Why the EU–India corridor is opening now
A free-trade window, a geopolitical realignment and a decade-old network are converging to make European industrial assets viable for Indian buyers. What actually changes on the ground.
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Leverage our agentic tools, services and networks to find your hidden gems, or make your existing assets visible and valuable to someone.
Deal sizes from €10k to €10M.
We see the life of an asset as a continuum, not a set of separate trades. What changes from one category to the next is only the moment in the company's life cycle — its urgency, its price, its legal formalism — never the nature of the work we do. A single file can move from one activity to another: a company approached for a full transmission may see its assets sold individually if it enters a procedure. So we accompany asset transfers across the entire life of the business, from a healthy carve-out to a distressed lot, through one unified point of entry.
A voluntary asset deal by an in-bonis company in good financial health. The owner divests a specific asset — an under-used production line, a dormant patent, a site, a secondary brand — without selling the business as a whole. No collective procedure, no urgency, no distress. The price reflects the normal market value of the asset, not a fire-sale discount. Documentation is prepared in English, ready for an international acquirer. The seller keeps full control of the perimeter carved out.
Tangible and intangible assets extracted from European companies in liquidation, receivership or pre-insolvency. They are sold off-market and at a discount — typically 30–70% below replacement value — and purged of the prior structure's liabilities. Buyers acquire machines, IP and client books without inheriting fiscal, social or contractual debt. Due diligence is faster and cheaper than a full company purchase. This is the shortened calendar of assets that must move quickly, matched to solvent international acquirers.
Acquisitions conducted inside a formal collective or insolvency procedure, under the asset-transfer rules of each jurisdiction's insolvency law. The company can no longer recover on its own and has entered — or is about to enter — a court-supervised process. The only recoverable value now lies in its assets rather than its structure. We organise the market where none exists, connecting court administrators with credible buyers. Timing, legal formalism and price are constrained; the nature of the intermediation work is not.
The classic share-deal handover of an entire, profitable SME — titles and liabilities included — from a retiring baby-boomer owner to an acquirer. 1.7M European SMEs must change hands by 2030 as their founders retire, and 60–65% of deals on the €1–10M revenue segment happen off-market. We reach a pool of solvent international buyers — India and beyond — that a local advisory network structurally cannot access. A single sourcing entry point that can pivot to an asset deal if no whole-company buyer emerges.
We focus on three industrial verticals where European know-how meets Indian demand. These sectors combine defensible technology, certified processes and skilled engineering teams — the assets that travel best across the corridor. Our engagements concentrate here so buyers and sellers meet real, qualified counterparts. Depth in a few markets beats breadth across many.
Certified pharma and speciality chemical producers with regulated, high-barrier processes.
Precision mechanics and automotive suppliers, including the in-house engineering team.
Food-processing operations with established equipment, recipes and quality standards.
Every deal has two counterparts, and we work both. Buy-side and sell-side are not separate businesses — they are the two faces of the same corridor, matched by one team.
We source and qualify European industrial assets on behalf of international acquirers, from healthy carve-outs to distressed lots.
We bring European sellers and court administrators credible, solvent international buyers they could not otherwise reach.
A single dedicated axis between Europe and India, run end to end by one team. One relationship, one process, one point of accountability from first contact to close.
One dedicated Europe–India axis, managed end to end by a single team through every stage of the deal.
We are not a classic M&A advisory firm. Our Professional Services are a service line in their own right — not filler between closings, but what makes a cross-border deal succeed or fail. Every offering is customised for the EU–India corridor and drawn from real transaction files, before, during and after the deal.
Strategy and antifragility advisory applied to the EU–India corridor: acquisition thesis, sequencing and structuring options. The direct extension of Avagam's strategy heritage, informed by a live reference base of real corridor deals rather than generic frameworks.
We identify, analyse and recommend the cultural adaptation of teams and processes in an EU–India M&A context. Delivered as a deal-applied guide, a deal-team workshop or executive coaching — the difference between a signed contract and one that actually holds.
A paid quarterly newsletter per European sector — chemicals and pharma first, then food processing and machinery. A bilingual report generated by our agentic monitoring stack, giving you a concise read on consolidation moves and asset flow before they surface anywhere else.
A living map of EU GMP, CE and EN 9100 certified sites that have entered a procedure. A sector subscription generated continuously by our monitoring stack, so certified capacity coming onto the market reaches you before it is publicly listed.
Thematic business trips: European industrials immersed in India, Indian industrials in Europe. We convene, curate and host the programme — site visits and qualified introductions — with logistics co-run alongside a specialist agency.
Corridor compliance, productised from accumulated deal experience: dual-use goods, FTA proof of origin, chartered engineer sign-off, duties and taxes. Delivered as a compliance checklist and file so a cross-border transfer clears without surprises.
Sourcing and matchmaking of production or R&D partners — subcontracting, tolling, contract manufacturing, co-development — for players who want partnership rather than an outright acquisition. Priced like a deal: a monthly retainer plus a success fee on the first year of contract value.
A rapid pre-due-diligence of an asset or company: not an official due diligence, but a first-qualification report telling you whether to engage the full process. Condition, security interests, comparables and landed cost — a low-commitment, honest go/no-go read.
Strategic advice on how to fund the deal: diagnostic of your capacity and constraints, recommendation of an appropriate structure — equity, debt, leasing, vendor financing, public support — and introductions to the relevant providers. Advisory and introduction only: we are not a credit broker and do not arrange or place financing.
A project manager bridging Europe and India through integration — typically an Indian profile trained in Europe — who smooths communication where accent, unspoken rules and decision rhythms create friction. Part-time, three to six months renewable, generating recurring value well beyond the transaction.
A structured 90-day cultural PMI programme: cross-cultural workshops, an open hotline and active mediation of the first points of friction. A deal that closes is not yet a deal that works — this is what carries it through the first quarter.
Ongoing watch and sourcing of complementary acquisitions in Europe for an acquirer who now owns a platform. Once the first asset is integrated, we keep scanning the market for adjacent targets — capacity, technology, client books, brands — and bring qualified opportunities as they surface, so the build-up strategy runs continuously rather than deal by deal.
Like Cézanne, who broke the Provençal landscape into planes and patiently recomposed it into a new order,
we decompose a company into its assets — lines, patents, brands, machines — and reassemble their value.
Each fragment carries worth at its own moment in the life cycle, healthy, distressed or in transmission.
We intervene at whichever temporality serves it best.
A geopolitical realignment is accelerating ties between India and Europe as both regions diversify away from US and Chinese dependence. Cezanne Partners sits on that corridor with a trusted Indian partner built over more than ten years. That partner originates a significant share of Indian acquirer flow through a live network across Gujarat and Mumbai. We connect European sellers to a pool of solvent buyers a local advisory firm cannot structurally reach. The bridge runs both ways — sourcing in Europe, demand in India.
We are not a generalist brokerage learning the trade on your file. The team has built, scaled and wound down companies first-hand, on both sides of the table. That operating history shapes how we qualify an asset, judge its residual value beyond book, and read a distressed situation. We know what a buyer of machines, IP or a client book actually needs to move fast. Judgment on real value stays a human call, informed by experience the software cannot replace. Advice grounded in having done it, not just modelled it.
Traditional M&A advisors cannot afford to work deals below a few million euros — the fixed cost of process eats the fee. Our agentic platform industrializes sourcing, qualification and documentation so the economics change. That makes intermediation on €10k–€10M transactions viable end to end. Small tickets that were invisible to the market become workable files. The buy-side gains access to a segment no one else services profitably. Volume, not size, drives the model.
Cezanne Partners is a pure intermediary — a broker of assets and companies — and never takes principal risk. We do not become the owner of the assets at any point, and we run no trading book of our own. Compensation is a success fee plus a retainer, inspired by the standard degressive Lehman scale. Because we never hold the assets, there is no conflict of interest between our fee and your outcome. Our incentive is a closed deal on fair terms, nothing more. Transparent, aligned, off our own balance sheet.
An AI-agentic platform runs the repetitive weight of each file, driving down cost and legal turnaround. Regtech modules cover the corridor end to end: a dual-use goods classifier for export control, an assistant for FTA preferential proof of origin, and a landed-cost calculator by HS code with the tariff schedule. Buyer–asset matching is scored with a traceable, AI-Act-by-design justification. A human stays in the loop on every irreversible decision. The machine accelerates; the judgment remains ours.
Deals on this segment happen off-market — 60–65% of SME transactions on the €1–10M band never reach a platform or database. Reaching them takes presence, not listings. We source live across France, Spain, Germany and Italy, close to owners, administrators and the courts. Local correspondents extend that reach as each market opens. Proximity to sellers and to insolvency procedures is what surfaces files before anyone else sees them. A network built for a market that stays invisible from a desk.
Ours is a conviction built on facts, not hopes — on deep, converging trends rather than passing headlines.
A demographic handover in Europe, a tariff window opening, an India determined to industrialize.
Together they give us the confidence to project a genuinely fertile India–EU collaboration.
The coming years are the moment to act on it.
The EU–India free-trade agreement, signed in January 2026 and due to take effect in 2027, is opening a tariff window on the Europe-to-India asset corridor. As duties fall, moving European machines, IP and brands to Indian industrialists becomes materially cheaper. Our regtech modules turn that window into an operational advantage — preferential proof of origin, HS-code classification, landed-cost calculation. Indian buyers gain access to European quality at a newly viable cost. The bilateral France–India axis and a decade-old partner network are already in place. The corridor is not a forecast; it is opening now.
Europe faces a demographic handover of historic scale. 1.7 million SMEs must change hands by 2030 as their baby-boomer founders retire. Many will find no local buyer willing to take on the whole structure and its liabilities. On the €1–10M segment, 60–65% of these deals already happen off-market, invisible to platforms. A tightening credit cycle will split these firms into cash-generators and over-leveraged companies. Both populations need an intermediary that can source them and route them to solvent international buyers.
India is in a sustained drive to industrialize and move up the value chain. Its manufacturers actively seek European machines, know-how and established brands to secure supply chains and capability. Geopolitical tension between the US, Europe and India is pushing European and Indian firms closer together. The February 2026 relaxation of India’s leveraged-buyout rules is decisive: Indian acquirers can now finance overseas acquisitions with debt, which puts European targets within reach of buyers who previously had to pay in cash. Demand is real, funded and growing on the buy-side. The timing aligns European supply with Indian appetite in the same narrow window.
Short, factual analyses of the forces we work with every day — the Europe–India corridor, the coming wave of SME transmissions, and the market for distressed industrial assets. Open, structured and free to read.
A free-trade window, a geopolitical realignment and a decade-old network are converging to make European industrial assets viable for Indian buyers. What actually changes on the ground.
Read the analysis →1.7 million businesses must change hands by 2030 as their founders retire. Why most of the €1–10M band stays off-market — and what that means for buyers and sellers alike.
Read the analysis →Lines, patents, brands, machines — each fragment of a company carries worth at its own moment in the life cycle. How we decompose an asset and judge what remains beyond book value.
Read the analysis →Straight answers to the questions we hear most often — about who we work with, how a deal moves across the corridor, and what to expect when you reach out.
We are a boutique intermediary for industrial asset dealing on the Europe–India corridor, handling transactions from €10k to €10M. We connect European sellers — of whole companies, carve-outs or distressed lots — with solvent Indian and European buyers, combining human intermediation with an agentic sourcing platform. Alongside the deals themselves, we deliver a range of value-added professional services focused on this corridor — from strategic and cultural advisory to import/export compliance, target qualification and post-closing integration.
Business owners and companies looking to sell or acquire an asset, court administrators and insolvency practitioners, as well as legal, accounting and business-introducer partners on both the buy-side and the sell-side. We serve counterparts across Europe and India.
We concentrate on three verticals — speciality chemicals, automotive & precision mechanics, and food processing — and on transactions between €10k and €10M. Depth in a few markets lets us match real, qualified counterparts rather than spreading thin.
In a first phase we focus on France and Spain, where our network, language coverage and insolvency-practice knowledge are strongest. In a second phase we will extend coverage to Germany and Italy. On the acquirer side, India is our primary market, complemented by European buyers.
A healthy asset is divested voluntarily by a company in good standing, at normal market value and without urgency. A distressed asset comes from a company in liquidation or a court-supervised procedure — sold off-market, at a discount and purged of the prior structure's liabilities. We handle both, along with distressed M&A in procedure and full transmission M&A.
You reach out through the contact form and we open a confidential conversation, replying usually within two business days. Before any full brokerage engagement we can run a paid qualification of your asset or company — perimeter, indicative valuation and buyer-pool assessment — a low-commitment first step that tells you honestly whether a deal is viable.
Traditional M&A economics force advisers toward large deals because every step is manual and headcount-heavy. We rebuild that cost base: AI agents handle origination, screening, document work and cross-border compliance at a fraction of the usual effort; a deliberately lean structure keeps our overhead low; and an established partner network on both sides of the corridor gives us qualified counterparts without a costly sales machine. Together these let us serve the €10k–€10M band profitably — and fairly — where conventional firms cannot.
In an era of permanent crisis and uncertainty, spreading risk beats concentrating it — ten acquisitions of €1M are more resilient than a single €10M bet. Small tickets also close faster, which lowers the opportunity cost of capital tied up in a long process. Handled at the right cost, they stop being an afterthought and become a strategy in their own right: diversified, quicker to deploy and easier to exit.
Our core is origination — sourcing, qualifying and connecting the right counterparts — plus part of the execution. On distressed cases we advise the acquirer through the negotiation. On healthy assets and classic transactions we facilitate the negotiation between the parties, while each side's own legal counsel carries the partisan negotiation and signs on their behalf. We keep the process moving and aligned; we never replace your lawyers or negotiate against your own interest.
We work in French, English and Spanish, and can also correspond in Hindi (spoken, read and written) and Gujarati — an asset for cross-cultural deals along the Europe–India corridor.
Yes, fully. Cezanne Partners is independently owned and carries no exclusivity with any buyer, seller, bank, fund or institution. We take no equity stake in the assets we deal and hold no conflicting mandate, so our only allegiance is to closing a fair transaction for the parties we represent.
We are remunerated primarily through a success fee on completed transactions, so our interests are aligned with closing the deal. A limited scoping or advisory phase can be arranged on a fixed fee when a mandate requires upfront work. On sell-side engagements we may also charge a modest retainer, which is fully deducted from the final success fee. Terms are agreed in writing before any engagement begins — no hidden commissions.
No. Cezanne Partners is not a legal agent or authorised representative in the statutory sense neither from the buy-side nor the sell-side. We provide intermediation and advisory services — connecting parties, structuring and facilitating a transaction — but we do not legally represent any party nor negotiate or sign on its behalf. Each party retains full control of its decisions and its own legal, tax and financial counsel.
Reach out to open a confidential, secure conversation — whether you have an asset to pass on, are pursuing the strategic acquisition of a specific asset, or more broadly wish to sell or find a company or a team.
We also welcome contacts from legal and accounting partners, and from business introducers on both the buy-side and the sell-side. Every exchange is handled discreetly, and we reply within two business days.
We speak French, English and Spanish, and can also correspond in Hindi (spoken, read and written) and Gujarati.