29 April 2021: Members of our FIC community, subscribers to The European Family Investment Company Report – FIC owners and senior executives – plus selected invited guests and experts, including heads of family business associations, from across 10 countries met online for The 6th EFIC Virtual Conversation.
Investment Case: Taking a major portfolio company private
The case was presented by two family members from a multi-generational private FIC. They described their family, in business together now for over 150 years, the development of their FIC and their recent transaction to take private a long-standing, €3 billion plus turnover portfolio company. After setting the scene, the two family members introduced and debated two topics with attendees.
Topic One: Selling the deal to the family
With over 200 shareholders and more than 400 members, winning family backing for the deal took much thought, time and effort by FIC leaders.
Topic Two: Working with a PE co-investor
The FIC brought on board an international private equity house as their main financial partner for the transaction. Two other families also participated.
Takeaways
Based on what our guest speakers said – as well as on the experience and ‘war stories’ shared by our attendees while discussing the two topics – following the meeting we condensed and distributed our Takeaways under the headings of: Organisation, Culture, Influencers, Consensus, Technology, Benefits, Alignment, Compromise, Agreements, and Control.
After the ‘formal’ Virtual Conversation had closed we invited attendees to join the guest speakers, our team and fellow attendees for a Virtual Coffee in the Cyber Foyer, during which we had a very open and wide-ranging discussion of family business and investment issues.
NOTE: to enquire how to receive the full text of the Takeaways from this EFIC Virtual Conversation or how to join our community of family investment companies please email: info @ deanbridgeinternational.com