Buy-side advisory · Portugal & Spain
The best Iberian companies are not on a platform.
They are owned by people who have not decided to sell, and who take the conversation only when it arrives properly introduced, in their own language.
The origination problem
An acquisition thesis is not a pipeline.
Iberian opportunities are distributed across regions, ownership situations and relationship networks. Most relevant owners are not selling. Generic lists and broad outreach produce names — not the qualified conversations a transaction is actually built from.
What gets in the way
- Iberian deal flow is relationship-gated. Owners speak to people they know, or to people introduced by people they know.
- “Off-market” usually means “not marketed”. It does not mean “no competition”.
- Data quality varies widely, and diligence takes longer than most acquirers budget for.
- Language, local process convention and owner psychology derail deals that appeared to be agreed.
- Volume-driven intermediaries send you everything. That is a different service from sending you the right thing.
What a buyer actually needs
- A clear acquisition thesis translated into practical, testable search criteria.
- A market map that goes well beyond advertised processes and database output.
- Credible local owner outreach, in the right language and the right context.
- Qualification before management time and adviser cost start accumulating.
- A repeatable process that keeps momentum across several targets at once.
Market mapping, owner engagement and transaction support — so that search criteria become a managed pipeline rather than a spreadsheet.
Our Services
From a search to a programme.
Some buyers need origination and nothing else. Some need a deal executed. Some are building a platform and need both, repeatedly, for years. The mandate is scoped to which of those you are.
01 · Retained
Origination Service
A research-led programme for buyers with defined acquisition criteria. We map the market, prioritise targets, approach owners in their own language, and develop qualified conversations for your review. No blast emails, and no list padding.
Best for
Corporates, sponsor-backed platforms, family offices and searchers with a clear rationale but no consistent local origination capability.
What you receive
- Acquisition criteria and an outreach proposition agreed with your decision-makers.
- Market segmentation, the target universe, and a prioritised account list.
- Direct owner and adviser outreach, led by Kelvin rather than delegated.
- Qualification of ownership context, strategic fit, scale and genuine openness to a transaction.
- A live pipeline with status, next action and decision notes.
- Regular reviews that refine the thesis from what the market actually says back.
Replace opportunistic deal flow with a deliberate and measurable origination process.
Discuss an origination mandate02 · Full mandate
Buy-Side Advisory
Support across the acquisition, from target definition and first approach through negotiation, diligence and closing. We keep local momentum while your team assesses fit, value and risk — and we coordinate the specialists rather than duplicating them.
Best for
Acquirers entering or expanding in Iberia who need someone on the ground through to signing.
What we support
- Acquisition strategy, search criteria and target prioritisation.
- Owner approach, relationship development and access to the process.
- Preliminary assessment, valuation parameters and indicative structuring.
- Indications of interest, offers and negotiation through to a signed LOI.
- Coordination of diligence workstreams and the materials your committee needs.
- Momentum through signing and closing, plus financing introductions where useful.
A locally informed process that helps you make a disciplined decision — not simply win a deal.
Discuss a buy-side mandate03 · Programme
Buy & Build Programmes
One acquisition is a transaction. Five is a strategy. We build and run the programme: sector map, pipeline, sequencing, and the decision discipline that determines whether a roll-up compounds or collapses.
Best for
Investors, sponsors and management teams executing a consolidation thesis in Iberia.
Programme components
- Platform or add-on thesis translated into market segments and account priorities.
- Rolling origination across agreed regions and company profiles.
- Pipeline governance, reporting and a decision cadence that holds up over a multi-year programme.
- Owner relationships developed before and during formal processes.
- A repeatable deal process — standardised valuation, structure and documentation.
- Capital structuring and introductions to Northern European equity and debt.
A programme that compounds market knowledge, owner relationships and execution discipline over time.
Discuss a buy & build programmeThe process
From thesis to transaction.
Origination is not a burst of activity. It is a cadence — maintained long enough that you are the call an owner takes in the month they finally decide.
Define
Align the strategic rationale, the acquisition criteria, decision rights and mandate economics — before anyone is approached in your name.
Map
Segment the market and build the prioritised target universe: ownership, size, owner age profile, and the realistic likelihood of a sale.
Approach
Direct, discreet, personal approaches to owners and their advisers, in their own language, with a proposition specific to you.
Qualify
Test strategic fit, ownership context, scale, readiness and genuine willingness to explore — before your team spends a day on it.
Execute
Valuation, structure, offers and negotiation, with the diligence workstreams coordinated around the questions that actually change the answer.
Close and learn
Momentum through closing — and the market feedback from every conversation fed back into the thesis for the next one.
The conversations that become transactions usually start on site, in the owner’s language, long before anything is formally for sale.
Why local origination matters
Access here is not bought. It is built.
Access is relational
Owners respond to context and credibility long before they respond to capital or price. Who introduced you decides whether the first call happens at all.
Iberia is regional
Language, ownership culture and adviser ecosystems vary between Porto and Valencia. Treating Iberia as one market is the fastest way to be ignored by both halves of it.
Persistence creates opportunity
The conversations that become transactions usually start well before a company is formally for sale — and they start again, patiently, every quarter.
Questions acquirers ask
Before you commit a retainer.
Do you only work on companies that are already for sale?
No — that is most of the point. The origination work is built to identify and engage relevant owner-led companies that are not running a process. Every conversation is qualified before it is presented to you as an opportunity.
Which geographies do you cover?
Portugal and Spain. We take work outside Iberia only where we have the local capability and mandate structure to execute it credibly — which today means we usually decline it.
What company size do you target?
Typically €5M–€50M enterprise value, though each search is defined by strategic fit rather than size alone. For platform searches the band is usually higher than for add-ons under the same programme.
How long before I see qualified targets?
Mapping typically takes four to six weeks; first qualified conversations usually follow within the first quarter. Anyone promising a qualified pipeline in three weeks is either recycling a database or has not started yet.
Can you support diligence and financing?
We coordinate the transaction and work alongside legal, tax, financial, debt and operational specialists. Specialist opinions and financing itself are separately scoped and provided by appropriately qualified parties — we introduce, we do not underwrite.
How are buy-side fees structured?
Buy-side mandates are normally retained, with scope and closing economics matched to the search and execution requirement. Multi-acquisition programmes are structured separately from one-off searches. Terms are agreed in writing before work begins.
Where is your Iberian thesis hardest to execute?
Use an introductory call to test the search criteria, identify the real origination constraint, and decide whether a retained Iberian programme is the right next step — or whether it is too early to be one.
Share your acquisition criteriaThirty minutes with Kelvin Klatt. No cost, no obligation.