Interview with Corinne Previtali, CNCEF

DC : Can you introduce yourself and what you do ?

Corinne Previtali : First and foremost, I have been an M&A consultant since the beginning of my career. I spent the first half of my career in the banking sector, then the second half in an independent firm, always working with small caps. Today, I am associate founder of MGT Partners, as well as president of CNCEF France M&A, one of the largest professional associations for M&A professionals. We are currently just under 200 firms within this association.

DC : Your career combines consulting, structuring and institutional involvement. When did you feel the need to get invested in the bigger picture of the field?

Corinne P. : About fifteen years ago, I would say, with one strong observation: our role as M&A advisors is not regulated. However, it is a job that deserves to have best practices defined and promoted. For me, best practices first and foremost ensure quality service for the client, but they also protect the professional and give them everything they need to do their job in the best possible conditions.

DC : How would you describe the specific added value of the CNCEF for the M&A advisory ecosystem today?

Corinne P. : We are presently actively pursuing a certification process. Since we are not regulated, we have decided to self-regulate through an external certifier.

The idea is to ensure that professionals have all the necessary skills, both technical and ethical, and follow best practices that guarantee quality service to clients. Our goal and our legitimacy as an association is to establish criteria for certification, help professionals get trained, and educate the market that there are several ways to practise this profession: the right way and the wrong way.

DC : Are there currently any training requirements for advisers?

Corinne P. : There is a requirement for regular training, which stems from the fact that, until a few years ago, some M&A advisers were CIFs (financial investment advisers). In 2018, the AMF confirmed to us that this status was no longer necessary. Nevertheless, we have retained this 7-hour training requirement in the commitments made by our members when they join the CNCEF.

DC : What is your take on the M&A market today? A look back at 2025 and then ahead to 2026?

Corinne P. : 2025 was a year of two phases. The first half was much like the end of 2024: it was imperative to do nothing. Political, economic and legislative uncertainties had brought things to a standstill. Everyone was in a wait-and-see mode.

Then, in the second half of 2025, business leaders said to themselves: we're going to stop waiting because we don't know what we're waiting for, and we won't have any clarification in the short term. Basically, if we don't move forward, we're dead. And since we're not going to let ourselves die, we're going to resume the projects we had in mind. Starting in September, we saw a real dynamic take shape with projects sprouting up everywhere.

The financing market is there. The banks are cautious, but they are present and they are financing. Investors who had put their pens down at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025 on small caps have resumed their investments. We are in a rather dynamic phase with many projects coming to fruition, and we hope that 2026 will see this trend continue. The issue now is that we must avoid another surprise, another good old-fashioned dissolution with additional disruption that could cause people to lose momentum. But for now, we are fairly optimistic about small caps.

DC : How have the dynamics and the power balance changed between buyers and sellers?

Corinne P. : As in all times of economic uncertainty, buyers are a little more cautious, while sellers' expectations have not fundamentally changed. They have strong convictions about their companies. As a result, it sometimes takes a little longer to reconcile the interests of both parties, even if they are keen to do business. This leads to longer processes. Yes, as is usually the case during such periods, there may be a slight gap between what buyers want to do and what sellers are prepared to accept.

DC : What are the challenges in terms of professional accountability with AI and other emerging technologies?

Corinne P. : In my eyes, there are two challenges surrounding AI and technological innovations today.

The first challenge is productivity, with the question that follows: what about certain human resources that could be totally or partially replaced at some point? There will be restructuring in the market. When I talk about restructuring, I mean that we will no longer work in the same way as we did five years ago. This is an economic and social responsibility issue.

The second issue is the changing nature of advisory responsibility, which is becoming increasingly apparent as more and more clients seek advice on liability issues. This means more and more risks that are, above all, disconnected from the compensation amount. At one time, unhappy clients simply didn't pay. That was basically the risk we took. Today, it's both that and the possibility of being ordered to pay damages for loss of opportunity. This opens the door to many different scenarios, with much higher financial stakes for firms.

Some of these risks can be mitigated, covered or controlled through technology, particularly when it comes to the confidentiality of information, for example. There is no doubt that technology can provide part of the answer.

DC : So, the digitisation of the profession will ultimately have a positive impact?

Corinne P. : Yes, combining the two in a well-controlled manner should only have positive effects.

DC : There seems to be a culture of impact minimisation. How do you perceive industry professionals' attitudes towards the risks associated with digitalisation and responsibility?

Corinne P. : The same attitude applies to the issue of responsibility as to cyber risks, at least in the world of SMEs. And our firms are often SMEs. We tell ourselves: if it doesn't happen, there's no reason to worry about it, to stress ourselves out with implementing tools and the cost that this may represent. There was a time when certain tools were quite off-putting. Today, this is less and less true. But it is still a question of people's awareness of risks and therefore the measures they need to take to protect themselves.

As the litigation market is booming (even if a firm will only have one or two significant client disputes in its lifetime), it is important to be aware that the stakes today can quite simply lead to the closure of a business. It is no longer a question of losing revenue. We are talking about damages that can permanently undermine a structure. Clearly, the world is becoming a little more Americanised when it comes to legal matters. This is not necessarily good news, but it does make it even more important for professionals to pay close attention to a number of these issues.

DC : There are a lot of players in the small cap market. How does a company director who wants to sell find themselves there, and who do they turn to?

Corinne P. : This is one of the problems with our profession: for many of our potential clients, the question of selling their business only arises once in their lifetime. They are not familiar with this type of transaction, don't know who the key players are, and have no reference points or benchmarks for what to expect from an advisor. They are somewhat isolated.

Of course, there are professionals who gravitate around SMEs, such as chartered accountants, who have a role to play in educating their clients on these subjects. But the big problem today is that a number of related professionals are offering this type of advice on the side. The client may say to themselves: I have an accountant, I trust them. They have no reason to question the proposal made to them. However, this specialist may not necessarily be able to carry out a comprehensive process as required to protect the client's interests, but the client has no way of knowing this.

This is one of the reasons why, within the association, we want to put our own house in order and ensure that advisors are certified and accredited, and then promote this differentiation in the market. The aim is to give potential clients a benchmark that gives them an idea of what they can expect from a consultant and why they are being paid, so that they avoid paying people to do half the job or do it badly, which they will only realise at the end.

DC : Any advice for those who have not yet joined the association?

Corinne P. : Today, even if customers are not familiar with these operations, they still have a certain amount of awareness through their ecosystem and have expectations for efficient support. They may not necessarily have a clear idea of what that means, but it leads them to have demands: how high is the quality of what you do? Do you have a team trained to respond to the complex economic issues of the moment?

It is important for everyone to be able to educate themselves and share best practices with colleagues, discussing the cases they encounter and developing a philosophy. It is also important to have a professional association capable of lobbying or influencing our authorities to help them understand the challenges of the entrepreneurial world through our consulting activities.

That's why it's in their interest to join a professional association. We're not the only ones on the market, but I think we're quite advanced in terms of quality and protecting our members.