Philippe BAYET

Successfully turned around a virtually bankrupt Company from 1% Ebitda on 340 m€ sales to 12% on 500 m€+ sales through :

• designing a new strategy (products, markets, clients, sourcing, etc).
• establishing a new organization & reshuffling the management team.
• instilling and developing a proactive, fact based and demanding management culture, with the support of operational KPI to i) control the strategy implementation ii) adapt it and fine tune it.

Whilst :

• Retrenching to a competitive platform then developing.
• Restructuring a financial debt of 200 m€+.
• Managing shareholder expectations and rotation (Equistone, Kartesia, Farallon).

75% of the asset now sold to Alfa Laval with a very satisfactory capital gain for the latest stakeholders.

In a company with a family culture, and sales of around 500 m€, just bought under LBO by Astorg partners, I have established a strong and reliable financial function to support the management as a business partner to :

• develop the profitability with timely and reliable margins and costs oriented KPI.
• control the capex and working capital.
• maximize the cash generation and ensure timely debt repayment.

The Company was successfully sold to SCHLUMBERGER, with a huge capital gain for the stakeholders.

In a 250 m€ listed Company resulting from the merger of two companies of a similar size, debt leveraged and loss making, I :

• created an efficient finance function (methods, people, systems).
• designed the strategy to implement, consequently leading to the CEO (in opposition with my strategy) dismissal by the Board.
• Supported the family owner (Heriard Dubreuil - Remy Cointreau), who took chairmanship, in implementing the strategy, restructuring the financial debt and selling to the Stock exchange the required increase in capital.

Stock issued at 1 € was trading at 2.60 € after 2 years and is now trading at 15 €.

Starting as a financial auditor, I developed my financial & human skills through various assignments in France and abroad, often in turnaround situations, as a controller in large size groups of various B to B businesses (automotive, packaging, textile).