📰​ Le Fil I What's new in corporate finance ?

Lire l'article original en français dans le magazine Le Fil #7

What's new in corporate finance ?

From complex transactions and operational support to deep sector expertise, corporate finance is a demanding yet fascinating field. Alumni working across the industry share their experiences and insights.

Corporate finance careers attract many young graduates, but what do these roles actually involve? Let’s hear from the professionals themselves. They explain it best!

Private Equity & Venture Capital

According to Vladimir Lasocki (PGE95), co-head of Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (€6.5 billion in assets under management), private equity consists of “earning investors’ trust, then deploying their capital into companies through equity investments and buyouts, with the goal of generating returns of 15% to 25% upon exit. Two thirds of our investments involve companies being acquired by a financial shareholder for the first time. The first part of our work is transactional: identifying opportunities, negotiating purchase terms and financing acquisitions. The second is operational, supporting the companies we acquire. That means institutionalizing them by putting strong governance in place, then creating value through talent management, external growth initiatives, international expansion and strategic repositioning, including the implementation of recurring business models and the optimization of marketing, communications and sales strategies, often by leveraging our business network.”

Venture capital, by contrast, focuses on startups whose business models are still emerging but have strong growth potential. Florent-Aurélien Couturier-Crouzillac (MS17), who has worked across every stage of technology investing – beginning with traditional Series A[1] funding, then moving into growth investment at DTCP (part of the Deutsche Telekom group), followed by majority investment at T Capital – is now involved in early-stage AI datacenter infrastructure projects at the venture capital fund Lunar Venture. “The firm was founded by CTOs and academics who realized that Europe lacked funds capable of backing highly technology-intensive startups from the very beginning,” he explains. “We invest when founders have a pioneering idea, even if they don’t yet have a full team or a finished product.”

"Venture capital, by contrast, focuses on startups whose business models are still emerging but have strong growth potential."

Spotting the next success stories

Carlyle Europe Technology Partners, which focuses on mid-sized B2B technology companies, reviews around 150 opportunities each year, but selects only three or four. “The challenge,” says Vladimir Lasocki with a smile, “is that unlike stock market investors, we don’t actually know the price of what we’re buying. Each opportunity is therefore assessed through three lenses: the quality of the business and its management team, the potential deal structure (pricing, financing and possible co-investors) and the characteristics of the sale process itself, such as the information available, the level of competition and the time frame involved. The ability to leverage assets already in our portfolio, as well as established relationships that can accelerate value creation, is also a decisive factor. Yet those elements don’t appear in the deal documents and that’s where experience really makes the difference.”

In venture capital, the challenge is evaluating the potential of breakthrough solutions “based on technologies capable of disrupting an entire ecosystem,” explains Florent-Aurélien Couturier-Crouzillac. “We begin with sector research lasting anywhere from three weeks to a month and a half to assess whether the opportunity is viable. We speak with customers, potential suppliers and academic experts in order to identify as many promising entrepreneurial profiles as possible.” Lunar Venture can then provide founders with a fixed credit line. “Once that funding has been used, we decide whether or not to invest in the incorporation of a company. Our goal is to evaluate an individual over a 60-day period and observe how their entrepreneurial potential develops. Pre-seed funds[2] don’t usually have the opportunity to get to know entrepreneurs that closely.”

Vladimir Lasocki (PGE95)

Carlyle Europe Technology Partners 

Florent-Aurélien Couturier-Crouzillac (MS17)

Lunar Venture

emlyon business school’s Master in Finance

Fully taught in English, emlyon business school’s Master in Finance has established itself as a program of excellence. The first year builds a strong foundation in finance by combining mastery of mathematical tools, strategic analysis and an understanding of market instruments. In the second year, students choose between two specializations, either Corporate Finance or Financial Markets, with a third track, Financial and Business Performance, set to launch in 2027. “At the end of the program, before beginning their second-year internships, students benefit from four to six weeks of additional courses at renowned partner universities such as Bocconi or McGill,” explains France Bachelot (PGE91), the Program Director. True to emlyon’s entrepreneurial spirit, the Master in Finance is built around a dynamic ecosystem in which alumni play a central role through guest lectures and contributions to the program’s development. These close ties continue through annual events in London and Paris, encouraging networking and helping students build their professional connections. For more info: https://em-lyon.com/fr/etudiant/master/master-in-finance

Hélène Henry-Prince (PGE12)

Astanor

Sector specialization

Over the past few years, funds have become increasingly specialized. “This sector-focused approach allows us to speak the same language as entrepreneurs and support them in a more relevant way,” says Hélène Henry-Prince (PGE12), formerly co-head of a €600 million nature and biodiversity fund at Tikehau Capital and, since 2024, a partner at the impact fund[3] Astanor. “I joined them to launch a growth private equity strategy built around the interdependence between nature, food and human health.” Astanor Growth invests between €15 million and €50 million per project in profitable companies entering a phase of acceleration and large-scale expansion across Europe and North America. “Beyond capital, we provide tailored support designed to create value by acting as an operational accelerator, through external growth strategies and organizational structuring, particularly on impact-focused initiatives.” Astanor Growth’s first investment was Matrix Pack, a Greek sustainable fiber-based packaging company whose clients include McDonald’s and Starbucks. “An investor has to be a true operational partner – someone who sits on the board, contributes to the company’s transformation and acts as a sparring partner for management.” In 2023, Tikehau invested €120 million in BioFirst, a Belgian biosolutions company offering biological alternatives to chemical pesticides. The investment financed a major acquisition in Brazil, allowing the company, which was historically focused on greenhouse crops in Europe, to expand into open-field agriculture in South America and scale up globally.

It was also the sector-focused strategy and entrepreneurial approach that attracted Pauline Eloy (MS11) to InnovaFonds, when she joined its team in 2015. “It was a small and ambitious firm founded by two partners and dedicated to B2B industrial SMEs and mid-sized companies.” Pauline went on to become Managing Director of the fund, which now employs around twenty people and manages €600 million across three investment vehicles. InnovaFonds targets companies with distinctive industrial expertise, making investments ranging from €3 million to €30 million and typically holding them for four to six years. The fund deploys three strategies: small and lower mid-cap investments, mainly through majority stakes, as well as a flex[4] approach based on minority investments centered around mezzanine debt[5]. Whether as a minority or majority shareholder, InnovaFonds plays an active role in supporting its portfolio companies. One example is Pagès Group, a Jura-based SME specializing in packaging manufacturing equipment and a global leader in a niche technology. “We initially became involved through a management buy-in transaction because the founding CEO was preparing to step down. We convinced him to stay on for two more years in order to recruit his successor and build a new management team. In the end, he also reinvested part of his capital into the company.” Two external growth operations then followed. “One in the Netherlands, to strengthen Pagès’ position in Eastern Europe, and another in the Jura region through the acquisition of a company operating in a complementary niche.” InnovaFonds also supported the optimization of the company’s industrial processes by doubling the size of its main production site, thereby boosting productivity.

Pauline Eloy (MS11)

InnovaFonds 

Increasingly complex projects

The corporate finance sector is evolving. “Over the past decade or so transactions have become more competitive and it’s harder to stand out when dealing with entrepreneurs in fundraising phases,” comments Florent-Aurélien Couturier-Crouzillac. Concerning impact investing, Hélène Henry-Prince points to the rise of impact roadmap tracking, with “rigorous methods used to translate environmental and social objectives into measurable and comparable data, much like a traditional financial multiple.” She also highlights the emergence of new instruments including blended finance[6] and flex equity transactions[7]. “The flex strategy which limits dilution for existing shareholders, such as founding families or management, has become an attractive solution in an increasingly competitive market where executive teams are now systematically advised by intermediaries or investment bankers who know how to leverage the sophisticated tools available,” confirms Pauline Eloy.

Pascal Ridet (MS13), Executive Director of Indosuez Corporate Advisory, the financial advisory arm of Crédit Agricole Group is one of those experienced advisers. “We support owner-managers of SMEs and mid-sized companies as well as institutional investors before transactions across the full spectrum of corporate finance: M&A, financing, capital markets, restructuring, IPOs and public offers among others.” Pascal advises companies across all sectors valued from €100 million to several billion euros helping them structure increasingly complex financing packages[8]. “This holistic approach is clearly our added value.” Indosuez Corporate Advisory for example has supported the medical diagnostics group Biogroup since its first acquisition of LCD laboratories and has been involved in all its subsequent strategic transactions including M&A financing and capital restructuring totaling more than 45 deals over 10 years. “In today’s uncertain environment, clients and capital providers are looking for tailored advice. Since the pandemic they have become more cautious and our role is to anticipate every possible scenario and design the necessary clauses to secure each deal.”

Pascal Ridet (MS13)

Indosuez Corporate Advisory

France Bachelot (PGE91)

emlyon business school

Opportunities, required skills... and AI

What path should you take to work in corporate finance? “Private equity firms are not very welcoming straight out of school. They are small organizations and outsource a lot of work. I would advise young graduates to first train in Transaction Services at a Big Four firm to build a stronger understanding of the ecosystem,” explains Vladimir Lasocki. “Students in Master in Finance programs often dream of private equity but the path to get there is usually long,” confirms France Bachelot (PGE91), head of the Master in Finance at emlyon business school. “Those who enter directly often already have prior training or experience in engineering or finance.” Vladimir Lasocki also recommends two fast-growing areas within private equity, namely fundraising/distribution and the secondary market ecosystem. “This is where new products are being created and where careers can still be built.”

In venture capital and growth investment alike, Florent-Aurélien Couturier-Crouzillac believes one key quality stands out: “Curiosity, to go beyond a surface level understanding of an industry and be able to analyze its underlying dynamics in depth.” He also notes that AI tools are changing the landscape: “Analysts need to use them to gain a competitive edge.” For Pascal Ridet, relational intelligence remains central to the job: “That’s something AI cannot replace. If junior work today were fully done by AI, how would future senior professionals ever be trained? Knowledge is information combined with experience. Without experience, information remains just… information!” he concludes.