Off-market deal sourcing: approaching companies that are not for sale

The off-market set-up works as one continuous chain. The first sequence is technological: it turns the description of an acquisitive growth project into a list of qualified, enriched and documented companies. The second is human: it turns that list into positions expressed by owner-managers, documented and actionable. Each milestone produces a deliverable that you approve before moving on to the next.

A sourced company is not a row in a spreadsheet. It is a profile built in six layers, from raw identification through to the owner-manager's contact details. Each layer answers a specific question a buyer asks before deciding whether an approach is worth making.

These six layers serve a single purpose: no call is ever made blind. An owner-manager approached by someone who knows their shareholding, their deal history and the names of their advisers gives an attention that the same call, poorly prepared, never gets. The quality of the data determines the quality of the conversation.

Plateforme Collaboration Capital — Historique des opérations du secteur

Opérations publiques du secteur, recensées et datées par la plateforme. Seul un nom de personne physique figurant dans l'intitulé d'une cible a été masqué.

This view is the fourth layer applied to each target: the sector's ownership history. It lists the deals completed, showing for each one the buyer, its country, its headcount and the target acquired. Two insights follow directly.

Serial buyers stand out on their own. A buyer that appears three times in a few months is running an openly declared buy-and-build strategy. On a sale project, it is a counterparty qualified before the first contact. On an acquisition project, it is a competitor whose pace you need to know.

A target's track record can be pieced together. A company that has already acquired two businesses has negotiating experience, financing capacity and often a financial investor among its shareholders. It is not the same counterpart as a founder-owner who has never done a deal — and the approach is not prepared in the same way.

A “no” is almost never a final no, and a polite “yes” is not a commitment. The value of a direct approach campaign lies in how finely these positions are distinguished, then dated. An owner-manager who answers “not for another three years” is not a failure: it is time-stamped information that will be worth a great deal at the right moment.

The by-product of this discipline is often as useful as its direct result. At the end of a campaign, you have a complete map of your sector: who is open, who is not, who might be in two years' time, and who advises each of them. This material builds up from one project to the next and feeds your M&A deal flow over the long term.

Collaboration Capital is an independent advisory firm specialising in acquisitions, business sales and financing. No bank or private equity fund holds any of its share capital, and the firm is not paid by any counterparty to the deal.

• Deals valued at EUR 1–200 million, on both the buy side and the sell side.
  

• Coverage of 120 countries — Europe, North America, Asia and Africa — with approaches conducted in the language of the market.
  

• No exclusivity required: you consult whoever you wish and withdraw the mandate whenever you choose.
  

• Client approval at every milestone: you approve the target list before any contact is made.
  

• Broker in banking transactions and payment services (IOBSP), registered with ORIAS — the French register of insurance, banking and finance intermediaries — under no. 25000696.
  

The orders of magnitude on this page reflect practices observed in the market and our own deals. They do not constitute personalised advice, nor any commitment as to the terms, timetable or outcome of a deal. Each case is assessed on its own merits.