01
Run funds
We have managed investment funds, allocated capital and built portfolios. We know the investment case from the perspective of the person who has to approve it.
M&A and strategy advisory · By investors
We have run funds, bought companies and sold them. Now we sit on your side.
Kentforth Partners is the M&A and strategy advisory firm whose advisers invest themselves and know the buyers personally. For owners, boards and investors. From €5m EBITDA, with no upper limit.
from €5mClient EBITDA
No upper limitTransaction volume into the billions
100%Advisers with own investor and exit experience
The difference
Others advise. We have done it ourselves.
Every M&A adviser claims to know the market. We have seen it from the inside: as fund managers, as buyers, as sellers. We know how an investor calculates, where he hesitates and what makes him sign, because we have signed ourselves.
02
Bought companies
We have led due diligence, negotiated purchase agreements and paid purchase prices ourselves. We know where buyers look before they look.
03
Sold companies
We have built our own companies and handed them over. We know the nights before signature and the moment a price is right.
Conventional M&A advisoryKentforth Partners
PerspectiveAdvisers who accompany transactionsInvestors and entrepreneurs who have done transactions themselves
ValuationMultiples from a databaseWhat an investor actually pays, and why
Buyer accessLong list and cover lettersDirect line to funds and strategics, because we have worked there
NegotiationArgumentsExperience from both chairs at the table
StrategySeparate mandate, separate adviserStrategy and transaction from one source, by the same team
After closingMandate endsWe have lived with the consequences ourselves and remain available
Relationships
Relationships that cannot be bought.
A buyer who takes our call because he has known us for years is worth more than any long list. Our network has grown over decades: in funds, in corporates, at negotiating tables. It is the reason why at Kentforth we do not write letters. We call.
Private equity funds
Personal relationships with investment teams in Europe and North America, from our own fund work and joint transactions.
Strategic buyers
Direct access to boards and heads of corporate development at DAX, MDAX and international groups.
Family offices
Long-standing ties to entrepreneurial families and their investment vehicles in the German-speaking region and beyond.
Banks & lenders
Established contacts with acquisition financiers, debt funds and capital markets desks.
Law firms & auditors
Well-rehearsed collaboration with the leading transaction law firms and audit practices.
Supervisory & advisory boards
A circle of experienced supervisory board members, advisers and former executives who open doors and test assessments.
Whoever engages us, engages this network.
The Firm
A firm for decisions that must hold before the supervisory board, the capital market and the family.
Kentforth Partners advises listed corporates, family businesses and financial investors on transactions and strategic decisions. We know the requirements of management and supervisory boards, the obligations of the capital market and the care a life's work demands. And we deliver results that can be defended before each of these bodies.
- Board-readyResolution papers, fairness assessments and process documentation of the quality management and supervisory boards expect.
- Capital-market compliantConfidentiality, insider lists and ad-hoc relevance are built in from the start, not added afterwards.
- Personally accountableOne partner carries the mandate from the first conversation to signature. Personal, reachable, binding.
Services
Transaction and strategy from one source.
We lead transactions in which valuation, choice of buyer and contract terms will be felt for decades.
Company sale
We sell companies, business units and shareholdings to the buyer who pays the highest price and is best placed to take the business forward. In a competitive process we control: who learns what, and when, is your decision.
- Valuation & equity story
- Buyer universe
- Structured bidding process
- Purchase agreement
Acquisition
We identify targets, open doors that cannot be opened through the market, and negotiate the acquisition on terms that still hold after closing. At home and abroad, for strategic buyers and financial investors.
- Target search & approach
- Off-market access
- Valuation & due diligence
- Negotiation to closing
Separation & portfolio
We separate business units and subsidiaries from corporate groups and bring them to a new owner. With a robust stand-alone concept, clear transitional agreements and a buyer group that develops the business rather than dismantling it.
- Portfolio review
- Stand-alone concept
- Transitional agreements
- Board-ready papers
Ownership strategy
We resolve the ownership question in family businesses: full sale, partial sale with reinvestment, admission of a partner or minority investor. With the time such a decision demands, and without the market hearing of it before you want it to.
- Options analysis
- Partial sale & reinvestment
- Minority investor
- Generational transition
Strategic advisory
We advise owners and boards before a transaction is on the table: growth strategy, portfolio strategy, buy-and-build, preparation for a later sale. Whoever wants to sell a company in three years makes the decisive choices today.
- Growth & portfolio strategy
- Buy-and-build
- Exit readiness
- Advisory board work
Not listed?
Every transaction is different. Describe your situation and we will tell you openly whether and how we can help.
Request a conversationWhoever has bought and sold themselves
negotiates differently.
The Team
Advisers who are entrepreneurs and investors themselves.
Whoever leads a mandate at Kentforth Partners has invested, founded, bought or sold themselves. That changes the advice: we know the nights before signature, the questions of due diligence and the moment when a price is right, or not.
- EntrepreneursTeam members who have built and sold their own companies.
- InvestorsExperience from own shareholdings and from working for financial investors.
- Long-standing in the marketEstablished relationships with buyers, investors, banks and law firms at home and abroad.
Clients
Who we represent.
Three groups of clients, one thing in common: the transaction is too significant to be left to a standard process.
Corporates & listed companies
Management boards, supervisory boards and corporate development departments divesting shareholdings, separating business units or acquiring selectively. We work within governance processes, capital market obligations and quarterly timetables. And we know how the other side calculates, because we have sat there.
Family businesses & owners
Entrepreneurs placing their life's work in the right hands, or developing it further with a partner. For them it is the one transaction. We run it as if it were ours as well.
Financial investors & portfolio companies
Private equity firms, family offices and their portfolio companies in exits, add-on acquisitions and buy-and-build. With the pace, precision and reliability investors take for granted.
Sectors
Where we know the market.
We advise across industries. In these sectors we know the buyers, the valuation logic and the contractual conventions from our own work.
- Industrials & machinery
- Automotive & suppliers
- Chemicals & materials
- Healthcare & life sciences
- Software & technology
- Business services
- Construction & infrastructure
- Consumer & retail
The mandate
From the first conversation to signature.
A Kentforth Partners mandate runs in four phases. Each ends with a decision that you take, on the basis of what we have achieved up to that point.
Assessment
Valuation, buyer universe, risks and timetable, in writing and without embellishment. Only on this basis do both sides decide on the mandate.
Preparation
Equity story, financial model, data room and process design. We prepare the company so that it withstands every examination.
Market
Personal approach to selected buyers at decision-maker level. Indicative offers, management meetings, managed due diligence. Competition without loss of control.
Closing
Negotiation of price, structure and warranties together with your legal advisers. Signing, closing, and the months that follow.
Standard
Kentforth is not the cheapest adviser. It is the one you choose when the result matters.
Whoever engages us does not buy process support, but judgement, access and accountability. Six principles by which we work.
I
Responsibility stays.
The team that begins your mandate leads it to signature. One partner carries the responsibility, personally and throughout.
II
We say what is.
Before any mandate you receive our written assessment of valuation and buyer interest. Even when it reads: not now.
III
We work for one side. Yours.
Our remuneration comes from our clients alone. No commissions from buyers, no stake in the other side.
IV
We open doors, not mailing lists.
Every buyer on our list has a reason to be there, and is approached by someone they know.
V
Confidentiality is not negotiable.
Code names, staged information release, a confidentiality agreement before every contact. The market learns what it should, when it should.
VI
We stay after signature.
Signing and closing are milestones, not the end. We support integration, earn-outs and the questions that only arise afterwards.
Contact
Talk to someone who has sat on your side of the table.
Whether a specific transaction, a strategic question or a first thought: a Kentforth partner will come back to you within one working day. Confidential, without obligation, as equals.
- Emailkontakt@kentforth.com
- Phone+49 (0) 000 000 000
- CompanyKentforth Partners GmbH · Germany