Last year, the business of financial advisory services in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) generated €73,863 million in Spain alone across a total of 1,584 deals, according to data published by LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), formerly Refinitiv, Mergermarket, Dealogic, Bloomberg, and TTR.
The figure is the sum of these sources and probably falls short, since it doesn't account for all the business of other advisory firms smaller than the Big Four.
In any case, it reflects the huge business volume of this activity and the equally huge competition. It's increasingly difficult to find buyers for sell-side mandates, but today there are digital tools available to any M&A advisor that help identify and screen buyers quickly.
Here are some tips to help you find buyers for your sell-side mandates:
Using AI
Technology is always a great ally. In this case, artificial intelligence enables more optimized searches to spot market opportunities. It's also highly recommended for improving the information in your sell-side mandate. With AI, you can summarize more, extract the key data, and create a more compelling dossier that captures more attention from the company's potential buyers.
Another thing AI offers advisors is undoubtedly time savings and efficiency. With a text similarity feature, advisors can avoid answering the same questions over and over, saving time and effort. They also benefit from recommendation algorithms that find the companies that best match their profiles.
Succession
Spain's business sector is currently facing a major succession problem. Nearly 90% of companies in Spain are family businesses, a total of 1.1 million companies. These businesses account for 67% of private-sector jobs, equivalent to 6.5 million jobs, and contribute 57.1% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to data from the Instituto de la Empresa Familiar (IEF), Spain's family business institute.
It's important to note that many of these businesses were founded by the baby boom generation, which means that in less than a decade they'll begin to face retirement, and many lack a successor. This means there's a huge breeding ground for opportunities for investors.
Digital M&A platforms
Look for digital platforms that specialize in connecting SMEs with investors and advisors. Without wanting to sound promotional, but in case you weren't aware as an advisor, at Deale we have more than 2,700 registered companies with over €3 million in revenue that want to make a corporate move. For 80% of them, the reason is the problem mentioned in the previous point: the lack of a successor. The rest are looking for a partner to provide financial muscle to grow. We also have a database of more than 2,600 potential investors.
Visit our website and find out everything we can help you with as an advisor to maximize your business. From publishing your sell-side and buy-side mandates, to offering your own services for the tax preparation of the deal and advisory services at any stage of the process, to helping you find investors who may fit your buy-side mandates or companies that fit your investment thesis.
What is the role of the advisor in an M&A process?
If you're a company that has landed on this post and you're considering an M&A deal, let us tell you how important an advisor's role is in these processes. In addition to helping you find a financial or strategic investor, depending on your needs, an advisor also speeds up the paperwork, since they're more familiar with these deals and know Spanish law and taxation better. It'll save you a lot of headaches.
On top of that, having a financial advisor also reduces the risk of the deal. They understand how the market works better and will find the most professional buyers, who are genuinely interested and able to take on the deal itself.
But perhaps a key point of having a financial advisor in an M&A process is that they can shape a new company and help it grow. An advisor can draw up a growth plan that highlights the benefits and opportunities of the acquisition or merger. They can test the market and the industry for that deal to see where the best opportunities may arise and respond to them with this approach. This way, it's not just about selling a company, but about transforming it and seeking a mutual benefit for both parties.
Whether you're an advisor, an investor, or an SME, we help you close that deal. Every month, we generate more than 400 connections between buyers and sellers and, on average, we get deals closed in 100 days thanks to process digitalization and the use of artificial intelligence tools that support everything we've described above. As you can see, that's a far cry from the 18 months the traditional route takes. Ready to find buyers or sellers for your mandates?
