Case Study: CB Fleet - Pan European Acquisition Search
Situation
- Fleet is a Lynchburg, Virginia based manufacturer and marketer of branded personal care and hygiene products with approximately $200 million in sales. Fleet was already active in many European countries, including the U.K., Spain, Italy and Australia.
Objective
- Fleet sought to acquire a company or brand that would complement its existing product lines and increase its European distribution.
- Management struggled with how best to manage such a broad and geographically dispersed acquisition mandate and sought to avoid having to research, interview and hire advisors in multiple countries.
Solution
- Matrix Capital partnered with Dutch M&A International firm Holland Corporate Finance to co-manage the overall effort of other European member firms to identify, research and contact acquisition candidates.
- Member firms from Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland and the U.K. collectively identified over 300 preliminary targets. Additional research and analysis culled the list down to roughly 50 companies.
- CCS, a portfolio company of Swedish private equity firm Segulah was ultimately identified as having the strongest fit. At that point, Swedish member firm Avantus Corporate Finance assisted the team as the "local" advisor on the transaction.
