We are proud to offer you our list of the 100 most important private equity houses in the BENELUX countries. These private equity investors have (also) an office in Belgium (BE), the Netherlands (NE), or Luxembourg (LUX). The headquarters could be in another country. Most of them also invest outside their home country, mostly in the DACH region or France and UK.
They invest, among other things, to arrange succession in often medium-sized companies, eg because no family members are available and the entrepreneur is considering selling the company. If a successor is brought in from outside, this is called a management buy-in. If the successor is recruited from the existing management, usually from the second level, it is called a management buy-out. If both situations apply, it is called a "bimbo". In all situations, the PE company usually acquires the majority of the shares from the previous entrepreneur/owner and cedes shares at preferential conditions to the new management in order to motivate them to deliver top performance. In quite a few cases, the previous owner also buys back shares at this stage by way of a reverse shareholding. This creates confidence for the acquirers, but also for the customers and the financing banks. At the same time, it also helps to secure the valuable know-how of the previous management. For this purpose, it is not uncommon for an advisory board to be set up in which the ex-entrepreneur is offered a seat alongside external experts.
In addition to succession arrangements, the acquisition of group units or divisions that no longer belong to the core business (non-core) is also an occasion for investment. In the context of a spin-off, less profitable areas in particular are "spun off" from the group and spun off into their own legally independent unit. In this way, the group aims to improve its strategic position and become more profitable. These new group companies can then be sold to third parties either 100% or in parts within the framework of so-called (equity) carve-outs. Here they are given the chance to flourish as the new core business of the acquirer (eg the PE house).
In the context of (organic) growth strategies, an attempt is made to position the target company significantly better. In a buy-and-build or compound strategy, PE funds consolidate highly fragmented industries. Within the framework of this inorganic growth strategy, they usually first acquire a medium-sized or larger market participant as a platform via an acquirer holding company and then buy smaller, strategically suitable industry participants. The latter are usually acquired at lower purchase price multiples. Then, as part of the consolidation, central functions are merged and synergies are achieved, such as purchasing advantages. Smaller acquisitions with unique selling propositions - eg special products - can also significantly increase the value of the holding company, as previous customers of the small company also buy me-too products from the holding company, which increases its turnover. When selling later, the PE house tries to sell to the largest market participants at significantly higher selling price multiples or ventures an IPO if possible.
Some private equity funds specialize in restructuring and turnaround cases ("distressed" cases). Here, for example, they enter companies on the verge of insolvency due to mismanagement at low prices and try to get the companies back on their feet with special management know-how and capital. If successful, a considerably higher risk is rewarded with a multiple of the entry price at a later sale. While a classic investment company aims to double the invested funds on average in the context of growth concepts, restructuring funds tend to double the invested funds by a factor of 5-10. In all the cases mentioned above, a majority stake is usually sought in order to be better able to implement all measures.
Since private equity companies have successfully displaced their reputation as "locusts" and have also gained a good reputation among the broad middle class, many more investment companies are also prepared to take - mostly qualified - minority stakes (25.1 - 50.0 percent). This strategy is called "growth".
Locations where most of the BENELUX - PE investors are based:
AmsterdamRotterdam
Brussels
Gent
Luxembourg
Our EXCEL list of the most important PE houses in BENELUX is very detailed: about 40 columns with the following information are available:
- Contact details of the PE house:
the company - Managing directors /(Managing) Partners
- Usually 2 contacts on management level, if applicable with links to their Linkedin/Xing profiles.
As far as published:
- Direct extension, personal email address
- Link to "team page",
- Link to "portfolio page" or selected investments,
- date of foundation,
- Investment focus by sector and region,
- Investment stage (growth, buyout, distressed),
- Type of investment: (qualified) minority/majority/mezzanine.
- Does the PE fund also - but not only! - act as a fund of funds (FoF) ?
- Does the PE company also - but not only! - provide "private debt" financing ?
- Equity investment: from...to...million euros, transaction size
- Turnover size of the target company from...to...million euros
- Name of current fund including year of launch and volume
- Shareholders of the management company (if not the partners)
What kind of investors has the fund:
- Private/Family Office,
- fund of funds,
- pension fund
- Insurance company, credit/financial institution,
- church investor,
- sovereign wealth fund
- foundation/endowment,
- Company.
Last but not least:
- Membership in a PE/VC - Association
- Date of file creation, last update and type/content of changes.
For 100 companies, about 40 columns have to be filled in, ie theoretically about 4,000 data points. Some of these are not filled in due to data not (yet) available. We filled in with an "n/a" or left blank.
You will receive at least 3-4 updates free of charge in the following year of your purchase. In these, new companies are added and the previous entries are checked and corrected or completed if necessary.
Still unsure?
We have more than 20 years of experience in leading positions in the private equity industry. None of our industry colleagues can boast
of this. We have very good contacts to many of the companies named in the list and understand what is important in the PE Industry.
This interesting list will (unfortunately) only be completed in the next few weeks. Please click on the above button "Notify When Available“ if you need it soon and you will be informed immediately (without obligation) when it is available. Our colleagues will then give priority to this list. Before that, you are welcome to request excerpts of some company records free of charge.
YOU ARE STILL UNSURE ?
Then please ask our Smartlists.Online team by e-mail ( contact (at) smartlists.online ) and ask for an extract with several profiles from the original list. You are also welcome to request our free sample list here under "Products".
This way you can best judge the high quality of our Excel databases. You will not get so many columns with information for your customer acquisition anywhere else for this excellent price !