Perspectives  /  5 February 2026  /  6 min

Cross-border deals between Benelux, DACH and Central Europe: the three things that kill them

Language is not the problem. Expectations, governance and timing are.

Partner, M&A, CrossHill Finance

First: valuation frameworks travel badly. A Dutch founder benchmarks against Amsterdam and Berlin comparables. A German family owner benchmarks against what the business earns. Both are defensible; unreconciled, they end the process in month three.

Second: governance. A German or Austrian buyer often needs supervisory board approval on a calendar that nobody told the seller about. Build it into the timetable on day one instead of discovering it after binding offers.

Third: the pace of diligence. Central European processes tend to open the full data set early; Benelux processes tend to stage it. When the two habits meet, one side reads the other as evasive.

None of this is exotic. It just needs to be named out loud in the first week, in writing, by the advisor.

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