ma
A corporate buyer is a non-fund operating company using its balance sheet to acquire. Most corporate buyers are strategic; the term also covers conglomerates and holding companies whose bid looks financially sponsored even without a PE fund.
“Corporate buyer” answers what legal person signs the SPA: an operating group, listed or private, using cash, shares or corporate debt. Private equity buyers sign through Bidco vehicles.
Most corporate buyers are strategic buyers. The extra nuance: some corporates (industrial holdings, listed serial acquirers) underwrite like sponsors — limited operational overlap, tight IC, professional corp-dev staff — yet they still consolidate under IFRS 3 and live with the target forever, not for a fund life.
Corp-dev proposes; business-unit leadership must integrate; the board owns materiality, related-party and listing-rule issues. That internal politics is why corporate processes can be slower than PE even when the strategic logic is obvious.
Illustration only.
A listed Nordic equipment group bids for a German software bolt-on. Funding is a revolving credit facility, not an LBO loan. The IC paper is EPS accretion, not MOIC. HR and works councils are on the critical path. A PE fund bidding in parallel offers a higher headline EV but requires 30% rollover the founders do not want. The corporate buyer wins on structure, not on price.
Ask whether the corporate is a true trade fit or a holding company with a cheque. The first pays synergies; the second pays standalone and may still lose to PE on speed.
Trade sales; listed-on-listed; bolt-ons into divisions.
“Corporate” does not mean “safe.” Strategic rationalisation after close can be harsher than a sponsor’s 100-day plan. Share consideration introduces listed-company volatility into seller proceeds.
Dazur records buyer type as corporate-strategic, corporate-conglomerate, or financial-sponsor. Those three write three different processes on the same target file.