Interview with Anne-Laure Beuriot: “Putting people at the heart of financial transactions”

Interview with Anne-Laure Beuriot: “Putting people at the heart of financial transactions”

Interview with Anne-Laure Beuriot – Founding Partner of Carmine Capital, for Entreprendre – May 2022

Carmine Capital set its sights on revealing the potential of an SME and optimising its value. This investment bank breaks the rules to offer an expertise adapted to SMEs. Anne-Laure Beuriot, founding partner, discusses her ambitions.

Why did you want to challenge the norm?

The idea originated in 2012. Our ambition was to satisfy a demand that was not being met by the existing M&A players: to support SME managers in their capital transactions with a service based on respect for their personal, professional, and financial issues. Our main objective at Carmine Capital is to preserve the entrepreneurial DNA of the companies.

The company was founded in 2013…

I absolutely insisted on putting people at the heart of financial transactions. To support them in their disposal, acquisition, and fund-raising efforts, SME managers deserve to be accompanied by experienced yet humble employees who are genuinely committed to understanding them. The DNA of a company is too often overlooked. And yet it is essential to the success of a capital operation since it guarantees its long-term growth prospects. You put people together before you put finances together.

What do you base your expertise on?

Our investment bank operates on three pillars, starting with the quality of execution. I make a point of ensuring that each manager is accompanied according to accepted best practices, regardless of the collaborator involved in the transaction. I trained our associates to make sure they all apply the same methodology and processes.

Our second pillar is proximity. Understanding our clients requires getting to know their entrepreneurial environment. We initiated our regional development in 2018 and are now present in Toulouse, Lille, Nantes, and Dijon. We also opened an office in Geneva at the end of 2021 to address clients’ acquisition requirements in Switzerland.

Our third pillar is transparency. We provide our clients with access to a software platform we developed when Carmine was created (MyCarmine) which affords them visibility on all the actions we take on their project. This transparency obliges us to remain beyond reproach in the execution of our missions.

Your ambition is to create a strong brand: Carmine…

For this reason, Carmine is one of the very few investment banks to advocate transparency. This transparency enables us to increase efficiency and reassure managers. Breaking codes is something that is in our DNA and it also applies internally. In this highly male-dominated sector, we opted for gender, generational, and social diversity. We are respectful of the balance between professional and private life, which I believe is essential to remaining objective and dispassionate in the advice we give. Finally, commitment is a determining value for our team. To reinforce this spirit, we regularly organise team events, such as our participation in the New York half-marathon last March.

You also have to be always open to the world.

Having a broad vision is crucial when you are a company leader. This enables me to modify our strategy throughout the company’s development. To achieve this, I am supported by a professional coach for the past two years and I also belong to several executive networks, including the APM. To attain success in your entrepreneurial project, you have to stick to your convictions. Once others can see the meaning you bring to your actions, you create value. Our objectives for the year 2024 are to reach the threshold of 50 employees, to open a subsidiary in Lisbon and in Montreal, and to develop two new activities – Carmine Croissance and Carmine Corporate Finance.

 

For more information, please contact Anne-Laure Beuriot.