Perspectives  /  21 April 2026  /  5 min

Why the right M&A advisor for a EUR 30m company is not a bulge-bracket bank

It is not about capability. It is about who actually does the work on your deal.

Managing Partner, CrossHill Finance

Large banks are built for large processes. Their economics require deal sizes where a full team can be justified. On a EUR 30m transaction, the senior banker who won the mandate appears at the pitch and at signing, and an analyst runs the months in between.

A boutique with partner-led delivery inverts that. The person who diagnosed the situation writes the memorandum, calls the buyers and sits in the negotiation. Fewer deals, more attention per deal.

The trade-off is real: a boutique has a narrower balance sheet, no equity research and a smaller bench. If you are selling to a listed acquirer in a public process, that matters. Below the mid-market line, it rarely does.

Ask one question in every pitch: who, by name, will be on the weekly call in month four?

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