What Makes a Business Exit-Ready in CEE’s M&A Market?
For most entrepreneurs, selling the business they have built is a once in a lifetime event. Yet despite the significance of the decision, many business owners entering a sale process for the first time lack a clear understanding of how transactions work, what their company may realistically be worth, or how early preparation should begin. In practice, intention and preparation rarely align.
Research from the Exit Planning Institute shows that more than 70% of privately held business owners plan to exit within the next decade, yet fewer than 20%, 1 in 5 entrepreneurs have a written, actionable exit plan. The financial consequences of that gap could be of significant effect: 76% of former owners state that, within just twelve months after completing a transaction, they would have done things differently, on timing, preparation, exit strategy or the terms they accepted.
At the same time, the regional M&A market is increasingly characterised by larger-scale transactions: the CEE region attracted a record €42.5 billion in deal value in 2025, a 36% increase compared to 2024. While deal value increased significantly, total deal volume in CEE fell by roughly 9% in 2025, a clear signal that capital is concentrating into higher-quality targets. Romania was a notable exception to the volume decline, posting its highest deal count ever recorded, suggesting that the country is gaining share within the regional market.
Active buyers remain well capitalised, but are materially more selective in determining which companies meet their investment criteria. Private equity activity in CEE reflects the same pattern: buyout value reached €7.7 billion in 2025, a 19% increase year-on-year, while transaction volume declined by 18% over the same period.
Capital is available, but investors are materially more selective, applying significantly higher conviction thresholds. The companies that generate the strongest buyer interest and achieve the best transaction outcomes are typically those that already resemble institutional-quality businesses before a formal sale process begins.
Q. At what point can a business be considered ready for exit?
A. "Generally speaking, our experience shows that a business can be considered exit-ready when it demonstrates sustainable financial performance, consistent profitability and an operationally independent, transferable structure supported by an active management team. That is the ideal profile most investors are seeking across the CEE region.
Of course, different considerations will apply depending on the size of the company and the shareholders’ intended transaction strategy, whether it is a full exit, partial exit or a strategic partnership / joint venture aimed to support future growth.
A strategic investor may adopt a more flexible approach, depending on its development strategy and its ability to integrate and manage an acquired business post-transaction.
Private equity investors, particularly in the case of businesses with strong growth potential and meaningful financial upside, can also play an important role in professionalising the company before a later acquisition by an international strategic buyer.
However, every element missing from the “ideal” institutional profile is likely to affect valuation or the structure of representations and warranties within the SPA."
— Zsolt S. Szabó, Ferdinand Investment Partners
What Makes a Business Exit-Ready?
Exit readiness is a structured effort to position a business for value realisation, typically beginning 12 to 36 months before any formal sale process. Done properly, it enhances real, measurable performance and it balances what the business delivers today with the upside a buyer can credibly underwrite for tomorrow.
There are seven core elements institutional buyers assess in every mid-market transaction. Each of them has a direct impact on valuation, either supporting or eroding the multiple investors are willing to pay for the business.
1. Financial Transparency and Stability
Reliable and sustainable financials are the foundation of any transaction. Buyers expect audit-ready records, a clear separation between recurring and one-time revenue, and a P&L that tells a coherent story without requiring a line-by-line explanation from the seller.
The specific issues that cause the most damage during due diligence are predictable: owner remuneration that is not clearly separated from business profit, working capital patterns that suggest the business is more cash-intensive than reported, and accounting inconsistencies that invite buyer-side adjustments to normalised EBITDA.
Each of these, discovered by a buyer’s advisors, becomes a renegotiation lever. Addressed in advance, they are simply facts.
In CEE markets specifically, financial transparency carries an additional premium. Western European strategic buyers and international private equity funds apply a default risk discount to businesses whose reporting they cannot independently verify.
Q. When you first open a company's books as part of a sell-side mandate, what do you typically find and what causes the most damage during due diligence?
A. "A common finding is the presence of non-core or personal-use assets on the balance sheet, such as vehicles or real estate that are not directly tied to the company’s operations. Another common mistake is owner compensation that does not reflect market-based remuneration for the roles performed within the business. These items raise questions around cost allocation, true profitability, and corporate governance, often requiring normalization adjustments.
Transaction processes are frequently affected by limited financial transparency, including inconsistent accounting practices, insufficient profitability mapping, inefficient working capital management, limited cash flow monitoring and weak internal reporting or control systems.
These issues increase uncertainty for buyers, prolong the due diligence process and can negatively impact both valuation and transaction terms."
— Zsolt S. Szabó, Ferdinand Investment Partners
Ferdinand Investment Partners advises mid-market companies across Romania and Hungary through every stage of this process, including the financial preparation that most sellers leave too late.
2. Operational Independence from the Owner
Owner dependency is one of the most common and most expensive problems in mid-market M&A.
Businesses where the owner maintains key client relationships, controls critical decision-making or remains the primary face of the company are typically subject to what professionals refer to as a key person discount, a formal reduction in enterprise value that, depending on severity, can range from 10% to 40% of the company’s assessed value.
The practical test is simple: if the business cannot operate effectively for 30 days without the owner, it is not transferable. And businesses that are not transferable are difficult to position as institutional-quality assets in a transaction process.
Reducing owner dependency requires time and deliberate preparation. It involves delegation, process formalisation and the development of a management team with genuine operational authority and a demonstrated execution track record.
In practice, this typically includes:
- documenting how key decisions are made and by whom;
- transitioning client relationships from the owner level to the company level;
- building a leadership team capable of independently managing operational and commercial processes;
- implementing reporting systems that function without direct owner interpretation or intervention.
Q. How does owner dependency affect business valuation in CEE mid-market transactions?
A. "Buyers typically structure deals with earn-outs, require transitional involvement [of 1-2 years] from the owner to mitigate this risk or apply valuation discounts.
In contrast, companies with professionalized management, diversified relationships, and well-established processes tend to command higher valuations, as they demonstrate operational resilience and independence from the founder.
One of the first transactions I closed as an M&A advisor involved an entrepreneur who owned and co-managed 3 separate companies. His philosophy was simple: the business had to be able to function even if he stepped away for a month. That principle shaped how the companies were built, with delegated responsibility, operational structure and management autonomy.
Our first collaboration ultimately resulted in a successful exit to a private equity investor.
Looking back, the transaction reinforced an important reality of the market: businesses that can operate independently from their founders are not only easier to scale, they are significantly easier to sell."
— Réka Fekete & Zsolt S. Szabó, Ferdinand Investment Partners
Owner Dependency Reduction: Preparation Checklist
3. A Strong, Independent Management Team
Leadership never appears on the balance sheet, yet it is one of the first elements quietly priced into any serious transaction. In today’s M&A environment, strong financials are no longer sufficient to secure a premium valuation, they merely open the conversation. What ultimately determines valuation, deal structure, and post-close confidence is whether the people running the business can execute under new ownership, tighter governance, and sustained external pressure.
Buyers are not acquiring yesterday’s results. They are underwriting the probability that future value will be delivered at a different pace, under closer scrutiny, and often without the informal mechanisms that previously held the company together. When that probability is unclear, leadership becomes risk and risk is always priced.
Exit-ready leadership is not a state, it’s a capability. Key characteristics include:
- clear strategic ownership at the C-level,
- a culture of accountability reinforced by visible behaviours,
- depth of talent across critical functions,
- and familiarity with the requirements of institutional capital partners.
Leadership readiness cannot be engineered at the last moment. Sudden executive changes or superficial assessments shortly before a transaction tend to raise more questions than they resolve. Companies that achieve strong outcomes treat leadership as a value-creation workstream 12 to 18 months before any process begins.
Q. How do buyers in your transactions actually assess the management team and at what point does leadership quality become a deal issue?
A. "One of the best examples is an agricultural company where management quality was one of the most important aspects of the acquisition rationale.
Over a six-year period, the company grew from approximately €21 million to more than €100 million in revenue, while simultaneously doubling its headcount.
This transformation was driven by a relatively young management team developed internally by the founders. Over time, key members of management became shareholders in the business, creating strong alignment between operational execution and long-term strategy.
At the time of the transaction, the average age of the management team was around 40, materially below the average age within the acquiring company. For the buyer, this represented not only operational continuity, but also access to a younger, entrepreneurial leadership platform capable of supporting future growth.
Leadership quality becomes a deal issue when there are clear gaps in capability, credibility, or alignment, lack of a second layer of management, or inconsistent strategic vision."
— Zsolt S. Szabó, Ferdinand Investment Partners
4. Recurring and Diversified Revenue
Buyers pay for certainty, not just growth. Recurring revenue, contracts, subscriptions, long-term supply agreements, signals that cash flows will continue under new ownership. A diversified customer base signals that no single relationship is existential.
The ideal threshold that appears most consistently in buyer analysis: no single customer should represent more than 10 to 15 percent of total revenue.
In practice, once customer concentration approaches 50%, it becomes a direct valuation issue. Recurring revenue mix is equally important. Buyers place materially higher value on contracted or recurring income streams than on one-off or project-based revenues, even at identical EBITDA levels, due to the greater predictability and visibility of future cash flows.
Q. How does revenue quality affect the valuation multiple when selling a business?
A. "Revenue quality is a critical determinant of the valuation multiple, as it directly reflects the predictability, sustainability, and risk profile of future cash flows. On the other hand, revenues that are volatile, project-based, highly concentrated, or dependent on a few key customers [or the owner] typically lead to lower multiples. The higher the transparency of revenues, the higher the multiple a buyer is willing to pay.
Of course, when discussing quality of revenue, the quality of the customer base is equally important.
We have been involved in transactions [incl. manufacturing, UCO collection sectors], where our client was selected over competitors by a foreign investor because of customer quality and positioning. In those cases, the target companies were working directly with established retailers, while competitors remained dependent on distributors or smaller local customers."
— Réka Fekete & Zsolt S. Szabó, Ferdinand Investment Partners
5. Documented Processes and Scalability
Buyers are not only acquiring current performance they are acquiring the systems that produce it. Standard operating procedures, documented workflows, clear KPI dashboards, and reliable data infrastructure are the proof that the business can scale without firefighting and transfer without tribal knowledge.
A business that depends on individual effort rather than structured processes is not scalable. Buyers recognise this immediately and price it in. Conversely, a business with documented, repeatable processes signals to a buyer that the value is embedded in the organisation, not dependent on any single individual.
Ask: could someone else run this business from Monday morning without the owner’s input? If the answer requires more than a reasonable transition period, the business is not yet institutionalised.
Q. When you are preparing a company for sale, what operational gaps do you find most often that buyers will flag?
A. "Limited transparency in decision-making, weak managerial accountability and the absence of effective internal communication channels. Buyers frequently flag the absence of documented processes, clearly defined KPIs, structured internal reporting and formalised incentive or bonus systems as indicators of operational immaturity and limited organisational scalability. "
— Réka Fekete, Ferdinand Investment Partners
6. Risk Mitigation and Clean Legal Standing
Late-stage due diligence surprises are among the most destructive events in any M&A process. They shift leverage to the buyer at exactly the moment when the seller has the least ability to walk away.
The issues that surface most frequently are predictable and preventable:
- Contracts that lack change-of-control provisions, allowing counterparties to exit on a transaction
- Employment agreements that predate the company’s current operating model
- Intellectual property with unclear ownership chains, particularly IP developed by contractors
- Tax positions that were reasonable at the time but have not been reviewed
- Regulatory licences that do not automatically transfer with the business
In Romania and Hungary specifically, buyers pay close attention to corporate structure clarity, VAT and transfer pricing compliance, and the assignability of key commercial contracts.
These are areas where local advisory adds direct transactional value, not because the issues are unique to the region, but because regional buyers price them in more aggressively when they are unresolved.
Q. What legal or structural issues have you seen come up late in a transaction in Romania or Hungary that could have been resolved months earlier?
A. "Problems related to intercompany balances, shareholder-related arrangements and legacy financing structures often surface late in the due diligence process, creating uncertainty, delaying execution and requiring additional transaction structuring.
We were recently involved in a transaction that could not be completed because the inactive minority shareholder was unwilling to accept the representations and warranties provisions of the SPA and refused to sign the agreement. Ultimately, the situation was resolved through an internal restructuring, whereby the active shareholder acquired the minority stake. This resulted in 100% of the company’s shares becoming available for sale under a mutually agreed SPA structure."
— Réka Fekete & Zsolt S. Szabó, Ferdinand Investment Partners
7. A Clear and Credible Growth Strategy
A business that can articulate its future potential, through documented market position, identified growth levers, and a management team capable of executing, consistently commands higher multiples than one that presents historical performance alone.
This does not require speculative projections. It requires clarity: why this business wins in its market, what specific growth levers the next owner can pull, and what evidence exists that those levers work. A documented, realistic forward plan tied to financial outcomes is what separates a competitive exit from an average one.
In the CEE context, the growth story is particularly important because international buyers are specifically acquiring the region’s growth potential, not only its current profitability. A business positioned as a regional platform with a credible multi-country or multi-segment expansion story is structurally more attractive than a single-market business at the same revenue level.
Q. When you are building the equity story for a seller, what growth narrative do international buyers find most credible and what do they discount immediately?
A. "A growth strategy becomes credible when it is grounded in demonstrated historical performance and supported by clearly identifiable, executable growth drivers, e.q. expansion into adjacent markets, cross-selling to an existing customer base or operational efficiencies. Potential investors value growth that is already visible in the pipeline or backed by contracts, as well as initiatives that the current management team has the capability and track record to deliver.
However, investors quickly discount purely “story-driven” projections. We previously advised in discussions involving a company reporting double-digit growth that had attracted interest from a private equity investor. Further analysis revealed that the prior year’s performance had been largely driven by a one-off government-supported program rather than by structurally improved market positioning or recurring demand. At that point, the investment case weakened materially and discussions did not progress further.
Similarly, buyers view aggressive market share assumptions, expansion into new geographies without a clearly executable strategy, or growth plans dependent on future CAPEX requirements with significant caution."
— Réka Fekete & Zsolt S. Szabó, Ferdinand Investment Partners
For owner-managed businesses in Romania, Hungary, and the broader CEE region, the question is no longer whether the market is active, but whether the business is positioned to take advantage of it. Deal values are rising, buyer appetite is sustained, and the window for well-prepared companies is open. What follows is a practical picture of the market as it stands today, and what it demands from sellers who want to compete in it.
Market Reality: Why CEE Is a Priority for Buyers Right Now
Across Emerging Europe, M&A activity reached 1,568 transactions in 2025, with aggregate deal value rising 42.5% to €36.64 billion. Cross-border deals drove the bulk of that value, accounting for 60.8% of total volume and 87.8% of total deal value, with the US, UK, and Germany the most active investors by count and Austria leading by deal value. Private equity contributed a record 330 of those transactions, with aggregate PE deal value reaching €17.24 billion.
Romania ranked second in the region by deal volume, posting its highest level ever recorded with 272 announced transactions, an important increase year-on-year. Strategic investors dominated, accounting for 87% of transaction count. The top sectors by deal volume in Romania are real estate and construction, industrial products and services, energy, consumer products, and technology. By deal value, the medical sector leads, followed by energy and industrial products.
For mid-market companies, broadly defined as businesses with revenues between €5 million and €50 million, the current environment offers genuine opportunity. But the market is K-shaped:
- High-quality, well-prepared businesses attract multiple buyers and competitive processes
- Average businesses with unresolved structural issues struggle to close at acceptable valuations
- Preparation is typically the dominant driver of outcome, although market timing can materially influence final valuation
Q. What do you see buyers prioritising when they approach you about acquiring a company in Romania or Hungary?
A. "Larger strategic investors typically focus on market share, sustainable operations and stable financial performance. Their objective is usually long-term strategic integration and strengthening competitive positioning within a given market.
Private equity investors, on the other hand, often evaluate companies as potential add-on acquisitions for existing platform investments, with the aim of expanding regional presence, consolidating capabilities or accelerating growth. In these cases, a well-supported and executable growth strategy becomes a critical component of the investment thesis.
In cross-border transactions between Romanian and Hungarian companies, buyers consistently prioritise businesses with stable, recurring revenues and clear visibility on cash flows, as these characteristics significantly reduce perceived market and execution risk within a broader regional expansion strategy."
— Réka Fekete, Ferdinand Investment Partners
What Buyers in CEE Actually Want
Buyers operating in the region today are more sophisticated and more selective than they were years ago. Several patterns define what makes a business genuinely attractive to institutional acquirers in the current market:
Predictable cash flow over speculative growth
Buyers and investors now favour predictable, stable operations over risky hyper-growth. Two to three years of stable, growing EBITDA with defensible margins is worth significantly more than a volatile growth trajectory with unpredictable cash conversion.
Platform potential
Buyers, particularly private equity-backed consolidators, are increasingly looking for platform assets: businesses that can anchor a buy-and-build strategy across CEE. A business with multi-country presence, a replicable operating model, and a clear expansion story is structurally more valuable than a single-market operator at the same EBITDA level.
Strong management independent of the founder
This is particularly critical in the CEE mid-market, where founder dependency is the single most common reason for valuation discounts. Buyers are not acquiring a relationship, they are acquiring a business. If the business does not function without the founder, the price reflects that.
Governance and legal clarity
International buyers systematically price in governance risk in CEE transactions. Businesses with straightforward ownership structures, clean corporate registrations, no opaque offshore arrangements, and resolved compliance issues face less buyer-side risk pricing and close faster.
Q. In the transactions you are currently working on, what separates the companies that attract multiple buyers from the ones that struggle to generate serious interest?
A. "Size is often the first filter. Some of the companies we worked with were simply below the scale typically targeted by larger international strategic buyers or institutional investors.
Sector attractiveness is another key factor across the CEE region. There continues to be strong investor interest in technology businesses in both Hungary and Romania, as well as growing appetite for profitable manufacturing companies [eq. in segments such as packaging], supported by broader nearshoring trends. By contrast, investor appetite for agricultural businesses is currently more limited. The market has seen a growing number of companies available for sale, while buyer interest has remained relatively cautious due to the sector’s perceived risks and operational volatility.
Management quality remains one of the most important considerations for investors, and in many cases a dealbreaker factor. Independent, capable management teams can materially improve a company’s attractiveness, even where other aspects of the investment case may be less compelling."
— Réka Fekete & Zsolt S. Szabó, Ferdinand Investment Partners
Valuation: What Drives the Multiple in CEE
In the Central and Eastern European mid-market, EBITDA multiples averaged approximately 5.3x across the region in 2025, with significant variation by company size and sector. The size effect is material: businesses with €200,000 in EBITDA typically trade at approximately 3.9x, while companies at €10 million in EBITDA achieve closer to 7.2x. This reflects the lower perceived risk and greater scalability of larger, better-managed businesses.
The multiple is driven by two factors: resilience and growth. Resilience refers to the quality and stability of earnings, customer base, competitive position, and team depth. Growth refers to the credibility of the business’s forward trajectory. A business that demonstrates both, stable historical performance and a believable expansion story, commands the highest multiples.
In Romania and Hungary, buyers also factor in CEE-specific risk premiums related to governance, legal structure, and financial reporting quality. The most direct way to reduce those premiums is to address them before buyers see them.
Q. When you sit down with a first-time seller and they tell you what they think their business is worth, how often are they right and where does the gap usually come from?
A. "In our experience, first-time sellers tend to overestimate the value of their business. A common reason for this gap is that owners often anchor their valuation on how much capital they have invested over the years, rather than on the company’s cash flow generating capacity.
Another frequent misunderstanding is the double counting of value, owners may simultaneously factor in both the asset base and the income-generating potential of the business, effectively duplicating value.
Part of our role is to clarify that valuation is primarily driven by sustainable cash flows and market benchmarks, and to align expectations with what buyers are actually willing to pay."
— Réka Fekete, Ferdinand Investment Partners
A Structural Driver: The Succession Wave
Across the CEE region, age combined with the absence of a clear successor now accounts for nearly half of all mid-market transactions. Entrepreneurs who built businesses in the 1990s and early 2000s are approaching retirement without a natural internal heir.
For many of them, the exit is not a strategic choice, it is a financial and operational necessity. The average age at which business owners sell has dropped from 61 to 57 over the past decade, and the trend is accelerating, owners are choosing to exit earlier rather than waiting for the perfect moment.
That earlier exit decision is closely linked to succession: across Europe, age combined with the absence of a successor accounts for 46% of all mid-market transactions, and in CEE the pattern is even more pronounced, with the figure rising to nearly half of all deals in the region.
This creates both urgency and opportunity. The urgency: a forced exit, triggered by health, burnout, or circumstance rather than market timing, is almost always a worse financial outcome than a planned one. The opportunity: owners who begin preparation early enough can position themselves as sellers in a market that is actively looking for quality assets rather than sellers in a market that senses desperation.
Q. What is the most common trigger you see that finally pushes a business owner in Romania or Hungary to pick up the phone and start a conversation about selling?
A. "In our experience, there is rarely a single purely financial trigger. More often, the decision to explore an exit is driven by a combination of personal, strategic and operational considerations.
One of the most common catalysts is the natural lifecycle of entrepreneurship. Founders who have spent 10–20 years building a business often reach a point where they want to step back from day-to-day operations, particularly when there is no clear succession plan in place and the family has limited interest in taking over.
In other situations, the business itself reaches a stage where further growth requires capabilities, capital or organisational resources beyond what the current ownership structure can provide. Bringing in external support, whether through professional management, a strategic investor or a joint venture partner, becomes a logical next step in the company’s evolution.
We have also encountered situations following inheritance, where the new shareholders were neither willing nor prepared to remain involved in the management of the company.
Regardless of the underlying driver, considering an exit does not necessarily mean stepping away immediately, it often means exploring strategic options. And those discussions are best started early."
— Réka Fekete & Zsolt S. Szabó, Ferdinand Investment Partners
Scaling Before Selling: What It Actually Means
Scaling and selling are not sequential steps. How a business scales determines whether it will sell and at what price.
In the current CEE M&A environment, buyers are specifically looking for platform assets: businesses that have already demonstrated the ability to grow beyond their founding market, that operate with repeatable processes rather than founder-dependent execution, and that can plausibly serve as a regional consolidation vehicle under new ownership.
Scaling with an exit in mind means:
- Diversifying the revenue base so no single customer represents a concentration risk
- Building a repeatable sales engine that generates predictable pipeline without founder involvement
- Expanding into adjacent markets or geographies in a way that is documented and replicable
- Keeping capacity slightly ahead of demand, so the business is not fully saturated and the growth story is credible
- Focusing on EBITDA quality — margin stability, recurring revenue percentage, and cash conversion — not just top-line growth
The companies that exit at premium valuations are not necessarily the largest. They are the ones that have built the most credible story about where the next owner can take the business.
Q. Have you worked with owners who scaled specifically to make the business more sellable and what did that actually look like in practice?
A. "We previously advised the owners of two companies operating in the same industry on a consolidation strategy designed to combine the businesses into a larger, more competitive platform with increased relevance for private equity investors.
The underlying rationale was that scale, operational synergies and a stronger market position would improve the long-term attractiveness of the combined entity.
The proposed exit strategy was structured in two phases. The first phase involved the consolidation of the businesses alongside a joint venture partner, creating a stronger regional platform capable of supporting further growth and professionalisation.
The second phase envisioned a joint exit after several years of development, targeting a larger international strategic investor once the platform had achieved greater scale, integration and market positioning."
— Zsolt S. Szabó, Ferdinand Investment Partners
The Timeline: Exit Readiness Is Built Over Years, Not Months
Exit readiness is measured in years, not months. The specific milestones that build value follow a consistent logic, and compressing this timeline consistently leads to worse outcomes. 66% of European mid-market transactions close within 12 months; 34% take longer than a year from mandate to closing. The six-to-twelve month window is the average duration.
Businesses that compress this timeline do not necessarily fail to sell. They consistently leave value on the table through lower multiples, earn-out structures that defer cash at close, or deal terms that shift risk to the seller to compensate for buyer uncertainty.
Q. What happens in practice when a seller comes to you six months before they want to close — is that enough time, and what gets compromised?
A. "In practice, six months is a very tight timeline, and whether it is sufficient largely depends on the readiness, and attractiveness of the business. For smaller SMEs, there is typically not enough time to properly prepare the company, address structural or operational gaps, and run a competitive process. As a result, sellers often face compromises on valuation, transaction structure or deal terms.
For larger businesses that are already well-prepared, operate with independent management teams or benefit from existing buyer interest, a six-month process can be achievable. Even in these situations, however, certain stages of the process may need to be accelerated or compressed.
The practical consequence is that sellers may ultimately sacrifice process quality, negotiation leverage or the depth of preparation, all of which can directly affect valuation, deal certainty and execution outcomes."
— Réka Fekete, Ferdinand Investment Partners
Choosing the Right Advisor: What First-Time Sellers Need to Know
For a first-time seller, choosing an M&A advisor is one of the most consequential decisions in the process. The wrong choice is not just expensive, it can mean going to market under-prepared, approaching the wrong buyers, or negotiating from a position of weakness. The right advisor does not just run a process, they build and protect your outcome from the first conversation.
The questions that actually matter when evaluating an advisor:
- Senior involvement throughout: Does the partner who pitches the mandate stay personally involved through valuation, buyer outreach, due diligence management, and negotiation? Or does work get delegated to junior team members after signing?
- Verified sector and regional network: Does the firm have direct relationships with the relevant buyer universe for your specific company, not just claimed regional coverage, but documented introductions and active deal relationships in your sector and geography?
- Valuation discipline before marketing: A credible advisor establishes a defensible valuation before approaching any buyer. Going to market without an independent view of what the business is worth is the single fastest way to lose negotiating leverage.
- Outcome-aligned fee structure: Fees should be structured to align with your interests, not the advisor’s throughput. A success fee tied to the final transaction value is the clearest signal that your advisor’s interests are aligned with yours.
- Cross-border execution capability: In the Romania–Hungary corridor specifically, the relevant buyer landscape spans local strategic acquirers, regional private equity funds, and Western European corporates. Each requires a different approach. An advisor with genuine cross-border execution experience — not just claimed CEE coverage, reduces execution risk at every stage.
M&A is not a restructuring tool. It is a strategic decision that works best when used to optimise outcomes: plan succession, capture market timing, or maximise value ahead of retirement. Most M&A advisors recommend engagement at least 12 to 18 months before a target exit date early enough to resolve the financial, legal, and operational issues that, discovered late, become buyer leverage rather than seller preparation.
Q. What is the one question a first-time seller should ask any M&A advisor before signing an engagement letter — including Ferdinand?
A. "The most important question a first-time seller should ask is: “How exactly will you create competitive tension and who are the specific buyers you can realistically bring to the table for my business?” This goes to the core of value creation, beyond credentials or past deals, what matters is the advisor’s ability to access the right buyers and run a process that drives competition."
— Réka Fekete, Ferdinand Investment Partners
If you are considering a sale or would like an independent view of what your business may be worth to a strategic or financial buyer, contact us anytime.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a business exit-ready?
A business is exit-ready when it can be transferred to a new owner without losing performance, value, or the trust of customers and employees. The core indicators are: three to five years of clean, auditable financials; a management team that can run the business without the founder; documented processes and standard operating procedures; a diversified revenue base with no customer representing more than 10–15% of total income; and a clear, credible growth story that a buyer can underwrite. Exit readiness is typically a 12-to-36-month process, not a pre-sale checklist. In the CEE context, institutional governance and legal cleanliness carry additional weight, as international buyers apply a default risk premium to businesses whose reporting and structure they cannot independently verify.
How to sell my business for the first time?
The process of selling a business for the first time has distinct phases. First, establish what the business is worth: commission an independent valuation before approaching any buyer. This sets your price floor and prevents you from negotiating blind. Second, appoint an advisor with sector-relevant buyer relationships and genuine senior involvement throughout not just at signing. Third, prepare your business for scrutiny: clean financials, resolved legal issues, and a documented equity story. Fourth, run a structured process that creates competitive tension among multiple buyers simultaneously. Fifth, manage due diligence actively, with a complete data room, rapid response to buyer requests, and no late-stage surprises. The entire process from mandate to close typically runs 6 to 12 months in Romania and Hungary. Compressed timelines consistently produce worse financial outcomes.
How to tell if an offer for my company is fair or too low?
An offer is fair when it is consistent with market EBITDA multiples for your sector, size, and geography, and when the deal structure, cash at close, earn-out percentage, deferred consideration, and working capital adjustments, is in line with comparable transactions. In the CEE mid-market, EBITDA multiples in 2025 averaged 5.3x, ranging from approximately 3.9x for smaller businesses to 7.2x for larger, better-governed companies. An offer is likely too low if: it relies heavily on earn-outs that defer a large portion of the purchase price; it contains unusually aggressive working capital adjustments; or it has not been tested against competing buyers. The most reliable way to know whether an offer is fair is to have run a competitive process with multiple buyers. A single-buyer process with no alternatives is always a negotiation conducted from weakness.
What are the biggest mistakes first-time sellers make when selling their business?
The most consistent mistakes are: entering the process without a credible independent valuation, which allows a sophisticated buyer to anchor the price negotiation; going to market with unresolved financial, legal, or operational issues that surface during due diligence and become renegotiation leverage; approaching a single buyer without competitive tension, removing the seller’s ability to walk away; underestimating the time required, expecting a process that takes three months to take six weeks; and choosing an advisor based on lowest fee rather than relevant buyer relationships and transaction track record. The underlying pattern is treating a sale as an event rather than a process. Owners who invest in preparation consistently achieve better multiples, cleaner deal structures, and faster closes than those who react to buyer interest without having built a position of strength first.
Should I sell my business now or wait?
The timing decision for a business sale depends on three factors operating simultaneously: personal readiness, business readiness, and market conditions. The CEE M&A market in 2025 and into 2026 offers a strong environment for mid-market exits, with active buyer appetite, improving deal values, and sustained private equity participation. However, entering an active market with a business that is not yet prepared is counterproductive, a favourable market does not compensate for governance issues, weak financial reporting, or founder dependency. From a retirement planning perspective, the key financial question is whether the net proceeds from a sale at current valuation, after tax and transaction costs, are sufficient to meet post-exit income needs. If there is a gap, the decision is either to scale down retirement expectations or to invest in a two-to-three year value acceleration programme before going to market. Identifying that gap early is the most important reason to start the exit planning process well before a sale is imminent.
Can I trust an M&A advisor and how to verify before signing?
The most reliable signals of a trustworthy M&A advisor are specific and verifiable. Relevant completed transactions in your sector and geography, not just claimed coverage. Named client references you can call independently. A fee structure with a meaningful success component tied to the final transaction value, not just retained fees for effort. Partner-level involvement in execution, not only in origination. And transparent disclosure of any conflicts, whether the firm represents buyers in the same sector, whether they have relationships with the likely buyers, and how those relationships are managed. Red flags include: vague buyer network claims without specific names or sectors; front-loaded retainer structures with minimal success fee; over-promising on valuation without supporting market data; and advisors who have not personally closed a transaction in your market in the past two to three years.
What happens after I sell my company?
Most sale agreements in the mid-market include a transition period during which the seller remains involved, typically between three and twelve months, to support operational continuity and knowledge transfer. Non-compete clauses are standard, in Romania and Hungary, these typically cover the same sector and geography for one to three years, with terms negotiated as part of the transaction. Beyond the operational transition, the personal dimension of an exit is significant and consistently underestimated. Founders who have built businesses over decades often experience a meaningful identity shift post-exit. Having a clear plan for the next chapter, whether a new venture, an advisory role, or structured personal investments, is not incidental to the exit. It is part of the decision framework. Owners who approach the sale with emotional clarity about what comes next negotiate more effectively and transition more smoothly than those who have not thought it through.
What is the difference between exit readiness and succession planning?
Exit readiness is the broader discipline of preparing a business for any form of ownership transition, a trade sale, a private equity transaction, a management buyout, or a family succession. It encompasses financial preparation, operational independence, legal cleanliness, and strategic positioning. Succession planning is specifically focused on leadership continuity: who takes over the day-to-day management of the business when the owner steps back. An exit-ready business requires succession to be resolved, but exit readiness is a considerably larger undertaking. A business can have a clear succession plan and still be poorly prepared for an institutional sale, if its financials are opaque, its customer base is concentrated, or its legal structure creates transfer risk.
Ready to Understand What Your Business Is Worth to a Buyer?
Ferdinand Investment Partners advises owner-managed and mid-market companies on sell-side M&A transactions across Romania, Hungary, and the broader CEE region. If you are considering a sale or seeking an independent valuation of your business for strategic or financial buyers, contact us to start a conversation.
