The family business: our DNA

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

Warren Buffet

A natural affinity for supporting the Development of Family Businesses

In a family business, financial valuation never tells the whole story. It forms part of a long-term vision in which preserving the business’s heritage, ensuring the continuity of its values and facilitating intergenerational transfer take precedence over immediate transactional performance alone. Reducing an SME to its sale price would mean overlooking its deeper identity: the company’s history, its roots in the local community and the commitment of its teams are all pillars that must be protected.

To address the specific characteristics of your shareholder structure, our expertise is built around three key areas

Whether this involves passing the baton to the next generation, organising a management buy-out (MBO) or selling the business to a third-party buyer, each option is valid provided that it serves the future of the business. Our role is to anticipate this pivotal moment and structure the transaction from a financial, tax and legal perspective, while ensuring that the business is entrusted to the best possible hands.

We work with family businesses facing tensions or the risk of friction: disagreements between sibling shareholders, a second generation that is no longer aligned with the founder’s vision, or a shareholder base that has expanded over successive generations without the ground rules having been clarified. These situations are common in the life of a family business. They must nevertheless be anticipated or resolved, with the support of our accredited mediators, before they weaken the business.

Prevention is better than cure. Governance involves putting in place practical mechanisms to secure the future and prevent crises from arising. By putting in place tools tailored to your specific circumstances, such as shareholders’ agreements, family charters, family forums or the appointment of independent directors, we clearly define each person’s responsibilities and exit conditions. This gives your business a stable framework in which to operate with confidence.

Our approach: listening before acting

When faced with these situations, we never begin with a ready-made solution. Our approach follows a proven two-stage method.

Individual interviews to hear every voice

Before making any recommendations, we conduct individual interviews with each stakeholder: the business leader, family shareholders, members of the next generation and, in some cases, their spouses or advisers. This listening process, conducted confidentially and without judgement, brings to light what family meetings do not always reveal: expectations, fears and unspoken concerns. This is essential to building a solution that will stand the test of time.

A long-term commitment to the future of your wealth

Our work is not limited to negotiating an agreement or drafting a legal document. Whether we are managing a business succession, resolving a crisis or establishing a new governance structure, we approach every assignment with determination to bring your projects to fruition, in an atmosphere of trust and respect, with clear and shared objectives. Our ultimate goal remains unchanged: to preserve harmonious family relationships and safeguard the future of the business by giving it every chance to endure across generations.