Why here? Why now? Why us?

Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia share history, culture, and, in practice, a single commercial map. A diligence process, financing structure and 100-day plan built in one transfers to the others with minimal adaptation.

Slovenia and Croatia are EU and eurozone members; Serbia is in active EU accession negotiations, with the dinar in a managed float against the euro. All three are politically stable, with growing economies.

More than 80% of the companies are family-owned, founder-led SMEs created or privatised in the 1990s. That generation is now reaching retirement, and only about 20% have a viable succession plan. The issue of succession is large enough that local governments have launched programmes to support the transition. We identified roughly 3,500 companies which meet our criteria to date.

Private capital is still nascent in the region, with only a dozen local and few regional players. Thin PE competition makes it a buyer’s market, with entry EBITDA multiples well below DACH, Polish or even Czech levels. Regional PE penetration is approximetely one fifth of the European average (0.11% vs 0.55% of GDP), with only 4–5 funds genuinely competing in the sub €10M-EBITDA band.

Yet the companies that do sell — most commonly to foreign acquirers, regional PE and strategic buyers — change hands at a premium and generate strong returns.

Bridging that gap — buying from a retiring owner and selling at a premium to an institutional acquirer — requires sourcing, vetting and negotiating targets; professionalising, growing revenue and optimising the bottom line; and structuring the exit.

We have the experience and expertise to execute: financial and legal M&A on both buy and sell side (negotiation, structuring, financing, diligence); managerial and operational experience in business development, optimisation and expansion; and hands-on pre- and post-acquisition integration.