Controlling and Finance Manager since 2018. He started his career in controlling with the international Lidl foundation in Germany. He is currently responsible for the global Controlling of a multinational German company and deals with M&A activities and Private Equity shareholders.
He will defend his Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) in September 2022, on the theme “Private Equity as successor option for Small and medium-sized enterprises” under the supervision of Professor Birgit Hagen, University of Pavia.
Thesis Direction
Pr Hagen Birgit
Thesis Title
Private equity as a succession instrument for medium-sized companies
Abstract
Company succession is a significant challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). According to research by Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KFW), 900,000 SMEs in the period between 2019 and 2027 were or will be directly affected by this challenge.
This present research examines an external company succession with the involvement of private equity (exit buyout).
Surprisingly not all SMEs are aware about private equity and its activities. Further-more, for many entrepreneurs, private equity is not considered as a succession option and the reasons can be traced back to the fact that there are several information gaps in the literature.
This research examines the question how managers and entrepreneurs can prepare the company for a primary buyout through private equity during a company succession.
Based on this research, it was identified that a strategic process supports a successful buyout. This can be explained by the need to carefully analyze the shareholders’ aspi-rations and objectives.
In general, it became apparent that the participants have limited flexibility during the process. This is all the more significant when realizing that the succession planning is mostly a one-time event in the entrepreneur’s life. To protect and support the entre-preneurs and all further process participants, such as managers and private equity, all results were transferred to a conceptual framework. The conceptual framework was extended by management recommendations.