We advise on acquisitions, from defining target criteria and assessing opportunities to coordinating the transaction and its financing.
Overview
A focused acquisition programme starts with a strategic gap: a capability, product range, customer segment, or geographic position that the business wants to develop. For an owner-led company, the opportunity must also fit the capital available and the management team’s capacity to absorb change. An acquisition thesis explains why buying is preferable to building internally or entering a commercial partnership.
What we examine
We assess the target by connecting its market position and customer relationships with earnings quality, working capital and investment needs. We distinguish its standalone value from benefits that depend on integration. Product compatibility, distribution overlap, technical capability, and cultural fit matter alongside financial metrics. In fragmented European markets, local reputation and the continuing involvement of a selling founder may be central to preserving value.
How we support the transaction
We define acquisition criteria, map the market, prioritise targets and coordinate confidential approaches and preliminary valuation. A financial model tests the purchase price, funding requirements, and possible integration benefits. Once discussions advance, a coordinated diligence plan and issues register support negotiations, while an initial integration outline identifies responsibilities, critical dependencies, and what must be operational from the first day of ownership.
Bergweiss structures acquisition financing with banks, private credit funds, private equity investors and other financial institutions, drawing on an international partner network. We connect the purchase price, refinancing, integration costs and operating liquidity in one funding plan. We prepare financial models and lender and investor materials, compare debt and equity proposals, and coordinate diligence and documentation. The funding mix reflects the business, ownership objectives and transaction complexity; capital providers make their own approval decisions.
Decision considerations
Acquisition discipline includes knowing when to stop. A buyer should set limits on price, leverage, integration complexity, and unresolved diligence issues before negotiation momentum builds. Revenue synergies deserve particular scrutiny where they require customer consent or new selling behaviour. The decision should remain credible under slower growth, delayed savings, or the departure of people on whom the business depends.
What we prepare
We agree the scope with you. Depending on your objectives, our work can include:
- An acquisition brief defining the strategic objective, target criteria and reasons to decline an opportunity.
- A prioritised target map with an explanation of the fit and information still required.
- A standalone valuation and funding model that separates existing earnings from combination benefits.
- A diligence issues register and an integration outline with named responsibilities.
3 pages · Practical checklist, questions and space for your priorities.
Practical questions
How much of a synergy should be reflected in the price?
First distinguish benefits already supported by evidence from those requiring new behaviour, systems or customer decisions. Each benefit should have an owner, implementation cost and realistic ramp-up assumption. Test the transaction without the more uncertain benefits, then consider how much value the buyer needs to retain for taking execution risk. A synergy forecast is a negotiation input, rather than evidence that every benefit will be realised.
What should be planned before signing?
Identify what must work immediately after completion: payroll, payments, customer service, reporting and decision authority. Agree who will lead the acquired business and which relationships depend on the seller. More ambitious integration can follow a separate plan, but dependencies affecting continuity should already be understood. Diligence findings need owners and actions so unresolved issues do not disappear into a general integration workstream.
