Clairfield expands equity partnership: five partner firms become new shareholders and board of directors is expanded

Clairfield International, a leading global midmarket M&A advisory firm, has enlarged its shareholder base. With the entry of new shareholders, its board of directors has also been expanded. This important step strengthens Clairfield’s client offering and competitive position in the investment banking industry by adding more capital to the firm and further expertise to the board.

Headquartered in Geneva, Clairfield International was founded in 2005 by five European M&A firms and for 17 years has provided top-notch M&A and corporate finance advice for midmarket transactions to private and family-owned businesses, listed corporates, and financial investors. In that time Clairfield has expanded to 25 local country teams, covering six global industry & services sector groups and other practice groups such as Capital and Debt Advisory, Family Business Advisory and ESG Advisory, in service to clients worldwide. Clairfield is a leader in the midmarket segment with over 140 M&A transactions closed every year and ranks at the top of worldwide league tables. In the last five years Clairfield has assisted clients in over 650 announced transactions with over USD 25 billion in cumulative transaction value.

The enlargement of the shareholding is a strategic step in integrating and aligning Clairfield partner firms. Clairfield will continue to invest in state-of-the-art digitalization and business processes, in-depth know-how of practice groups, and integrated ESG/sustainability capabilities.

The new shareholders are Clairfield’s partner firms in Australia (InterFinancial), Belgium (Clairfield Belgium), the Netherlands (Vondel  Finance), Poland (CET), and the UK (Orbis Partners). Each of these firms are leaders in their countries in midmarket M&A advisory with a track record in international transactions and sector specialties. They are partners of long standing of Clairfield, have been contributors to Clairfield’s success and will be rebranded to  “Clairfield” in 2022.

They join the founders and current owners of Clairfield, who are the partner firms in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, as well as two individual shareholders.

The new shareholders will contribute five new board members who are seasoned dealmakers and executives: Sharon Doyle, Hans Buysse, Frank de Lange, Piotr Kolodziejczyk, and James Grenfell. These five new board members join current board membersand  founders Thierry Chetrit (France), Filippo Guicciardi (Italy), Brian O’Hare (Spain), and Albert Schander (Germany), as well as Jacqueline Curzon and Alexander Klemm.

“We are proud to bolster Clairfield’s value proposition to our clients by enlarging our equity partnership,” says Alexander Klemm, chairman of the board. “Our clients require Clairfield’s global enhanced depth of sector expertise in M&A and know-how in debt advisory and capital solutions. Our new shareholders strengthens the Clairfield strategy to be the national and international M&A and corporate finance advisor of choice to our clients. Clairfield becomes  more integrated and the partnership will drive jointly created value. Other steps are envisaged to broaden the partnership further.”