An Interview with Eurohold Leadership: ‘We Deliver Tailored Advice to Our Clients (Buyers or Sellers) and Support them Across their Local and Cross-Border Operations’

“We are planning to offer our standard products to more countries. Additionally, we are developing new services in order to become a one-stop shop.”

Whether the focus is strategy, operations, tax, finance, HR, or IT, business consultants are a staple of corporate life. Today, over 700,000 consulting firms provide services across virtually all aspects of business globally. From defining strategic direction to simply serving as an additional pair of hands for outsourced work, consultants have become inextricably linked to the success of most large organizations.

In light of the above-mentioned scenario, we’re thrilled to present Eurohold.

Eurohold was founded as a Corporate Finance Consulting Company over three decades ago. Currently, it’s one of the most active mergers and acquisitions companies in Spain.

An independent leader in its home market, in a number of mid-cap transactions over the last years, Eurohold has created its own international network with additional offices in Madrid, Paris, Geneva, Munich, London, Mexico, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Beijing, Moscow, Minsk, and Rabat. It also operates in Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ukraine, Brazil, India, and Japan through its network of partners.

The company offers Corporate Finance services to multinationals, private equity funds and to private companies, acting from the conception to the structuring and closing of the transactions, bringing its strong experience in each process step: valuations, information memorandum writing, transaction definition, fund structuring, counterparts identification, supervision and management of confidential documents, negotiations organisation, due diligence and vendor due diligence supervision, data room organisation, supervising of all kind of contracts including Letter of Intent, Memorandums of Understanding and SPWA (sale/purchase).

Eurohold serves multiple sectors such as IT, Internet & Telecommunications, Pharmacy and Health, Industrials, Distribution, Retail, B2B Services, Energy and Environment, Transport & Logistics, and Finance.

The company was incorporated in 1989 and is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain.

Pascal Vieilledent & Jean-François Alandry, Eurohold Co-founders/Managing Partners, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years, Mr. Vieilledent?

The company was set up in order to provide M&A cross border services to clients located either in France or in Spain.

Over the years, the strategy has been consisting of:

• Being still focused on cross border deals with counterparts in other countries, additionally from the initial core business: Spain/France
• Increasing the value of the deals
• Opening branches in Madrid and outside of Spain (France, Turkey, Portugal, Switzerland etc.) as an integrated network, in order to be able to deliver the same quality of M&A advisory services in more countries; for our historic clients but also to reach new ones.

Q. What challenges did you face in your initial years, Mr. Vieilledent?

The main challenge was to set a seal from zero in a very competitive market where newcomers are not welcome!

Q. “Earning trust and respect of consumers all around the world is through consistent focus on delivering high quality in all of our actions.” How do you interpret this statement, Mr. Alandry?

We interpret it as a key point: trust can be built over the years while one is able to deliver a good and affordable service, independently from the difficulties that arise over the time and with a clear focus on the client satisfaction.

Q. Fostering a culture of feedback is crucial to the success of every organization. How is this true with your company, Mr. Vieilledent?

Yes, it is necessary to foster the culture of feedback; thus we create a positive and dynamic relationship where the client can see us as a partner and not just a service provider.

Moreover, we advise the client doing the things as if it would for us. Over time, the client can check that this is a reality; neither empty principles nor a theory.

Q. If you have to list five factors that have been/are the biggest asset to your organization, what would they be and why, Mr. Alandry?

Client first: We have to understand that a client satisfied allows us to build mutual trust and a long term relationship.

Transparency with the client: When we share the information, the doubts that arise and our perception of the threats on a potential deal with the client, we are able to think together with them about the best solutions to bring and apply.

Long term approach: A satisfied client guarantees loyalty; most of the new clients come through recommendation of other ones.

Custom made service: Every deal is a combination of market skills, the clients’ aim, and our own experience.

Flexibility according to the type of transaction, client profile and counterparty: We cannot apply the same solutions to different contexts or problems. This why we have to be flexible: To use our broad experience to design the best solution for each case.

Q. Do you have any new products ready to be launched, Mr. Vieilledent?

We are planning to offer our standard products to more countries. Additionally, we are developing new services in order to become a one-stop shop.

Q. As a question on sustainability, where do you see your company a couple of years from now, Mr. Alandry?

We have to be able to have a footprint in more countries (priority: USA) without losing the ‘boutique’ spirit. The sustainability will be possible whether we are able to hire people that share our values.

Eurohold | Leadership

Pascal Vieilledent: Pascal Vieilledent, Managing Partner, is the co-founder of Eurohold. He has over 25 years of experience in Corporate Finance, completing dozens of corporate transactions, both with industrials and Private Equity firms in key sectors including Pharmaceutical Industry, Distribution, Transport/Logistics, and Consumer Goods (including Wine Industry).

Pascal holds an MBA from the Montpellier Business School in France and lives in Barcelona – Spain, since 1987. He can easily work in French (native), Spanish, English and Catalan.

Jean-François Alandry: Jean-François Alandry, Managing Partner, is the co-founder of Eurohold. Jean-François has over 25 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 PhD 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.

“We offer a full range of Corporate Finance advisory services to global companies, private equity funds, and private companies.”