The company

The IFU Institute for Business Management GmbH was founded in 1981 by its then owner. The focus was on training and continuing education events for various commercial areas. After Mr. Kneip was appointed managing director of the company in 2001, he acquired all shares from the founder in the same year. From then on, Mr. Kneip consistently focused the company's business activities on expanding continuing education and training for tax advisors and their office staff. As a result, the IFU Institute developed into the largest private provider in Germany in this field, with experience from approximately 2,000 events nationwide each year with around 34,000 participants.

The project

In connection with his own company acquisition, Mr. Kneip observed the (negative) consequences that delaying the issue of company succession had for the founder of the IFU Institute. Based on this experience, he decided to address the issue of succession while still in his late 50s, in excellent health, and at the peak of his company's success.

Mr. Bolz held his first non-binding consultation with Mr. Kneip back in 2016. This was followed by two years of continuous and trusting dialogue before the sale process was finally initiated in April 2018. The relatively long preparation period enabled Mr. Kneip to establish a competent second management level, meaning that a future owner would not necessarily be dependent on him as managing director.

The process

After detailed process documents had been prepared, around 90 potential interested parties approved by Mr. Kneip were approached with the anonymous documents and asked to sign the confidentiality agreement. After receiving very attractive indicative offers, personal meetings were held with a total of seven interested parties. Ultimately, a very good fit developed with a private equity firm that had only been invited into the process at a later stage. A little over a year after the project began, it was completed with a purchase price that significantly exceeded Mr. Kneip's expectations; he continues to run the company very successfully as managing director and will join the advisory board in the near future.

Further references