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Vrep Dekom Claudiasimchenfotografie 126 Quadrat
Vrep Dekom Claudiasimchenfotografie 126 Quadrat

Succession planning - 
ensuring a smooth transition

A business is usually handed over only once in your lifetime. Experienced partners such as VR Equitypartner ensure your succession is managed professionally, strategically, and with long‑term success in mind.

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Succession planning requires careful consideration.
Here you will find a structured overview of your strategic options.

Succession Planning – the most important options

From Initial Consideration to a successful exit

  • Key tasks and challenges

  • Why succession processes fail

All about Succession Planning

  • Unprepared succession

  • The post‑transition phase

Your Advantages in Partnering with VR Equitypartner

A sustainable partnership
built on trust

It is important to know that your company is still in good hands once it has been handed over. As part of the cooperative financial network, mutual respect and a long-term outlook are part of our DNA.

Your partner
from day one

With more than 50 years of experience as an equity investor, we understand that a business succession should be carefully prepared. That is why we support you at an early stage of your considerations — and also provide guidance in cases of unplanned successions.

Phased Succession
Solutions

There is no standard approach to company succession. We can give you the flexibility to first sell just a minority holding, to stay at the helm despite selling or to install a successor from within the family in a few years’ time.

Succession Planning – the most important options

01

A successor from within the family

Finding a successor within the family, preferably a daughter or son, is still the ideal scenario for most German entrepreneurs. However, it only works out in a fraction of the cases.

02

Management Buy in

There is nobody from within your family or the company who can be your successor? This is not an uncommon scenario these days – but equity investors often have access to a comprehensive network of experienced executives with the relevant know-how.

03

Management Buy Out

Management buyouts – whereby an existing manager (or team of managers) not only takes over the running of the company but also becomes a shareholder – are almost as common as solutions involving successors from within the family. The manager needs neither to be sitting on a vast fortune nor to incur excessive debt in order to be able to pay you an appropriate purchase price.

04

Owner’s Buy Out

In this instance you sell your company to an equity investor – and remain a shareholder yourself by acquiring shares in the acquisition vehicle set up by the equity investor for the purpose of purchasing your company.

05

Strategic buyer:

Another form of company succession: Selling to another company, usually a competitor or a company in the same sector.