A roundtable discussion with four experienced acquisition advisors on conflicting interests in an earn-out, the importance of getting the timing right to go to market and buyer opportunism. 'A buyer wants rap at the table and exclusivity as soon as possible.'
To shed light on the current state of the SME acquisition market for entrepreneurs, Friso KuipersTranslink Corporate Finance Benelux), Frank van Eeaaff Corporate Finance), Pieter PoortvlietCrossminds) and Stefan Cuppers(Orange Corporate Finance) join the table for a good discussion. Four experienced acquisition advisors who have long been active in assisting entrepreneurs, DGAs and family businesses with buying or sell a business.
At the advisory firms themselves, there was also plenty of changing of the guard. At the beginning of this year, for example, aaff was created from a merger of accounting firms Alfa and ABAB. This new combination now has 50 branches and around 2,000 employees. The corporate finance team at aaff consists of about 30 employees.
AenF Partners continued under the Translink banner last year as the Dutch corporate finance arm. Translink is an international organization with more than 400 advisers in some 35 countries. Translink Corporate Finance Benelux has 18 employees.
Investor Waterland joined Moore DRV, an accounting and consulting firm whose corporate finance arm is Crossminds , in mid-2024. Moore DRV employs some 1,450 people across 24 offices in North Brabant, Zeeland and South Holland. Crossminds itself has about 40 employees.
Orange Corporate Finance is a mid-market corporate finance boutique, where approximately 7 employees assist entrepreneurs with mergers, acquisitions and capital raising.
The consensus late last year was that the acquisition market will show slight growth in 2025. How have you experienced the past year?
Van Ee: "For us, 2025 was an excellent year in terms of assisted transactions. What especially helped us this year, and what we will reap more benefits from in the future, is that aaff as a whole has named a number of top sectors nationwide. And in the corporate finance department we embrace four of them: construction & infrastructure, horticulture, manufacturing and transport & logistics. Because of that focus, we find that we're already doing many more deals in those sectors than we did in the past. And we just expect even more of that next year.'
Cuppers: 'For us, too, it's just a good year. I do think that the uncertainties in the world have led to wait-and-see behavior, both among buyers and sellers. We put a number of projects on hold in 2023 and 2024 because EBITDAs were temporarily disappointing. You do see those recovering at the moment, making sales more attractive again.'
Kuipers: "I look back on 2025 positively. This year we have already closed about 22 transactions at the notary and we expect to complete about six more until the end of this year. But we have also put some transactions on hold for a while. Simply because the results were disappointing. Then, as an entrepreneur, you can settle for possibly lower proceeds, or you can wait a few more months or years and indeed enter the takeover market when the figures look a little rosier.
Poortvliet: "This year is our best year ever. But that is partly because we are growing fast as Moore DRV, so that is a snowball effect. I do hear a lot of reticence around me. Investments being delayed, investors taking a little longer on an exit, buyers not blindly deciding to buy. And I can understand that, because there is a lot of uncertainty.'
You read an excerpt from the roundtable interview with four acquisition advisors and can be read in its entirety in the Brookz 500. Wondering what opportunities and threats lie ahead for entrepreneurs in the acquisition market in 2026? Then you can order the 2026 edition at the click of a button.
