In recent years, the PETER MAY Group has built up a sustainable network of well-capitalized family businesses, entrepreneurial families and family offices that show an interest in investing in other family businesses. These family equity investors from our personal network are oriented towards long-term, stable investment with sustainable dividend yields. Depending on the individual case, they also offer their services as strategic sparring partners and support the family business with their expertise and their own network.

Before considering talks with a potential investor, owner families ask themselves many questions:

• What return expectations do investors have?
• Do investors want to be involved in the business, and if so, to what extent?
• For which issues do investors expect voting rights or at least a right of approval?
• What options are there for repurchasing shares in the company and what are the usual arrangements?
• What role do investors play in a supervisory body (supervisory board, advisory board)?
• How do we ensure the family's degree of freedom, for example, in filling functions and roles of family members in the family business?

When we support entrepreneurial families in their owner-strategic discussions and in structuring these considerations, we repeatedly find that many would like to talk to a family equity investor, but do not have access. We provide that access. Personally. Confidentially. And with a lot of experience.

In the vast majority of cases, the regulations for a transfer of shares within the family of shareholders are represented in a partnership agreement. They were often made many years ago and may no longer be up-to-date and appropriate due to a change in the number of shareholders or a change in assets.

Valuation formulas for a compensation payment are often simply defined in order to keep them as comprehensible as possible. But this documented comprehensibility often leads to a lack of understanding in practical application. Agreed valuation discounts that support an acquirer's financial viability have moved away from a valuation that a third party would pay. The discrepancy resulting from this can lead to a high level of dissatisfaction on the part of the shareholder willing to sell and complicate the entire transfer process, even if there is fundamental agreement on the matter.

One of the factors that often leads to conflict in the discussions is the fact that

• Key figures that refer to past fiscal years for the purpose of determining value do not take into account expected growth and innovation potential.
• Ratios based on earnings power neglect actual liquidity generation and distributive capacity.
• additional asset structures have often developed alongside the family business which have performance relationships with the family business (such as real estate held as private assets, rights, further business interests, subgroups) and which influence the earnings power and liquidity situation of the family business through performance or financing transfers.

Even if regulations in partnership agreements are often deliberately formulated in a simple and unambiguous manner, in rare cases it may also be advisable to seek solutions 'on one's own'. Since in this situation there is often a lack of the individually necessary distance of the persons concerned to point out decision and solution paths and to implement them with sufficient emotional neutrality, we bring the objective point of view into the discussion.

• Disproportionate ownership interests of individual family members
• and in particular the experience in dealing with the understanding of values and the language of a family business.

Jörg Hueber

Jörg Hueber has been advising business families, family businesses and single-family offices on financial issues for more than 20 years and can draw on a broad range of experience in the areas of shareholder remuneration, investment valuation, financial due diligence and the purchase and sale of equity holdings. His distinct understanding of the business processes in family businesses, on the one hand, and the special relationship between family and business, on the other hand, helps him strike a balance between the interests of all family members in consulting processes.

Isabel Wessel

Isabel Wessel is a member of PETER MAY Family Office Service GmbH & Co. KG in Hamburg. She advises entrepreneurial families, family business and single offices on financial issues with regards to the adequacy of shareholder compensation, asset allocation within entrepreneurial families, financial valuations, financial due diligence and the identification of investment prospects. Other key focus areas revolve around the allocation and transfer of business assets and responsibilities from one generation to the next in order to guarantee a smooth transition in terms of both business and family matters at hand.

Madleen Buchar

Madleen Buchar is a member of PETER MAY Family Office Service GmbH & Co. KG in Hamburg. The key focus of her work relates to financial issues surrounding the organization of company transactions and financial valuations, particularly with regards to the transfer of shares amongst family members and family branches. Madleen Buchar additionally assists her clients in identifying corporate investment prospects and supports them along the corresponding implementation process.

Dr. Matthias Händle

Matthias Händle is the business owner within the PETER MAY Family Business Consulting team. After many successful years at the helm of his in-laws’ family business, he decided after its sale that he would like to pass on the skills and experience he had acquired to other family business owners in the future. As a sparring partner, coach and advisory board member, Matthias Händle knows exactly what he’s talking about, from finding the right owner strategy to preparing for or adapting to a new role.