At Abénex, we invest alongside management teams because we believe in their strategic vision for the business.
Our Operational Team works with management to implement the value creation plan and achieve the objectives that were agreed in partnership with Abénex prior to its investment.
Abénex was the first French mid-market firm to set up a dedicated Operational Team in 2008. It demonstrates our hands-on involvement, which we see as crucial to our role as investor.
Our Operational Team partners closely with management to help drive business growth, improve productivity and streamline operations, enabling companies to achieve their full potential. We strive to accelerate development and build profitability during our investment period, also ensuring that businesses continue their strong trajectory after our exit.
Depending on the business need, our Operational Team can be flexible with respect to how much time they spend with each company, ranging from a day a week to full-time involvement if required. The team is available to the company for the full duration of the hold period and this resource is provided free of charge; we do not charge the company for these services to ensure our interests are aligned with those of the management team and that our services are fully focused on the creation of long-term value.
The Operational Team provides skills in project management, strategic planning, sourcing and external supplier management, as well as access to its toolkit and its knowledge of best practices.
Increased revenues and improved profitability accounted for over 65% of the value creation during Abénex’s period of ownership. This is by far the main focus for value creation, ahead of other levers such as debt reduction
Abénex acquired a majority stake in RG Safety in May 2013. RG Safety was the French market leader in the distribution of personal protection equipment, but had a modest presence in the broader European market and lacked structure and resources. The Operational Team optimised the group through introducing various operational improvements, including:
Abénex supports the digitalization of its companies.
New modes of production, collaboration, consumption and communication force SMEs and mid-caps to rethink their value proposition and the way they implement it.
To assist them, Abénex has established a partnership with Viatys, a consultancy firm part of Square group, which focuses on the challenges of innovation, agile and digital transformation, and customers’, collaborators’ and partners’ experience.
Our approach with Viatys is pragmatic, with an à la carte offer depending on the needs of our companies and a return on investment objective. We aim at putting the right skills in front of the CEOs of our companies, addressing their concrete challenges, to better navigate the digital ecosystem, at a reasonable cost. Whether for a simple digital diagnosis, the definition of the digital strategy as a whole or the deployment of specific digital projects, the objective is to target actions, validate their impact upstream and measure it over time, customizing the solutions to the organization and the existing systems of our companies.
Abénex offers a procurement optimisation service for the purchase of non-strategic products and services for both its current and former portfolio companies.
In partnership with a purchasing consortium, Abénex enables its portfolio companies to benefit from substantial discounts on the cost of products and services, ranging from stationery and office equipment to mutual health insurance, telecommunications, regulatory audit services and car hire.
The Operational Team can help portfolio companies collating procurement data and quantifying the impacts, as well as providing active assistance with achieving the potential savings initially identified. Abénex portfolio companies have realised savings of 15-20% on purchases made via the Purchasing Club.
This initiative is based on: