We buy companies in Spain and Portugal · And we keep them
Alce buys family and niche businesses, and keeps them. The team, the name and the way of doing things stay the same. And the owner stays at the helm, for as long as they want.
What Alce is
Every owner eventually asks the same question: who will run this when they are no longer at the helm?
The usual options are more alike than they seem. A fund buys to sell within four or five years, and everything it does in the meantime is geared towards that sale. A competitor buys to absorb: the brand, the team and the way of doing things last only as long as the integration.
Alce is not a fund. It is a business group that buys companies and keeps them: no deadlines, no one waiting to cash out, no integration plans. The cash the companies generate goes into buying the next one — year after year.
It is a model that has worked for decades in northern Europe and the United States. In Spain and Portugal, no established buyer does this yet. We want to be that buyer.
We do not get involved in the day-to-day. Decisions are made inside the company, by the people who know it best. Our role is different: to bring what a company on its own does not usually have — financing to grow, help with key hires and what has already worked in the other companies in the group — and to be there when the owner wants a second opinion.
We do not buy at any price. We buy only a handful of companies, carefully chosen, at fair prices and without excessive debt. If a deal does not make sense, we would rather wait.
We do not change the price at the last minute. The price we agree is the price we pay. Pre-closing reviews are there to confirm the price, not to chip away at it.
We do not sell. What the companies earn is reinvested in growing them and in buying others. That is how you build a group that lasts for decades.
Criteria
We buy companies in Spain and Portugal that, in general, meet these conditions. If this sounds like your company, let's talk.
Size
Companies earning between one and four million euros a year in EBITDA.
Profitability
Double-digit margins and predictable cash generation, without needing heavy investment every year just to keep going.
Position
Leaders in their niche, difficult for their customers to replace. You do not have to be big: you have to be the best at something specific.
Customers
Business-to-business, with recurring revenue and a diversified customer base.
Team
We prefer the owner to stay at the helm. When that is not possible, an orderly transition plan works too.
Sector
We care about the business, not whether the sector is in fashion. We prefer light manufacturing, value-added distribution and business services, but if the business is good and we understand it, it fits.
For owners
Selling is the biggest decision an owner makes about their company, and it is never just a matter of price. These are the questions every owner asks us, answered up front.
Our preferred scenario is that the owner keeps running the company. If at some point they want to step back, we plan the handover together, taking as long as it takes: the natural route is for their own management team to step up. Bringing in someone from outside is the last resort, not the first.
We buy a majority stake and we ask the owner to keep a meaningful part of the company; in most cases, around a quarter. It is not a formality: we want them to remain part of the project for the long term. If their situation is different, we are happy to look at it.
We do not buy to cut back or to dismantle what works; we buy precisely because it works. The company keeps being run from within, and the team keeps doing its job with the same people as always. We do not stand over the company; we stand beside it.
A board where we review the business and the big decisions together, clear and up-to-date financial information, and a partner to call before a difficult decision. That is what changes. Everything else stays where it was.
No integration, no rebranding, no becoming a division of another company. The company stays the company.
Almost everything the owner has built sits inside the company. The sale secures a significant part of that, while they keep a share of what comes next.
Where others buy with a sale date in mind, we buy to keep.
| A fund | A competitor | |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Time frame | Sell in 4 or 5 years | Absorb and integrate | Forever |
| Owner's role | Replaced or under pressure | Dispensable after integration | At the helm as long as they want |
| The team | Routine restructuring | Duplicated roles and departures | Stays as it is |
| The brand | Kept until the resale | Disappears | Stays |
| The day-to-day | New targets and constant reporting | The buyer's procedures | The same, with more resources |
How this starts
A conversation, nothing more. You tell us as much or as little as you like. No documents, nothing to sign, and complete confidentiality.
If there is a fit, we put a number on the table early. Before asking you for sensitive information and before you spend a euro on advisers.
And if it does not fit, we tell you just as quickly.
Team
We are two partners who have spent years working in company sales and acquisitions, from both the adviser's side and the investor's. We have seen many company sales from the inside, and too often we have seen what happens to a good company when its buyer is in a hurry to sell it on. Alce exists to be the buyer we kept missing at those tables: the one that buys to stay.
Founding partner
More than a decade buying and selling companies. He has worked at Barclays, ING and H.I.G. Capital, advising on and leading acquisitions in Spain and across Europe. He holds a degree in Business Administration and Management from CUNEF.
Founding partner
More than six years in corporate transactions, with experience at Barclays, Crédit Agricole and Alantra. He holds a double degree in Business Administration and Law from IE University and an MBA from INSEAD. Member of the Spanish Family Business Association.
Contact
If you have been thinking about your company's future, even if it is early days and you have not decided anything, write to us. The conversation is confidential and commits you to nothing.
