Research
In his Prešeren-award-winning master's thesis, Tim Lep — founder of the firm — quantified, for the first time, what professional sell-side advice is worth to Slovenian business owners. The findings shape how he runs every mandate today.
The study
Tim Lep's master's thesis — The value of advisors to business owners in the process of selling an equity stake — analysed 104 Slovenian M&A transactions over a twenty-year period, comparing outcomes for sellers who retained a financial advisor against those who negotiated alone.
It received the Prešeren Award of the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana — and its conclusions shape how Tim runs every sell-side mandate today: a competitive process is not a formality. It is, measurably, where the money is.
The aggregate difference attributable to advised processes over the study period: approximately €3.2 billion in additional value for Slovenian sellers.
Source: T. Lep, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana. Prešeren Award. Full methodology available on request.
What it means for owners
1. Competition drives price. The single largest driver of the advised-seller premium is the presence of multiple credible bidders — something an owner negotiating with one interested buyer can never replicate.
2. Preparation compounds. Companies that entered a process with ordered financials and a defensible equity story commanded structurally higher multiples and faced fewer price reductions in diligence.
3. The advisor pays for itself. Across the sample, the value uplift attributable to advised processes exceeded typical advisory fees by an order of magnitude.
Get in touch
Request a confidential valuation perspective and we will show you where your company sits against the evidence — and what would move the number.
All inquiries are treated in strict confidence. NDA available on request.
Prefer email or phone?
info@lep-elevate.si · +386 41 998 038