VALENTYR is an M&A and strategy advisory firm based in Sehnde, Lower Saxony, Germany. We lead company sales (sell-side), acquisitions (buy-side), carve-outs from corporate groups, cross-border transactions, equity structuring and strategy mandates (positioning, growth, restructuring). 200+ transactions executed, 200+ active relationships with private equity houses, 500+ companies in the active network. Mandates for voestalpine AG, Faurecia S.A., Hörmann Group, Altendorf GmbH and Topac (carve-out from Arvato/Bertelsmann). Every mandate is led by a partner who has run this process as buyer, seller and investor. Contact: hello@valentyr.group, +49 15678 308047.
We have sold companies, bought them, carved out corporate units and invested our own capital. That knowledge flows into every mandate — whichever side of the table we take for you.
You only sell your company once. We have negotiated on both sides for years — as advisors and as investors. When a corporate or a PE fund sits across from you, someone who thinks, calculates and buys exactly like them sits on your side. That is the difference between a good price and your price.
voestalpine · Faurecia · Hörmann · Altendorf · Bertelsmann
Many owners come to us with a transaction question — and discover during the process that the strategic answer is a different one. We advise on both, under one roof: the decision and its execution. Led by partners who have bought, sold and invested their own capital.
VALENTYR combines M&A advisory (sell-side, buy-side, carve-out, cross-border) and strategy consulting (positioning, growth, restructuring) under one roof. One team, one mandate — no interface losses between an investment bank and a strategy consultancy.
Company sales and acquisitions, carve-outs from corporate groups, equity structuring, cross-border transactions. We lead negotiations where strategics, PE investors and banks sit across from us — and recover what most advisors give away in the valuation call.
Strategic repositioning, growth planning, restructuring. As a standalone mandate — or as 12 to 24 months of preparation for a transaction you would otherwise close at half price.
Both from one team — no friction losses between two separate advisory firms.
An excerpt of transactions we have led — from listed corporates to global mid-market leaders. On top sits a second track record: 50+ transactions in which our partners bought as investors themselves.
VALENTYR mandates (excerpt): voestalpine AG (buy-side, steel & technology), Faurecia S.A. (cross-border M&A, automotive), Hörmann Group (company sale, industrial), Altendorf GmbH (sell-side, machinery), Topac from Arvato/Bertelsmann (carve-out, logistics & packaging).
Strategic acquisition advisory for the listed group within the German mid-market — identification, outreach, negotiation.
Transaction support and cultural due diligence for the acquisition of a German Tier-1 supplier by the French group.
Ownership architecture for Europe's leading manufacturer of doors and drive systems — family-owner context.
Full transaction support for the global market leader in panel saws — from mandate to closing.
Spin-off of a business unit from the Bertelsmann group — separation, valuation, sale process, closing.
Further mandates on request — confidential, with reference call.
M&A processes rarely fail because no buyer exists. They fail because of poor preparation, missing discretion, and negotiators who do not know the buyer from the inside. We do.
Six-stage transaction process: mandate & structuring, valuation, preparation of info memorandum & data room, qualified buyer outreach, LOI/SPA negotiation with due diligence, signing & closing.
Goal definition, NDA, owner-side structuring. We start where other advisors already sign contracts — at the honest question of whether now is the right moment.
Company value built on reality, not on hope. DCF, multiples, synergy levers and risk discounts — before the market sets its number.
Info memo, teaser, curated data room. We prepare the sale so that due diligence stops producing surprises — and starts producing confirmation.
Discreet, qualified, direct. Strategics, family offices and private equity from our active network — no broad auctions, no anonymization grey zones.
LOI, due diligence, SPA. We lead the negotiation — and we know exactly where the buyer pushes, because we have pushed from that seat ourselves.
Signing, closing, handover. We stay at the table until the last signature line — and usually beyond, into the transition.
Most owners start preparing when the buyer is already at the table. Too late: every weakness his due diligence finds cuts the purchase price. We make your company sale-ready before the process begins — from the only perspective that counts in the end: the buyer’s.
Sale preparation (exit readiness) by VALENTYR: structured preparation of a company sale for Mittelstand companies and corporates. Buy-side style due diligence simulation, resilient financials, data room build-up, value driver optimization and exit roadmap — 6 to 18 months ahead of a transaction. Also for companies that will run the eventual sale with an investment bank or M&A boutique.
Before a buyer takes your company apart, we do. Dependencies, risks, dealbreakers — you know every weak spot before it becomes a price cut.
Adjusted EBITDA, clean contracts, a complete data room. When the process starts, there is nothing left to find.
Reduce owner dependency, defuse customer concentration, prove earnings quality. The same company — a higher multiple.
When to sell, to whom, in which process. In the end there is a plan on the table — and you decide when it starts.
Two minutes on how buyers cut the price in the data room — and how we neutralize exactly that during preparation.
Legal separation, operational disentanglement, IT split, employee transfer — running in parallel to the transaction itself. Corporates that want to divest a unit need an advisor who does more than transactions. They need someone who understands the company from the inside.
We come from the corporate side. We know what an SLA migration actually costs — and exactly where the buyer sharpens the pencil in the data room.
VALENTYR carve-out advisory: perimeter definition and valuation of the unit being separated, preparation of separation across IT, HR, contracts and supplier relationships, structured sale process with buyer outreach and negotiation, transition service agreement support through to full operational independence.
Clear scoping of the unit to be separated — legal, operational, balance-sheet. What is in, what stays with the parent, what only lives through shared services?
Preparing the split across IT, HR, contracts and supplier relationships — before the buyer opens the data room. Including TSA architecture.
Structured sale process, buyer identification, negotiation, closing. With full visibility on carve-out risks on both sides of the table.
Leading the new entity to full operational independence — TSA wind-down, IT migration, customer and supplier communication.
Spin-off of a business unit from the Bertelsmann group — perimeter definition, separation, structured sale process and closing while operations continued at full pace.
Discuss a carve-out confidentially
The VALENTYR team are advisors who have themselves bought, sold and carved out companies — before they ever led mandates. Investment banking, top-tier strategy, corporate operating, private equity. Every client gets partner-level, not a junior practice.
No mandate is delegated. Whoever advises you on day one sits in the closing on the last day. And because we only accept mandates whose case we have rigorously tested first, our success rate is exceptionally high.
“I sold, bought and carved out companies myself before I ever took on mandates. Once you have sat on the other side, you negotiate differently. That is exactly why owners come to us.”
M&A sell- & buy-side, carve-out, cross-border, equity structuring.
Positioning, growth, restructuring, pre-transaction strategy.
Active relationships with 200+ PE firms, family offices and strategics.
Machinery, automotive, medical, technology, industrial, pharma.
The VALENTYR team consists of senior M&A advisors, strategy consultants and operating partners with experience from investment banking, top-tier strategy consultancies, private equity and operational corporate and mid-market leadership.
Our founder Björn Michalke writes about the daily work of our 15 advisors: real negotiations, real prices, real mistakes — drawn from decades on both sides of the table. As advisors, buyers and investors.
Björn Michalke, founder and managing partner of VALENTYR Group GmbH, writes on LinkedIn about M&A, company sales, succession and management buy-outs in the German Mittelstand — built on decades of experience as advisor, buyer and investor, read by millions.
Hundreds of thousands of business owners read along when we show how deals really work — and why they fail.
5.7m views in the last 90 days alone
Follow on LinkedInSeine eigenen Mitarbeiter haben die Firma gekauft. Für 2,7 Millionen. Und er hat es finanziert.
134 Millionen Euro. Von einem japanischen Konzern. Für eine Firma aus dem Schwarzwald.
Er hat den Bieterprozess abgebrochen. Bei 108 Millionen. Und an den Zweitplatzierten verkauft — für 87 Millionen.
Er hat ein insolventes Unternehmen für 1 Euro gekauft. Und 4 Jahre später für 52 Millionen verkauft.
Before we make an offer, we examine whether your case can become a successful deal. If it cannot, we tell you honestly — and decline. That protects your time, your confidentiality and our success rate.
Working with VALENTYR in five steps: free and confidential initial call with a partner, NDA, transfer of financial data, rigorous pre-check whether a successful M&A case can emerge — VALENTYR declines mandates without a realistic path to success — followed by a clear mandate offer.
Free, confidential, with a partner. We listen and ask the questions that matter.
Confidentiality first. Before a single number flows, it is legally protected.
You share the financial data. We treat it like our own.
We rigorously test whether a deal is realistic. If not, we decline the mandate — before it costs you money.
If the case holds, you receive a clear offer: scope, terms, roadmap.
Before anyone sells, buys or carves out, the same ten questions come up — usually at night. Here are the answers we also give across the table.
Most advisors have spent their entire career on one side of the table. We have bought companies, sold them, carved out corporate units and invested our own capital. When a PE fund sits across from you, the person negotiating for you has thought, calculated and bought the same way. That changes the negotiation — in outcomes, not rhetoric.
That is exactly what our exit readiness mandate is for. Six to 18 months before a transaction, we prepare your company the way a buyer will scrutinize it: financials, structure, value drivers, data room. In the end you decide whether to run the sale with us — or with an investment bank or boutique. Either way, the result is yours.
That is exactly where we start. Before we run any process, we clarify three things with you: what the realistic valuation is — not the hope-price, but the number that holds in the data room; which levers would unlock 20–40 % of additional enterprise value over 12–18 months; and which market cycle your sector is in right now. Only then do we talk about whether and when. That diagnosis is free and non-binding.
Three things. First, our advisors have run, bought, sold and carved out companies themselves — we do not come from Excel, we come from the company. Second, we combine transaction and strategy under one mandate. You lose no time at the interface between an investment bank and a strategy consultancy. Third, we only take on mandates we are convinced will close — and that are not delegated.
Discretion is not a marketing claim with us, it is process architecture. No teaser without NDA. No data room without multi-stage clearance. No buyer outreach without your personal "no-go" list. On sensitive mandates we work with project code names and a closed buyer group of 8 to 15 selected parties — never broad auctions.
You can do it yourself — and you will lose between 15 % and 35 % of value, because buyers price in every unresolved IT, HR, contract or supplier interface as risk. A clean carve-out differs from a self-made one in that the separation is solved before the data room opens. We did exactly that for Topac (Bertelsmann) and placed the asset at materially better terms.
Both, depending on the mandate. Sell-side and carve-out mandates run on a moderate retainer plus a market-standard success fee at closing — without creative "minimum fees" that fall due regardless of outcome. Strategy and buy-side mandates typically run on a fixed price per phase. What we never do: open-ended hourly billing without a cap.
That is not a coincidence. It is the pitch phase — advisors compete on valuation to win the mandate. Six months later, when the buyer is in the data room, the correction comes. We give you the number on day one that we can defend in negotiation — even if it is below what you wanted to hear.
Yes — and that is where the value of two-sided experience becomes most obvious. We know the tricks seller advisors use, because we have used them. We know where in the info memo the truth differs from the marketing. Example: voestalpine — strategic acquisitions in the German mid-market, from the first long-list candidate to the signed SPA.
Realistically 8 to 12 months for a mid-market company without complications. Carve-outs run 12 to 18 months because the separation runs in parallel. Cross-border transactions add 2 to 3 months. Anyone who promises you "6 months to closing" has either never sat through a real due diligence — or has a buyer who is paying to lock out competitors. Both are rare and usually to your disadvantage.
Most owners ask this only at the third meeting — and it is the most important question. In every sell-side mandate we negotiate employee protection into the SPA: employment guarantees, site commitments, earn-out structures linked to retention. Money is negotiable — but if you have sold your team, you cannot buy them back.
With a confidential 60-minute conversation — by phone or in person. No mandate, no pitch, no contract. We listen, we ask the five questions we ask at the start of every mandate, and you decide afterwards whether to go further. If not — you spent two valuable hours with someone who told you honestly what you need to know.
A question we have not covered here? Drop us a line at hello@valentyr.group or call +49 15678 308047. Confidential, non-binding, no advisor theatre.
60 minutes with a partner. Confidential. Direct. We listen, we assess honestly — and we tell you when this is not the right moment. That is exactly what separates us from advisors who need every mandate.
VALENTYR Group GmbH · Ringstraße 1 · 31319 Sehnde, Germany
Every inquiry is answered personally by a partner within 24 working hours. No funnel, no pre-sales team.
Contact VALENTYR for a confidential intro call on M&A, carve-out or strategy advisory. Email hello@valentyr.group, phone +49 15678 308047, registered office VALENTYR Group GmbH, Ringstraße 1, 31319 Sehnde, Germany.
