The LBO Xavier's Boys had contemplated it

Franky Mulliez He I tinker! Sixty years, the founder of Matt is, as he qualified himself, a "young retired" who divides her time between the horseback and the restoration of a classified périgourdin Castle. A year ago, the very discrete cousin of Gérard Mulliez (Auchan) is assigned to Sagard, Fund sponsored by the Canadian family Desmarais, the control of the company he created in 1980 and held in almost all. The result of a reflection on his estate, began as early as 2004.

"My third boy, who was sixteen years old at the time and had to spend a month in our agencies, had asked me not to sell and wait for him, and my other children did not have the profile", remembers Franky Mulliez. Affected by the ambition of his son, the father did not want to even wait twenty years. "It was also the right time to enter the circuit 30 bright and ambitious professionals who helped me to get this box", explains the "Lac 2" who believes in the virtues of participation to the point of having very early, open 5 of its capital to its employees and distributed with stock options. In addition, a record of external growth, which did not materialize, he recently demonstrated the limits of a purely family capital, without external financial support.

"Feel the trade".

Today minority (34 of the capital) in his own company, Franky Mulliez is a President of Supervisory Board that "flies", pass one to two days per month on the ground "to see its guys, feel the trade, and check if the Director-General is surrounded by good management." "Frankly, I regret not having a LBO ten years earlier, because our development would have been much faster," says this pattern which, as before, leaves a degree of autonomy to the teams led by Xavier de Boys, the President of the Executive Board.

For this former consultant in management and strategy, Matt joysticks as Director General since 2002, the LBO was a divine surprise. "Ownership of Matt had not changed in 20 years, and it was not in the program when I arrived", recalls the former boss of ADA, which has not been taken. Far from it. The LBO, Xavier's Boys had contemplated it... ten years earlier, on a manufacturer of furniture. "Vendor finally was so seduced by the development project that I wanted to put in place that he adopted it and retained his case." "The episode much taught me", smiles today the former consultant.

A graduate of the ESSEC business school also rubbed to investment funds as a co-creator of a start-up company of professional publications (FTPress), to the great era of the Internet. Without surprise, adventure quickly turns to nightmare. "Need to question the strategy every three months to keep head above water, and the shareholders funds were not really used", tells the Boys Xavier.

It is therefore already notified financial issues specialist who satisfies the 19 regional directors and the other 11 members of the management team of Matt in the interest of taking 15 of the capital through a "OBO", a "buy-out owner" in the jargon (see Glossary page 6). "Motivation tool" should be, according to Xavier's Boys, "become an end in itself".

The "reward will come only at the end of the road", said regularly to its teams. Following closely the independent expertise, once per year, of the value of the Matt action.