When business owners approach succession, their attention often turns to who will take over and how to transfer shares to family members.
When business owners approach succession, their attention often turns to who will take over and how to transfer shares to family members.
When someone talks to you about the possibility of selling your company, your first reaction may be surprise, irritation or distrust. “Why are they telling me this right now?”
For many entrepreneurs, their identity coincides with the company they have built. Years of work, daily decisions, operational responsibilities and personal relationships make the business much more than an economic activity. It becomes part of their personal story.
Selling a company is never just a financial transaction. For many entrepreneurs, especially in family-owned SMEs, a sale marks the end of a life phase that often overlaps with a personal and family identity built over time.
In mergers and acquisitions, attention gravitates to large deals. In Italy, however, the growth and continuity of thousands of companies depend on smaller transactions that markets rarely notice, yet matter to the real economy.
In business succession, the biggest risk is not lacking a successor, but failing to transform the company. Treating this moment as a simple change in leadership means missing the opportunity for the business to evolve.
The generational transition in a small or mid-sized business is often a critical turning point, and it rarely happens in a neutral context.
Winnerge acted as sell-side advisor to the ownership of DOMENIS1898, working closely with Alain Rubeli throughout the entire process. Together, we shaped a transaction based on clear industrial objectives and the ambition to secure a solid and coherent future for the company.
In Italian business culture, selling a company is still often seen as a failure. For many SMEs, it feels like surrendering, walking away, ending a chapter with a bitter aftertaste. The reality is different, but the prejudice remains.
In the world of small and mid-sized enterprises, many M&A processes begin too late when performance is declining or the owner has already made difficult decisions. At that point, the window to create value narrows and room for negotiation shrinks.