What we do for private equity houses
We support private equity investors across every FX topic that arises in the deal lifecycle — from due diligence through signing and closing to exit and repatriation. Unlike traditional corporate FX advisors, we understand the specifics of transactions: single, large exposures with clear time windows, combined with uncertainty about deal close itself.
Our work is independent. We don’t sell products and we don’t receive commissions from counterparty banks. What we sell is market knowledge and experience — Stefan Hamberger and Enrico Ferrante have spent nearly 60 years combined on FX trading floors and in eFX structuring.
Typical topics clients bring to us
Deal-contingent hedging and sign-to-close strategies. You’ve announced a foreign-currency acquisition, closing is 60 or 120 days out, and you want to lock in the purchase price against FX moves — without bearing hedge risk if the deal falls through. We structure the right instrument, evaluate counterparty options and negotiate terms that match the deal probability.
FX strategy for cross-border acquisitions. A euro fund buying a UK business — or vice versa — creates FX risk at multiple levels simultaneously: purchase price, ongoing cash flows of the target, possible debt financing in different currencies. We disentangle these and show which risks need active management — and which can be deliberately carried.
Add-on acquisitions and bolt-on strategies. Once a portfolio company starts growing internationally, recurring FX themes emerge. We help build a consistent hedging regime across multiple add-ons, rather than treating each transaction in isolation.
Exit repatriation and sale-proceeds hedging. When exiting a foreign-currency investment, FX management partly determines what arrives in the fund’s home currency. Short-dated forwards, possibly combined with options, lock in the closing date — we know the typical pitfalls like postponed closings or uncertain sale prices.
Fund structure and FX at the vehicle level. For funds with mixed investor classes (euro, USD, GBP LPs), FX management is already relevant at fund level. We advise on share-class hedging and FX reporting for LP communication.
FX due diligence: when the target itself does FX
A second, distinct area where we support private equity houses: when the acquisition target itself operates in the FX business. When you buy companies in FX software, FX trading, FX structuring or FX solutions, the decisive question is rarely purely financial — it’s technical and market-structural. This is exactly where we bring knowledge a conventional due diligence team doesn’t have.
We act as your FX subject-matter expert inside the deal team: we assess what the target is really worth, where the technical and regulatory risks sit, and whether the business model will hold up in the FX market of tomorrow.
Technical due diligence of the FX platform. Pricing engines, liquidity aggregation, connectivity, latency, risk-management systems: we examine the target’s architecture for substance rather than marketing — what’s proprietary, what’s bought-in, what’s technical debt, and what can actually scale after closing.
Assessing the FX business model. How does the target earn in the FX market — spread capture, internalisation, STP margins, value-added services? We analyse earnings quality, dependence on individual liquidity providers or clients, and competitive position versus banks and established platforms.
Regulation and counterparty setup. FX-related business models operate in a dense regulatory environment (MiFID II, EMIR, BaFin, and depending on the model, payment-services licences). We identify regulatory risks and licence dependencies that can materially affect deal value.
Market and technology trends. We position the target within the evolution of the FX market — eFX, algorithmic execution, crypto FX, stablecoins, embedded FX — and tell you whether the technology and the team can carry the business across your investment horizon.
Post-merger and buy-and-build. After closing we support integration, vendor consolidation and — for buy-and-build theses — the assessment of further FX targets as add-ons.
This sector expertise is rare: we combine three decades of active FX market and technology experience with an understanding of the questions an investor must ask when buying. You get an advisor who opens the target’s bonnet and makes sense of what’s in the data room.
What sets us apart
In the German-speaking market, we are currently the only independent provider with this specialisation. International players like Chatham Financial, Validus or MillTechFX come from the Anglo-Saxon world, with corresponding business logic and language. We are at home in DACH and Italy, speak German, English and Italian, and understand the local banking landscape and regulatory frameworks (EMIR, MiFID II, BaFin) from practice.
We come from the trading floor. Stefan spent nearly three decades in FX sales and FX structuring at major European banks (BNP, Dresdner Kleinwort, Commerzbank). Enrico built eTrading platforms and risk-management solutions as Managing Director at UniCredit. When we negotiate with your counterparty bank, we speak their language — and we see the spreads others don’t.
How an engagement unfolds
Most mandates begin with a specific upcoming deal: a purchase agreement is being prepared, the closing date is set, and it becomes clear that FX risk should not be left unhedged. We come in with a short analysis of the deal structure under NDA, present two or three strategy options with their respective costs and risks, and then support execution with the chosen banks.
For houses with regular deal flow, we often go further: a framework agreement that establishes FX advisory as a standard part of every deal process. That saves time on each individual deal and ensures FX topics appear early enough on the deal team’s radar.