Acquisition entrepreneurship meets Europe's succession cliff
Hundreds of thousands of profitable small firms need owners. A new class of operator is buying them.
Entrepreneurship DeskPublished yesterday
The demographics are unambiguous: a very large cohort of European owner-managers is reaching retirement without a family successor, in businesses that are profitable, unglamorous and essential.
Search-fund structures imported from North America are being adapted to the continent's financing conventions, with local bank debt doing work that mezzanine did elsewhere.
The winners so far have not been the buyers with the cleverest structures. They have been the ones who kept the outgoing owner engaged through the first two years.
Drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the Leaders & Impact editorial desk. Sourcing and factual assertion remain human-owned.