Based on the annual Corporate M&A Congress in Munich, GoingPublic Media AG, together with the German M&A Association, organized its own evening event for the M&A community for the first time this year in order to bring together all important representatives of the industry for an informal exchange. The specific reason for the celebration was the 15th anniversary of the German M&A Association and the 15th edition of the Corporate M&A Congress.
Under the motto “Business.People. Network”, around 200 participants met after the first day of the congress in the exclusive “Lenbach” location. After Markus Rieger, CEO of GoingPublic Media AG, welcomed the guests, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai Lucks, Chairman of the Board of the German M&A Association, also gave a short speech and looked back on the past 15 years together in the M&A environment. It became clear that the German M&A Association has long been active beyond the borders of the DACH region and has an extremely large international network that extends as far as China.
Klaus Weinmann, CEO of CANCOM SE, gave an interesting speech on the topic of “Buy-and-Build: Success factors from the perspective of a serial buyer”. Since the company was founded in 1992, Weinmann has been involved in around 50 transactions worldwide and can therefore draw on a wealth of experience. The success story from the student foundation to the billion-euro turnover 25 years later and EUR 1 billion market capitalization would not have been possible without M&A. He summarized three points as success factors in the M&A process: the conversation from entrepreneur to entrepreneur or from family to family, the definition of an overarching goal – in CANCOM’s case, the formation of a digitalization group – and the involvement of the target company’s management.
The last guests proved their stamina and only made their way home at a late hour.
Conclusion of the evening: The M&A Night has the potential to establish itself as THE annual industry meeting of the M&A sector!
