Renaud Besançon: The Deal-by-Deal PE Pioneer Transforming Europe

Renaud Besançon's edge in private equity starts with what he doesn't have: a fund. Free from the mandates and rigidity of committed capital, Renaud operates with a deal-by-deal structure that gives him total flexibility in how, when, and what he acquires. While traditional buyout funds are locked into investment charters, Renaud refers to them as "Faustian bargains," where the price of capital is the loss of discretion. This freedom allows Ceres to pursue complex, mispriced, or off-market opportunities that institutional players cannot touch.

That flexibility has translated into scale. While many associate independent sponsors with small deals, Renaud's team routinely executes on mid-market market leaders with EBITDA between €20 million and €75 million. In 2024, Ceres began raising €200m equity for a single transaction. They have acquired businesses posting €500 million in sales and €33 million in EBITDA at just 4x EBITDA, while sector peers trade above 7x.

Behind the capital-raising engine is a homegrown CRM thirty years in the making. Renaud has logged investor profiles since his twenties, curating a spreadsheet of over 1,000 high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and institutional contacts. Each entry includes ticket size, sector interest, and geography. This meticulous preparation allows him to mobilize capital quickly, often within a 3-month window, without the overhead of a traditional fund.

Where traditional PE leans on financial engineering, Ceres drives value through operations. As part of their diligence process, Ceres commissions a psychological report on each key partner or manager, aiming to understand how they behave under stress, how they make decisions, and whether they possess the emotional resilience needed to navigate high-pressure operating environments. Teams are staffed with former CEOs who have led companies through crises and change. They bring real-world experience to the boardroom, focusing on EBITDA growth through strategy, not leverage.

Check today's new episode of the Minds Capital Podcast.