In the summer of 2019, Van de Groep & Olsthoorn in the Netherlands was called by the SMW partner in France, Stéphane Melinger of NIM Europe. One of their clients was looking for an Interim Managing Director in the Netherlands.
What followed was a complex cooperation between the 3 parties and several Dutch candidates, which ended in an assignment that has lasted over 1½ years. The Interim MD became responsible for the carve out and sales of a Dutch part of this huge French company.
The assignment was comprised of setting up of the financial and legal framework, making a bid book, finding interested investors of competitors together with international consultants. As well as the preselection of potential buyers, leading the due diligence, assisting in the negotiations until the final sale and contracts in the beginning of 2021. At this moment the Interim Manager is leading the transition of the company to the new owner in the coming months, possibly taken over the role of permanent MD for the company.
The complexity not only lies in the process from carve out to sales. Since the French holding company is stock listed, the right timing of the right amount of information to the market is crucial. In the meantime, the whole world suffered the outbreak of Covid-19, which also had big implications on the markets of this company. And this company not only was negatively affected for its running product portfolio (profitable market leader), but also positively for an entirely new product range. These new machines were just out of the prototyping stage, but were a huge success, so a quick ramp up had to be organized.
Last but not least, there is a big difference in the nature of the Dutch company and the French holding, and not just in terms of language. For our Interim Manager, bringing the companies and the people together and keeping the spirits high was a mayor part of his job.
The successful search in international cooperation of this Interim Manager, for this very special assignment, is a showcase of the strength of SMW.
