Architects, in which one partner buys the other one out. However, when we submitted the outcome to the buyer, the creative partner, he confessed that he'd rather not do this on his own. He was 52 years old and couldn't see how he could run the company by himself. He was a creative art director, not a manager.

Rik was very much involved in the architectural business at that time and saw a perfect synergy between both worlds. Hans van de Pas of Match Plan Corporate Finance investigated the possibilities for participation, and we decided to buy 40% of the shares. I became the managing director, the right hand of the creative partner. Together with Rik we got the company back on track. Considering the long negotiations during which time the organization was severely neglected, the results were still favorable. Within six months we doubled the turnover.

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