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Faces Online published an interesting article about our new Junior M&A Specialist, Gijs van de Wetering, his experience with the transition from student life to working life and his motives for choosing a career in M&A.

Gijs: "My life as a student began with the BSc. Economics and Business Economics, which is basically an upgraded version of the more common BSc. Business Administration. This studies enables you to develop a broader economical mindset. In my second year I decided to put theories into practice and started investing (although some might call it trading) in stocks. While analyzing stocks and companies, I realized that I wanted to specialize further in finance. A logical next step was the MSc. Finance program, together with 200 highly motivated, internationally oriented students. This program offers a lot of optional courses, allowing students to customize their program in order to successfully land a job within their preferred field. I experienced a strong but positive competition from my fellow driven students, who all wanted to achieve an above average GPA, which made it both a fun and educative experience.

Currently I am proud working for Blacktrace as junior M&A specialist. M&A appealed to me not only because of the financial aspects, but also due to its multidisciplinary and dynamic aspects. M&A is a field on its own, where specialists have to possess deep knowledge of finance, accountancy, (fiscal) law, strategy, psychology, and negotiations. Every company and every industry is different, so you continuously have to dive into the business model, the organization and the industry trends. I favored Blacktrace over other M&A firms because of 4 main reasons: (1) it is a relatively small boutique with 10 employees, (2) the pragmatic attitude, (3) the deal size, EBITDA >€3m, and (4) the location: ‘s Hertogenbosch.

Within a smaller firm, you are given more responsibilities and freedom, and communication lines are shorter, hence you are aware of almost all developments. A pragmatic approach is very important to me, as I prefer to stay focused on delivering relevant and reliable output, instead of incorporating a lot of fuzz around the principle goal. Our clients, mostly family firms and experienced, successful entrepreneurs, want us to sell their company because of this DNA.

Blacktrace mainly focuses on M&A deals for SME’s. Therefore, quite often a family business is involved. Such a transaction is a huge deal for the family, so every tiny detail has to be 101% perfect. We also encounter many market leaders in niche-markets. These are the firms I find the most interesting, as you get insight into all of the firm’s competitive advantages and the road to their success. The quality and quantity of information is rather limited compared to publicly listed firms or the case studies we make in university.  This requires thorough analyses and you frequently have to contact the management for an explanation or additional information. I was really surprised how helpful the CFO of a company was, the first time I sent her my list of questions and needs. This is what makes M&A so exciting for starters: the clients and partners you work with/for are always at executive level, meaning you have to be continuously sharp and make sure you are well prepared."

To read the whole article: Faces Online