S8E19 - The Fascinating Story of the Man Who Has 35 Water Companies to Sell - a podcast by Antoine Walter

with 🎙️ Karl Michael Millauer, Founder of KMM Consulting and a former C-Level executive in some emblematic water groups like BWT, Christ Water Technology, Aquatech International, and Aquarion AG. 

💧 KMM Consulting helps clients around the globe leverage opportunities in the world of water through mergers & acquisitions, finance & funding, business development, and strategic support.

What we covered:

▫️ How unlike McKinsey, Roland Berger, or KPMG, KMM Consulting works with small Water Companies and helps them get sold, further distributed or raising money 

👴 How the most common case is to put a water company for sales to solve a succession challenge 

🔨 How some other water businesses have reached a glass ceiling for their growth and how a M&A move is the way to break it 

👐 How healthy water companies can be profitable for 45 years, active in a very good niche and scalable, and still not find any interested investor 

🤑 How founders often overestimate the value of their Water Company, why they do so, and what's a good rule of thumb to determine the right valuation 

⏰ How long a typical due diligence process lasts and what key milestones have to be crossed 

🤝 How marketing is key in selling a water company and how that often boils down to the founder's ability to convey his message and value proposition 

👔 How KMM Consulting packages its relationship to small water businesses and how that's a different approach to what most market players do 

👨‍🏫 How ESG and sustainability investors may need to get educated to the specificities of the water sector when they first step in 

📈 How some water companies are perfectly healthy and profitable and simply don't want to grow, why, and why that's absolutely fine! 

👋 How when acquiring a small water company, new owners may get nervous if the founder leaves too quickly and which kind of mechanisms, such as earn-outs, work the best to please everyone 

🍴 How the freshly created Aquarion AG acquired the established Hager und Elsässer behemoth and what you can learn from it 

💰 Drivers that amend a company's valuation, healthy growth vs. burning money, the biggest hurdles in a water company sales process, how it's a people's business, the importance of risk management, pairing technical and commercial skills, focusing on the smaller end of the water sector's pyramid... and much more!

🔥 ... and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥

🔗 Check KMM Consulting's Website 

🔗 Send your warmest regards to Karl Michael on LinkedIn

➡️ Check out the entire article on how to sell smaller-sized Water Companies, including an infographic and a full transcript on the (don't) Waste Water website!

➡️ Reach out to me: antoine@dww.show 

Further episodes of (don't) Waste Water!

Further podcasts by Antoine Walter

Website of Antoine Walter