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The Paris business law firm Spark Avocats, specialized in corporate law (M&A and Private Equity) and restructuring, is leading the SF segment in France. Headed by founding partner Ariane Olive, they assist searchers at all stages, from its initial structuring to the acquisition of a target company, drafting and negotiating all shareholders’ agreements.
In the past 3 years, their business law attorneys have supported their clients in 90% of the deals acquired by SFs in France. References include among others buyouts of GHS, GPF, DSD System, Actibio, SDEC, CW Group, and ASP Group.
Ariane Olive, an expert with over 25 years of experience in the buyouts market, comments:
“Although the factual state of the French entrepreneurial pyramid (over 25% of entrepreneurs above 63 years old) could be seen as very much favoring acquirers, the market remains relatively hard to tackle for individual buyers. For the past 15 years, the reality is that practically every year there have been more buyers than sellers. 2023 showed a slight change in the curve and one should hope that the turnaround of the market will be confirmed in the coming months and years, thereby providing searchers with a progressively smoother acquisition field. I believe the SF market has the potential to grow a bit, but I don’t think the market has the capacity to absorb more than about 12-15 new SF per year because the market remains highly competitive with usual acquirers doing Management Buy-Ins (MBIs), family offices, regional funds, small private equity, etc. Having said that, the capacity to collect appropriate equity and envisage deals with relatively low debt leverage is an asset of the SF in France. Beware of valuations in the tech sector and/or in the industrial sector where individual acquirers are less successful, but go ahead with the adequate soft skills and seller approach posture and the SF will carry on unfolding in France.”
