Family-owned businesses
An LBO is one way of selling a family-owned company and may be the best choice for :
- shareholder entrepreneurs who wish to sell their company, particularly to the management team.
- shareholder entrepreneurs who are looking for a liquidity solution for their shareholders and themselves, perhaps with gradual transfer through an owner buy out.
- managers who would like to become entrepreneurs by acquiring the company they manage through an MBO.
For example, in September 2005, AtriA Capital Partenaires helped Jean-François Vignion acquire the UKAL Group, France's leading wholesaler of horse-riding equipment, which he had managed for over 25 years.
SHARK, the number-one French maker of top-quality motorcycle helmets, was also purchased by its management team in an LBO set up by AtriA Capital Partenaires. The company's co-managers, André and Robert Teston, thus handed over the reins to the management team they had formed many years ago.
ABRISUD, the leading French manufacturer of swimming-pool shelters, was acquired in September 2005 by Jean-Pierre Charpentier and François Xavier Desgrippes, in an LBO managed by AtriA Capital Partenaires. This transaction enabled Thérèse and Serge Chapus to sell the company they had founded with their children.
