We support highly incentivised management teams who aspire to become entrepreneurs themselves, empowering them to deliver a step change in value within a streamlined business structure.
Our buy-out activities target transaction values of up to €300m.

The types of buy-out we back are wide ranging:

Principally, a management buy-out (MBO) means that the management team of a business takes over ownership of the business where they are employed. Often a corporations hives off one of its subsidiaries by selling it to its management team. In a traditional MBO the incumbent team of executive managers normally negotiates directly with the vendor of the business (their former employer), at the same time as reaching agreement with an investment institution to back them. Bought deals are increasingly offered. This is where EXMAG, as the investor, is the principal and negotiates directly with the vendor, then works out arrangements with the executive management team. Slightly different from a bought deal is an institutional buy-out, where a financial institution acquires a business, installs its own management, and where the financial institution then negotiates the acquisition of the business, with a view to handing it over to an MBO or MBI team.The owner buy-out (OBO) is a form of private placing where an institutional investor buys shares from a shareholder in a private company who wishes to realise his investment.

Another source of MBOs is that of family businesses where the owner wishes to retire. EXMAG enjoys creating entrepreneurs by implementing management and employee buy-outs (MEBOs), an MBO where a substantial number of employees, as well as managers, hold shares in the company.

Secondary buy-outs, also known as a "buy-out of a buy-out", mean that the original MBO managers will sell the company to the next generation of managers.

NOTE: sometimes MBOs go wrong. In such circumstances a rescue after an MBO (RAMBO) may be required (see Rescue).

We also support management buy-ins (MBIs) as another means of changing the ownership of a business whose owners wish to sell. The incoming management team acquires the business with backing from institutional investors, as opposed to an MBO, in which incumbent managers acquire it.

Buy-in growth-opportunity (BINGO), a kind of MBI where a significant proportion of the funding raised goes toward expanding the business.

Buy-in-management-buy-out (BIMBO), a combination of an MBI and an MBO. In a deal of this kind an entrepreneurial manager buys into a company and teams up with members of the incumbent management team to run it as an independent business.

Leveraged buy-outs (LBOs) are MBOs in which the equity capital is supported by a very large amount of debt.

Mezzanine (later) stage investing represents a form of debt arrangement commonly incorporated in buy-outs. In most deals there are three financing components: standard debt, mezzanine debt, and equity.

We are also interested in spin-outs: when divisions of a corporation become independent, either because the divisions have been taken over, or through an MBO. In most cases, the division is not regarded as fitting into the core business of the parent company.

If you would like to discuss your buy-out intentions or submit a completed business plan, select the link below, and we shall get in touch with you within three working days.

buyout@EXMAG.ch