Acquisition river cruise provider

• The company is active as a private equity group in the Netherlands
• The acquisition target is a company active in leisure (river cruises)
• The activity is buy-side due diligence
• The buy-side due diligence concerned a company with a revenue of around 20 million euros
• CFIE buy-side due diligence input: The CFIE team supported in the buy-side due diligence on behalf of the private equity buyer for the leisure company

Here you find a description of a buy-side due diligence project in the Netherlands in the leisure industry. The buyer is a private equity firm active in the support of regional companies. The CFIE buy-side due diligence adviser helped the buyer in the preparation of a buy-side due diligence analysis and report. Find more details on the buy-side due diligence project below.

The owner of the leisure company needed to get some fresh capital in the company. The company wanted to improve its equity to debt ratio. It wanted to pay off some of the debt it had to the external leasing companies who had provided mortgages on the ships. The investment would be used to strengthen the balance sheet (increase the share capital) and to use the funds for further service offerings to the client base. The clients mainly consisted of elderly people that did occasional cruises on the main rivers in Germany and the Netherlands. The leisure company was had not been run in a professional way up until then. By taking a professional investor on board the owner of the company hoped to improve the financial knowledge within the company. With the new investor on board, the idea was also that the relationship with the external financiers would improve.

The CFIE buy-side due diligence team member in the Netherlands, Govert Derks, is active in business sales and buy-side due diligence projects. In this buy-side due diligence assignment, the CFIE team worked in an operational role. The buy-side due diligence project consisted of analyzing the financial performance of the leisure company. A detailed analysis of the relationships between the legal entities was done. The focus was on analyzing the capital requirements and the future cash flows. The final report was made available to the private equity group to give transparency and clear insight into the real performance of the company.

• Describe the critical areas and the operational performance of the company
• Detailed analysis of the working capital and investment requirements
• The seller had a strong position in the leisure industry. However, it needed to find a way to sustain its position given the high capital requirements and the historic downturn
• A detailed analysis was done to provide clear insight into the company for the planned investors

Feel free to contact us for further details about buy-side due diligence projects in the Netherlands or other countries in Europe. If you want to learn more about due diligence, please check the section on buy-side due diligence. Feel free to reach out to us to get 30 minutes of free consultation about a buy-side due diligence project for your business purchase and how to best approach this.