By founding an atypical investment bank with a very differentiating positioning, Anne-Laure Beuriot brings her support to SMEs on the M&A market which has forgotten them. “This job is very suitable for women,” she emphasizes, “it has a strong intellectual interest and addresses complex issues, both human and financial. »
What path led you to this leadership position?
Passionate about the field of mergers and acquisitions, I worked for 8 years in the consulting firm DDA & Company and I realized the absence of a reference structure dedicated to VSE SMEs: the remuneration of a firm being lower on a small operation, few players want to position themselves in this segment. On the contrary, I felt that these operations were more interesting intellectually, in the sense that they required strong support from the manager. And what fascinates me in the job is precisely this proximity to the shareholder-managers which allows us to understand their heritage, professional and personal issues in the context of a capital transaction.
This is why I decided to create Carmine Capital in 2013, an independent company with a long-lasting team, a strong brand and a very differentiating commercial development oriented towards the managers-shareholders (provided since 2017 by my partner, Germain Simoneau, in particular in the region).
Carmine Capital is built on four strong founding pillars…
The first is the quality of execution, with a well-controlled process to support SMEs, which are often less structured than large companies. The second is transparency: we are the only firm in France and Europe to offer our clients visibility of their files 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, thanks to our MyCarmine software. The third is proximity, essential because habits, perceptions, visions are very different depending on the entrepreneurial territories.
Finally, the fourth is diversity: contrary to the traditional investment banking model, our 25 employees are not in competition with each other but bring something to each other, without hierarchical consideration.
You have recruited people with different profiles for this purpose…
Certainly, rigorous, curious, open-minded, committed and humble collaborators. However, we do not receive enough CVs from women, as the working hours of traditional investment banks are often not compatible with a personal life. However, if this job was really very masculine when I started, forcing me to prove myself more than a male collaborator, it has become feminized. It is also very feminine in its DNA due to the role of advice and support that it integrates. And at Carmine Capital, to properly support and understand our clients, we preserve the personal lives of our employees. I do it myself with my 3 children aged 3, 6 and 9, even if it’s more difficult when you’re a business manager!
How is your management style characterized?
In my opinion, a team is committed and efficient when it shares the company’s values, adheres to its development strategy and when its employees have a clear vision of their professional development prospects. At Carmine, we organize many events, often sporting, because sport is the realization of individual and collective commitment in the service of performance. After a half-marathon in 2022, we are planning a relay triathlon in 2023.
What are you most proud of today?
To have succeeded in having happy and fulfilled children and employees and satisfied customers! We have supported around 200 companies since the start, we are present in Paris, Toulouse, Lille, Nantes, Dijon, Geneva, and soon in Lyon, Barcelona and Lisbon. Today, our desire is to become the international reference brand for capital operations of SMEs.