18 November 2018

Bridging old and new
ARTHOS at the AICA EMEA regional meeting in Belgium

ARTHOS Managing Partner participated in the 9th AICA EMEA Conference
From 15 - 17 November 2018 the AICA members from Europe, Middle East and Africa met for the 9th AICA EMEA Conference. This year’s theme was “Bridging old and new” – hosted by the Belgium AICA Member VD&P in the historic and equally vibrant city Ghent. More than 40 M&A deal makers from 16 different AICA EMEA member firms attended the meeting.

Since 2013 AICA has grown into an enviable organisation boasting tangible cross-member deal flow and a demonstrable track-record of “made in AICA” transactions. For example, this year the Danish AICA member DealHaus supported ARTHOS with the sale of the IQS Group, a special logistics services company based in Germany, to SGL, an international logistics services group headquartered in Denmark.

According to “Bridging old and new” – this year’s strategy aims at strengthening the existing network, finding additional business opportunities and developing cooperation between old and new members. As in every AICA meeting, there was essential time for one-to-one member interactions and group discussions to go into current M&A transactions and future projects for the benefit of the member’s clients. Also, collaboration tools were discussed, and three Belgian and French guest speakers shared insights into M&A trends from different perspectives not only in the Benelux context, but also in a broader international context. New at this year’s EMEA meeting was an Analysts and Associates Programme with working sessions along the entire M&A process chain. The conference sessions were complemented by excellent networking opportunities during gala dinners and at visits to sights of the lovely historical and contemporary Ghent before and after the event with colleagues.

ARTHOS is a committed partner of the Alliance of International Corporate Advisors (AICA) and that’s why ARTHOS partners participate in all AICA meetings. For four years, Arne Tödt has been an active member of AICA’s board of directors, which he has led as chairman from 2016 till 2018. Arno Pätzold is member of the membership committee. AICA comprises above 40 owner-managed M&A advisory firms located at more than 50 different economic centres around the world. As part of this exclusive global alliance, ARTHOS is able to offer its clients M&A consulting services worldwide by involving international experienced, knowledgeable local partners.

The next AICA meeting will be the Global Meeting in May 2019, to be held in Singapore.

More about AICA and ARTHOS global partners