For more than ten years, the Gard Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) has been supporting and organizing TransmiCCIble, a day of meetings intended for business leaders wishing to transmit their structure as well as to potential candidates for acquisition. Thursday November 21, 2024, a hundred people – sellers, buyers, professionals in the transmission sector – met at the Le Drop brewery in Nîmes.
“Transmission, an essential step for an entrepreneur and must be prepared. TransmiCCIble is here to inform business leaders that they can be supported”, specifies Eric Giraudier, president of the CCI Gard. This network estimates that each year, out of more than 50,000 companies in Gard, nearly 3,000 are affected by a sale, merger or family takeover.
Anticipate three to five years before selling your business
The transmission is a real economic issue at the national level, in particular because of the “grandpa boom of business leaders”, in the words of Gilles Laumesfelt, responsible for the sale, transfer and creation of companies commission. The latter specifies that most transferors are people wishing to leave retirement.
The CCI insists on the fact that selling your business is a complex process which requires financial, legal and economic support. TransmiCCIble also addressed the central importance of prepare psychologically upon transfer. Second essential subject, the question of pre-diagnoses to be carried out at the legal, financial and social level. These elements will influence the selling price of the company.
“Transferors, when letting go of their baby, sometimes have an idea of the value of their property that does not correspond to reality,” confides Gilles Laumesfelt. He insists on the need to anticipate its transfer, specifying that “the right fork” time period is between three and five years before his departure.
Challenge for business buyers: access to credit
On the buyer's side, support and evaluation of his project are essential, even if the person concerned has often “several years in the profession. The takeover of a business by one of its employees is common, “but doesn’t always go well” according to the elected official in charge of transmission. “You can be very good in your profession but not necessarily in the role of a business manager”, he adds.
At the national level in 2023, according to the Bpifrance transmission stock market barometer, there were approximately 51,000 business transfers in France, out of 185,000 potentially transferable companies each year. A recovery deficit reproduced in the Gard, according to the departmental CCI, which points to major financial reasons. “Access to credit to buy a business is a real subject,” indicates Gilles Laumesfelt. Here too, CCI du Gard can be a facilitator by directing candidates towards various aids, European financing, subsidized loans or 0-rate loans.
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