Leading companies into the future

Crisis prevention: For Syntra CF in Wetzlar, company sales and succession planning are day-to-day business
29.01.2025

By Pascal Reeber

WETZLAR. Very few people who pass by will know what the name means. This is because Syntra Corporate Finance, which is based in Leitzpark in Wetzlar, works behind the scenes. To be more precise, the managing directors Julian Will and Patrick Seip and their 30 or so employees work behind the scenes in the business world. They handle company transfers and succession planning and advise investors who want to invest in companies. How are the economy and SMEs doing? At Syntra CF, you can see that directly.

Technology, specialists, an expansion of their own business model: according to Patrick Seip, these are the criteria investors are currently using to decide whether or not to invest in a company. The following applies: those who want to expand their business do so in a complementary way, i.e. they buy what complements their existing portfolio. “There are fewer transactions in which larger companies buy smaller competitors. Instead, the aim is to enter new markets. You want to tap into new customers and be able to offer new products and services.” Seip gives an example: In the skilled trades sector, investors try to forge broad-based groups of companies through targeted and well-thought-out acquisitions that are able to cover almost all trades in one building, either regionally or nationally. “Ideally, mergers should turn one and one into significantly more than two. This usually works particularly well if there is as little overlap as possible.”

Zombie companies and forgotten homework

Seip also sees this as a form of crisis prevention: “Focusing on a few core industries in the past was not always a good thing,” says the Managing Director, citing the solar industry as an example. Certain sectors have been hyped. “Of course, investments are made in trend sectors, but as broadly as possible instead of putting all our eggs in one basket.”

How does Seip assess the reports of a peak in insolvencies?

“The term ‘zombie companies’ already existed during the coronavirus pandemic, most of which were resuscitated or kept alive by public funding. Many of them are now among those that are insolvent. As with the succession plan, there is a catch-up effect there too.” There are also home-made mistakes. “Some have failed to make their company fit for the future in the past. This includes not only investments, such as in digitalization, but also adapting the service portfolio and tapping into new sales markets. This is particularly evident in the automotive supply industry, among others. However, companies without clear unique selling points in highly competitive markets are often simply unable to compensate for the sharp rise in location costs. It is then also very difficult for such companies to find a successor or an external buyer.”

Let’s take a look at functioning successions and business transfers. Syntra CF calculates that each process takes between nine and twelve months. Digitalization and the energy transition are important topics, and companies in the medical technology sector are always in demand. “Basically, however, the return on investment is the decisive point for an entry.” Capital investors are also looking for solid companies. “You always have to be able to react flexibly. But there is definitely long-term planning.” Whereas capital investors used to hold companies for three to five years, today the holding period is significantly longer.

Seip still advises entrepreneurs with a business idea to get started rather than to found a company. He says: “Nine out of ten start-ups fail within the first three years. That’s not the case with successors. Here, it’s more about taking successful business models into the future.”

Succession planning usually takes nine to twelve months

There have also been some changes in-house in recent months. Syntra Corporate Finance was previously known as “sonntag corporate finance”. In 2020, the consulting firm moved from Giessen to Wetzlar and also arranged its own succession at the time: via a management buy-out. Where there was previously one majority shareholder, there are now eight cooperative shareholders, two of whom are the managing directors. And now the new name. Seip says: “With a new name and an expanded strategy, we want to give the growth course we have initiated an additional boost.”

The change of name goes hand in hand with the aim of increasingly taking on advisory mandates in the lower mid-market segment in future. Julian Will explains: “Syntra’s focus is on transactions with volumes between 20 million and 150 million euros.” So far, larger transactions have tended to be the exception. “We realize that our approaches are absolutely suitable for delivering good results even in larger transactions. We want to offer this even more and increase the number of larger transactions,” adds Seip. This is one way of increasing turnover without having to increase the number of employees. The same number of larger transactions will be processed.

Syntra Corporate Finance GmbH
Am Leitz-Park 4
35578 Wetzlar

+49 6441 7858720
info@syntracf.com