DNA
Our Purpose
Suggest and implement sustainable capital solutions for the benefit of people, companies and the planet with…
Genuiness
Genuiness, guides us to act in accordance with our vocation, in sympathy to offer a caring presence, attentive to each individual , with humility and committed dedication.
Creativity
Creativity, is based on an in-depth and truthful dialogue with each of our clients, allowing us to take a fresh and totally open view of each situation. It allows us to detect the different possible scenarios and to implement appropriate solutions that are unique and adapted to a company’s culture and stage of development.
Boldness
Boldness, urges us to dare to ask questions, to suggest, to challenge, to bounce back, even to surprise, always with modesty… and to accompany choices, by associating all the stakeholders of an operation in agreement and confidence.
Agility
Agility, enables us to adapt at any moment to the reality of a situation in all its complexity in order to pick up all the signals , to move forward and reveal the best possible paths, whatever they may be.
Our 7 pillars
A company is a living organism that can not be only be approached through figures...
We start with you and the history of your company, understand its purpose, its vision, the different steps in its development and thus understand how management and shareholders perceive the future.
Your value relies on your uniqueness...
We have developed a tool of strategic analysis and valuation enabling us to analyse the intrinsic valuation of the company (VRC® method) by identifying what makes you different (or unique?). Financial and extra financial criteria are parts of our method.
Your uniqueness can be fostered
We highlight strong and weak signals (strengths and opportunities for transformation), growth leverage and make practical and operational recommendations.
Make a conscious choice
We identify a choice of possible scenario defined at the start of our mission We thus create the conditions for a shared conviction (view?) before launching the chosen scenario
Counterparties are not quite the same
We carry out a DNA compatibility analysis up front, which ensures the long-term success of the chosen operation
A caring approach is key to long-lasting agreements
We bring about and pilot discussions and negotiations in a friendly and caring manner, if necessary, by using our mediation approach.
Closing is a beginning
We remain available at all times and to assist in the implementation of the key agreements, participating in the long-term development plan, knowing that much still has to be done to achieve a successful integration.
VRC® Method
Strategic and valuation diagnostic tool dedicated to shareholders
Strategic diagnostic - Identifying singularities
VRC (Visibility Profitability Growth) is a tool we have developed to understand the intrinsic value of the company and identify the best scenarios able to meet its growth ambitions. In particular, this method underlines a company’s comparative advantages resulting from its activity, its added value, its market positioning, its growth and its drivers (internal and external), its specific risks, its culture, its human resources, its information system and its operational organisation.
Around a hundred questions are asked to managerial and key executives. A score is assigned for each item, along with a commentary that allows us to fine-tune our deeper understanding of the company. We synthesize all this data, analyse any possible rating disparities, and put them into perspective to bring out the uniqueness that constitutes the intrinsic value of the company.
A written report is sent to the manager and to his team, including a summary of the results and comments, a strategic outlook with identification of the company’s strong and weak signals, opportunities and threats to growth, and a review of possible scenarios, enabling shareholders to make a well-considered decision before any capital operation.
Valuation - Evaluate these singularities.
VRC is a valuation method allowing companies to be valued intrinsically, thanks to an interpretation of their singularities into a company-specific discount rate. This valuation approach is based on the following foundations: determining the normative profitability over a long period, projecting it in company’s future growth plan supported by management, and being convinced of the visibility of this projection in order to define the risk/return ratio specific to the company’s project.
The ratings assigned by the manager and his teams are compiled in our algorithm which translates them into a discount rate, used within the framework of the common valuation method of Discounted Cash Flow (DCF).
The VRC valuation method is always put into perspective in relation to other traditional valuation methods usually applied (DCF, transaction and trading comparable, net asset value). It provides a more reliable approach to the notion of the intrinsic value of SMEs, for which comparable methods are limited.
Interview Elodie Le Gendre
Why did you create Sevenstones?
The creation of Sevenstones started from a few observations and an intuition.
Managers of family businesses, whatever their size, are often very lonely, especially when it comes to transferring their business, opening up capital, growing by acquisition or resolving shareholder conflicts that threaten the legal entity. Although they are surrounded, they need to prepare themselves to make conscious choices that create human and financial value, and to be supported in these sometimes long and uncertain processes.
Furthermore, I had noticed that many managers felt frustrated after having sold their company or opened their capital because they felt they had not completely chosen their buyer or partner. The attractive price had been like a tree hiding the forest from the details of the agreements they had been forced to sign. An intuition then: the company is a living organism that cannot be reduced to figures.
Consequently, capital operations cannot be viewed only as financial transactions. Human dynamics are essential to success. Sevenstones’ mission is therefore to help managers to value the singularities of their company, to implement their choices, while being aware that not all counterparties are equal, and that closing is in fact only the beginning and not the end of a process!
What is the value added of Sevenstones, your distinctive elements?
First, to be entrepreneurs at the service of entrepreneurs. We enjoy the company, its dynamics, its history, its projects, its complexity, and we are committed to helping their managers-shareholders to ensure their growth and sustainability, while respecting their culture and their specificities.
Our approach emphasises listening, anticipating and therefore preparing for operations prior to their implementation, with a focus on all the constituent dimensions of a company.
We like to share our convictions with the managers we support, even if they lead them to reconsider the project, by developing it, postponing it, and initiating profound transformations for the benefit of the people (physical and moral!)
Why the name?
Because Rolling Stones was already taken? …no!
More seriously, we wanted a name that makes sense and sounds nice in all languages. Seven, a number that orchestrates creation in its order, the rhythm of its days, the diversity of its colours and notes. And Stones, for the robustness and diversity of the stones, the inexpressible beauty of the summits to be climbed – each mission being a summit in itself – the stones that trace and mark out the path, and the paving stone in the pond that one must sometimes dare to be when advising entrepreneurs!
