Smile Invest’s bets are paying off as the Benelux private equity firm celebrates realising its first seven investments.

KooKoo co-founder Margot Desseyn fell in love with dealmaking because of the people; now she brings them together to discuss the strategies behind making these deals a success, and will join the M&A Community Belgium on 24 September 2026 in Antwerp to do it again.

BAP Medical, Alphatron Medical and Varel Security gain support from Belgium’s Smile Invest.

During a recent M&A Community Belgium event, Syntagma Capital advisory board member and VIU founder Rudi Nerinckx revealed the top priorities on a carve-out HR agenda; from competency audits and TSAs to value creation plans.

Communication is key to achieving sustainable growth after the deal closes, reveals the Head of Strategic M&A Integrations at SD Worx.

CEO Jan Bussels shares how his M&A strategy has resulted in Digitopia’s exponential growth in recent years.

When Itai Oshri left home at the age of 16, he had his heart set on becoming a professional cyclist, until he fell in love with the Belgian M&A industry.

A recent white paper by Aon suggests that now is the moment to leverage carve-outs, and PwC Legal’s Bart Vanstaen agrees, but only if businesses are truly prepared.

Most M&A infrastructure is built with one country, language, or asset class in mind. Synergy AI Co-Founder & CEO Sacha Vandermeersch argues this is why Europe's mid-market is structurally underserved.

At the latest M&A Belgium Community Summit, PwC Legal’s Ive Serneels shared some valuable insights on the importance of preparing a company for sale focussing on managing risks and creating value. In a follow-up interview, he unpacks the reality of deal-readiness with colleague Bart Vanstaen.

Wallonia is becoming one of Belgium's most compelling M&A markets, and Closing’s new shareholder, Maxime Claes, thinks the professionals who'll thrive there are those who understand that the numbers are only half the story.

In M&A transactions, the data room generally holds all the information a buyer needs to know about a target company’s business, and for the first time, technology allows them to actually assess all of it.

For Laurent Dela Marlière, modern deal origination is less about finding a transaction and more about shaping inevitability around the right one.

Bank van Breda’s Head of Advisory, Kristoph Wauters, believes that an important yet overlooked part of any deal preparation process is the owners’ feelings.

Veteran M&A professional and author Leo van de Voort has spent decades watching value slip through the cracks after deals are signed and urges dealmakers to approach due diligence and execution differently.

Using M&A as a tool to improve your strategic position in a world defined by AI, decarbonization and de‑globalization.

It’s not enough to make a good deal financially and legally; it also requires an understanding of what makes the market like, trust, and remain loyal to your brand, as this may have a critical impact on the businesses’ long-term viability.

Whether he’s tuning up his Bobby Ewing-era Mercedes SL convertible for a weekend rally, or considering mergers and acquisitions in Belgium’s business landscape, Age Lindenbergh finds satisfaction in patience, preparation, and personal attention to detail – qualities he believes still lie at the heart of great dealmaking.

Belgium’s private equity landscape is being rewritten from the bottom up – not by institutions, but by investors themselves.

Everyone’s talking about AI as if it will soon run M&A deals on autopilot. But Alexander Veithen has spent more than two decades inside real transaction rooms at BDO Belgium, and he says that technology has a tremendous impact on deal-making, except for one element: the handshake between two people who are convinced they have done the best deal.

Walk into most post-acquisition integration meetings and you'll hear the same playbook: centralise systems, standardise processes, eliminate redundancies. It's M&A 101, taught in every business school and preached by every consultant.

Technological due diligence is increasingly crucial in M&A deals. How do you separate genuine AI capabilities from marketing spin?

“You have to know where you can add value, know your strengths, and play on your strengths", says Sophie Manigart, professor at Vlerick Business School and one of Europe’s foremost authorities on entrepreneurial finance. This advice has become the survival strategy for private equity in 2025.

In today's difficult deal environment, private equity's traditional playbook is being rewritten as they are required to become more hands-on and adopt EBITDA-enhancing policies, including pricing strategies.

Syntagma Capital’s Fabio Yamasaki reveals how disciplined carve-out strategies are redefining M&A success in uncertain times.

According to INSEAD and Vlerick Business School professor, Hans Vanoorbeek, knowing what kind of vehicle you’re operating is vital to the success of mergers and acquisitions. “In private equity, you're either riding a motorbike or manoeuvring a truck – two very different vehicles requiring very different skills.”

After years of slowdown, Belgium’s M&A scene is heating up again – with competitive auctions, large deals, and cross-border investors returning in force. But this isn’t just a rebound; it’s a reshaped market where Warranty & Indemnity (W&I) insurance, once rare, is now a must-have tool for getting deals done in Belgium. Here's what it means for buyers, sellers, and investors navigating today’s complex landscape.

M&A Award winner PanTera raised 134 million euros to lead the next generation of cancer therapies.

The fastest-capitalised start-up in the country's tech history.

Belgian start-up becomes global leader through harnessing innovative technology.

Under Smile Invest’s ownership, SmartSD experienced significant growth and value creation.

Experts from Eight Advisory share actionable insights on leveraging carve-outs to thrive amid global disruption.