Strategies in deal sourcing
Looking at target prices only from an absolute perspective is too short-sighted. Rather, it is a matter of using one’s own industry expertise to identify value levers in companies that are not obvious. Thus, despite an apparently high purchase price, very attractive returns can still be achieved. EMERAM Alpha Scoring is used to find these undiscovered potentials. Alpha scoring allows us to identify improvable functions in the company or unused fields in the market in advance of the actual transaction. This is because many companies do not operate optimally in all areas of their value creation and thus have growth potential, for example. in the area of marketing, but also through internationalization or by implementing a buy and build strategy. Through alpha scoring, we identify a target’s under managed areas and blind spots before we sign, and are immediately ready to make the company permanently better after the acquisition.
EMERAM is a mid-market fund focusing on the five sectors Consumer, Retail, Industry, Business Services and Healthcare. In Consumer and Retail, we have made three deals in recent months, as we have identified very good targets here with Boards and More, Bench and Hussel, which we are now systematically developing further together with the respective management teams.
In particularly liquid times, such as we are currently experiencing, competitive pressure naturally increases, especially for those who cannot generate deals themselves but have to rely on auctions.
EMERAM has therefore focused from the beginning on developing non-standard and proprietary deal flow. The basis for this is the combined 120 years of private equity, consulting and management experience of the six founding partners, as well as our networks that have grown over decades. We focus on situations in which we can create real added value for a company with the EMERAM Edge. Again, that doesn’t mean we don’t participate in auctions, but we are able to create a variety of deal opportunities on a permanent basis, which gives us the ability to select the truly best ones.
EMERAM is a First Time Fund, but it is anything but a First Time Team. As already mentioned, the six founding partners have decades of experience in private equity, as well as strong operational expertise in senior management and advisory roles. This combination enables us to analyze even complex situations from different angles and to call in the most suitable experts. Based on our findings, we can then act quickly, in a structured and reliable manner. Whereas private equity used to be characterized to a not inconsiderable extent by financial engineering, today more than ever distinctive expertise in the structuring of complex transactions, but also entrepreneurship, operational expertise and strategic foresight are in demand. Since EMERAM combines all these competencies, others also see us as a highly qualified partner, on the way to becoming a local champion in the mid-market segment.