Matthieu Denis’ return to M&A advisory after a decade in-house

The appointment marks Matthieu Denis’ return to advisory after nearly a decade leading internal dealmaking for global industrial minerals group Lhoist. He describes this full-circle moment as “the natural next step” in his career.

Matthieu started his career in 2006 – after obtaining a master’s degree in business engineering from Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (cum laude) – as a summer intern for companies across various sectors, including Total Energies and Point Carbon in the energy sector, biopharma company GSK and Dexia, the financial institution.

His first foray into advisory came in 2008, when he joined EY as a consultant in their transaction services practice. In 2011, he moved to Degroof Petercam, where he served as VP of investment banking for almost six years. During this time, Matthieu also completed an executive master’s degree in tax management (cum laude). He joined Lhoist in July 2017 as its group M&A director.

Matthieu started his role at Natixis Partners this week (24 November 2026). “It is an ideal platform to leverage my experience across M&A, corporate finance and strategic development to support business leaders and shareholders through their critical growth and transformation milestones,” he comments.

Natixis Partners Belgium is an independent M&A advisory firm based in Brussels and part of the Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking network – the global M&A arm of Groupe BPCE, one of France's leading banking groups.

“I look forward to continuing to build a unique advisory offering with them, delivering value to clients across Belgium and beyond,” Matthieu adds.