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Case Study

HeliService International: Flying ahead

By Benoit F. Leleux, Stephanie Herzog, Christian Hutter, Markos Vidalis and Selmona Walder

12 pages

November 2024

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Reference: IMD-7-2601

The case follows Oliver Freiland, a former Roland Berger consultant with a successful corporate career, in his quest for the right acquisition target. In 2015 Oliver finally took a leap of faith to buy his way into entrepreneurship by acquiring HeliService, a provider of offshore helicopter operations for wind farms in the North Sea, with the help of Hans-Peter Kauderer, a family friend and accomplished entrepreneur. The transaction did not go as smoothly as envisioned but did close in August 2016. Oliver then proceeded to add new revenue streams to the marginally profitable entity, such as third-party maintenance and new markets to expand into. The Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc with the firm’s operations but when the health crisis was over, the competitive landscape had also changed for the better. Olivier repositioned the company, winning back contracts previously lost in a price war. With a profitable company, it was time to turn to the next issue. Oliver’s investment partner was now over 80 years old and considering an exit. How could Oliver engineer a liquidity event for his partner? What were his options and how could he best prepare the company and himself for that next stage? He was still fully committed to the firm and its bright future, so a trade sale was not particularly appealing. What kind of deal could he put together to keep the dream alive and himself in the driver seat?

Learning Objective

Discussing late-stage entrepreneurship, i.e. using a buyout as a path into entrepreneurship.
Reviewing the search and due diligence process for a buyout.
Investigating the buyout value creation recipe.
Discussing the possible exit / partial exit routes.

Keywords

Entrepreneurship, Mergers and Acquisitions, Strategy, Buyout, Value Creation, Helicopter Services, Growth Management, Deal Structure, Exit Strategy, Partnership, Search Fund, Acquisition, Transformation, Liquidity Event

Settings

World/global
HeliService International, Travel and Leisure, Airlines and Aviation
2015-2014

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

Related material

Teaching note, Video

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