Jean-François Alandry, You are Capital Founder and CEO: ‘We are in the Finance Industry to put People First, Make it Transparent, Accessible, and Trustworthy’

“We leverage our extensive experience in a wide range of transactions to offer the best advice to entrepreneurs and HNWs.”

You are Capital is an international corporate finance advisory with a focus on M&A, private equity advisory, financial and strategic advisory, and financing.

The company is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain.

Jean-François Alandry, You are Capital Founder and CEO, spoke to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. Explain your services in brief.

You are Capital has delivered corporate finance advisory services tailored to its clients’ needs and has successfully helped them in their capital transactions domestically and internationally. Services include: Design and structuring of transactions, valuations, documentation, negotiations, financing, and supervision of third-party advisers, Closing under public Notary.

• Mergers & Acquisitions – Through in-depth knowledge of many industries, You are Capital provides reliable and confidential advisory services to large multinational and national companies for their external growth and/or divestment strategies, and to private independent companies for their total or partial sale of capital strategy.

• Private Equity Funds Advisory Services – You are Capital advises international and domestic Private Equity firms on their investments, looking for the best opportunities in the most appropriate industries, to optimize value creation for shareholders and on their divestments, through competitive, interactive, fast, limited and very confidential processes. You are Capital also advises and supports private independent companies looking for growth capital or a change in their shareholding structure. On both sides, You are Capital applies its standard processes, taking into account the specificities of the private equity sector.

• Financial and Strategic Advisory Services – You are Capital advises multinational companies for their strategy of international partnerships, for the study of potential investments in complementary or related sectors or potential divestments of non-core activities or non-strategic countries. You are Capital also advises national and international private equity funds looking for new investment opportunities in newly created sectors, with potential concentrations or build-ups, with undergoing regulatory or technological disruptive changes, etc.

• Financing – You are Capital advises private equity funds, multinationals, and private independent companies looking for acquisitions financing, or staple finance.

We are particularly specialized in cross border transactions, where we leverage our extensive networks of international partners and our international execution team. In terms of sectors, we are multi specialist, but we have a particular edge when it comes to IT Services, Technologies, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Environment and Renewable Energies, B2B services, Consumer Brand, Retail, Leisure, Industry, and Media.

What are the latest technologies leveraged by you to provide exceptional financial services?

Besides having access to an extensive range of professional databases, You are Capital has recently implemented a CRM system to achieve the following objectives:

• Allocate the most suitable human resources to each project;

• Monitor the current status and the next steps of each project;

• Assess, monitor, and coordinate the implementation of each business lead pursued by the company;

• Monitor the frequency and quality of contacts with clients and counterparties;

• Centralize the contacts of each partner of the company, to identify the best way to approach clients and possible counterparties;

• Identify any possible bottleneck which may affect the execution of projects;

• Constantly monitor statistics and KPIs at the project portfolio level.

CRM has already positively impacted efficiency and productivity at all levels of the organization.

How do you balance the customer service aspect with the security aspects?

We always ensure the highest security standards for our clients. The circulation of sensitive information is always protected by a strong non-disclosure agreement. Our discrete approach to counterparties and the extensive knowledge of the industries in which we operate allows us to adopt a selective approach to minimize the risk of information leak and to ensure an adequate level of security.

Q. Why do you think wealth management is important and is there any frequent misconceptions about it?

At You are Capital, we are deals architects and ensure transactions are implemented in the best way to maximize our clients’ wealth. We leverage our extensive experience in a wide range of transactions to offer the best advice to entrepreneurs and HNWIs.

Q. How do you deal with regulatory?

You are Capital has an in-house Internal Counsel which ensures our company is always fully compliant with the relevant regulations in every jurisdiction we operate. The Internal Counsel reviews each legal document which is produced to ensure the highest ethical and regulatory standards.

Clients are subject to a comprehensive preliminary check which goes well beyond the most common KYC procedures.

Q. What are the different financial strategies that you implement and how do you develop one?

We are constantly monitoring the current trends in the market and our experience often allows us to predict future trends in different sectors. We like to implement strategies based on current and expected variations in macroeconomic variables such as GDP, inflation, exchange rates, and commodity prices. Besides, we are often and successfully implementing industry consolidation strategies backed by financial investors. We periodically switch our focus depending on the current stage in the economic cycle and the specific contingency. For example, we have recently focused on sectors that are less affected by the Covid-19, such as IT Services, F&B, certain B2B services, or strengthened our positioning in the Debt Capital Raising sector to offset the current lower appetite for M&A transactions. Our strategies are discussed with all the partners at our regular meetings to ensure we always have a global perspective.

Q. How do you integrate your strategies into the clients’ financial roadmap?

At You are Capital, we give priority to developing long-term relationships with clients. We always try to accommodate the client’s roadmap but in some cases, for the sake of preserving the relationship, we do not hesitate to communicate our different opinions, and sometimes we have even advised not to pursue a strategy, putting the client’s interest before our own.

Q. How do you market your services?

We have a constant deal flow driven by the strong reputation we developed with our existing client base. We also use our multiple accesses to M&A and Capital Raising intelligence to pitch our services to existing and new clients. We leverage established relationships with entrepreneurs, banks, managers, legal advisers, auditing firms, and other financial advisers to constantly screen the market in search of business opportunities. When an opportunity is identified, we prepare a professional pitch which often includes an extensive study of the relevant sector, a comprehensive description of the proposed transaction, and details about our specific value-added we can offer through our dedicated team deployed for the project.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

Thanks to our recent additions to our team, we are now offering to our clients access to IPO funding on the Euronext in Paris, access to public bonds, debt private placements, and other alternative debt financings.

Q. What are your trajectories for the next five years?

Whilst consolidating our leading position as an independent advisory firm in Spain, we aim at increasing our market share in the mid-market segment in countries such as France, UK, Germany Italy, and Portugal. Thanks to our partners in Asia, we are also creating the ground to become an important player in China, Hong-Kong, and Turkey. We also see increasing opportunities coming from our presence in the US and Africa. Our long-term objective is to become a leading, global, independent corporate finance advisory firm with expertise in a vast range of verticals, offering local expertise but with a global perspective.

Jean-François Alandry: A Reliable Leader

Jean-François Alandry, Founder and CEO of You are Capital, was the founder of Eurohold in 1989. Jean-François has over 30 years of experience in corporate finance. He completed dozens of deals in his career, advising numerous corporate transactions, both with industrials and private equity firms, in various sectors including technologies and telecommunications, environment, B2B services, and healthcare. Jean-François holds an MBA in Finance (EM Lyon Business School) and a Ph.D. in Financial Technique (ESSEC Business School in Paris). He lives in Barcelona, Spain since 1987 and can easily work in French (native), Spanish, English, and Catalan.

Our vision is to become one of the fastest-growing Corporate Finance companies focused on disruptive businesses, new talents, and entrepreneurs.”