Merlot and M&A: Mastering the Art of Acquisition with a Sommelier's Touch

Pairing fine wines and winning deals

Tom Van de Meirssche is the head of M&A at Oaklins KBC Securities based in Brussels, Belgium. 

With more than 10 years of corporate finance experience, focusing on M&A and ECM, Tom also leads Oaklins’ human resources team in Europe, where he advised on the sale of Advipro to Normec, the sale of Arcq to House of Talents and the sale of t-groep to Gilde Buy Out. Other recent transactions he has worked on include Creafund’s investment in Sitra, the acquisition of Light&Living by BlueGem, the acquisition of Van Bogaert by Belgian Pork Group, the sale of Rima to Teugels and the sale of Eutraco. 

“A passionate cook in my free time, I try to explore different kind of recipes. At the moment, I'm studying for sommelier. I'm in my third year, so wine is definitely also a passion. Within corporate finance, everyone works hard. Using your senses for ‘what are you tasting right now’, and it's completely different of what we do with corporate finance. So that balance is also rather important to have, I think,” says Tom.

Elevating ambitions in global M&A

Oaklins KBC Securities in Belgium epitomizes the essence of ambition, serving as a pivotal ally to entrepreneurs, private equity firms, and global corporations alike. These entities, driven by the desire to build, expand, and excel, engage Oaklins KBC Securities during pivotal moments of their journey—be it raising capital, embarking on acquisitions, or navigating the complexities of selling their business. The commitment of Oaklins KBC Securities as a dedicated M&A and financial advisor is profound, with a personalized approach that propels their clients to surpass their own expectations.

“Oaklin's Belgium – we’re one of the leading M&A advisors or corporate finance advisors in Belgium. What makes us unique as Oaklins? I think it's really that we have boots on the ground in more than forty five countries with deep access to those clients. We have built up relationships, and we really know how to bring an opportunity with the potential party, how to bring that together. I think that is something that really makes us unique; that, combined with a very profound and deep sector knowledge is what makes us a very trusted advisor to our clients,” says Tom.

This global presence, enriched by local expertise, ensures that clients of Oaklins KBC Securities have unparalleled access to prospective buyers and sellers worldwide, spanning diverse locales from Stockholm to Shanghai, and New York to São Paulo. The firm's adeptness in facilitating cross-border collaborations ensures that each deal is not just completed, but is the most fitting and advantageous for the client involved.

Clients seek out Oaklins KBC Securities for guidance through various stages of their business lifecycle, including capital raising, acquisition strategy formulation, and company sales. The firm's M&A and financial advisory services are underscored by a genuine passion for their work, ensuring that no matter the challenge, their expertise is leveraged to achieve remarkable outcomes.

This dedication is the cornerstone of Oaklins KBC Securities' approach, enabling their clients to achieve the extraordinary.

Unlocking efficiencies: Streamlining deals from start to finish

“Technology allows us to keep the information structured, ordered, secured, and also it allows us to share information with other parties in the way that we want to share it with them. The key features that I enjoy the most of Ansarada is that on one side, it allows you to start a preparation approach. 

It starts really from the beginning, it helps you to do everything, you don't have to redo stuff. You use the data room from the start. In the past, we first collected everything on our own internal server, and then we had to upload everything on the data room. 

We get a very good support of our clients. We don't have to guide them and or teach them or educate them as much as we maybe had to do before.

Q&A functionality really works well for our clients. For the corporate firms, for them that is something completely new. And for them as well, it's very hands on, very dummy proof, so to speak. This is really the analytics which comes out of it, so that you really get a better feeling of how eagerly or what kind of documents grab the most attention, where did they spend most time, and use that then to go into negotiation or to go into discussion with those counterparties,” says Tom. 

“Ansarada helps us to bring order in the deals where it can become very easily chaotic and it really helps us to structure and then to face that chaos and then bring order into a crisis.”