When funding is involved in business transformation

By Jean Rognetta

The pinnacle of the LBO was gone, where the profit made by the foreign exchange was sufficient to satisfy the shareholders. From the LBO at the end of 2019, Cyberex Road will enable Holly Jackie Bernard (JP) to accelerate simultaneously on the four fronts of digital transformation, energy transformation, management reform and external growth.

The investor sent an executive director to advise Jackie Bernard on his digital transformation. This is a very new activity in French private equity inspired by US funds like Payne or KKR. Traditionally – as long as one talks about the traditions in such a young business – operational support is the responsibility of the investment director, who sits on the board of directors of the company and often negotiates the investment agreement. For only a few years some funds set up a “transverse” group that worked to strengthen all the companies in the portfolio. When Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson joined Siparex in 2018, only two funds made such an effort: Apax, Gregory Salinger and Breega, along with Olivier Willi.

Three possible involvement methods

Today, at Siparex Groups, the team led by Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson, Operating Team Leader & CDO, is on track to reach eight people. “Surveillance dogs play an important role in assisting our investments in technical surveillance,” explains the investor who circled the maritime metaphor: “Sometimes we go to the engine room and get our hands dirty, but we never pick it up. Leadership instead of the company’s pilot.”

He thus echoes a white paper by France Invest, in which he is co-chair of the “Club of Operating Partners”. According to this study by Payne & Company, The […]

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