Notes from the field.
Short pieces on operational execution for PE — what we see in carve-outs, value creation plans, and the Benelux operating environment. Written for sponsors, operating partners, and portfolio company leadership.
Grid congestion in the Netherlands: bypassing the queue
Across most of the country, the grid is full. For PE-backed industrial portfolio companies, a five-year wait for a connection upgrade is no longer an option. Here's what the workaround actually looks like.
Read → 14 May 2026Bidding with conviction: the diligence behind a sharper NBO
Most NBO bids are built on the IM and a financial model. The sharper sponsors run a focused two-week operational diligence at NBO stage — and bring a draft 100-day plan to the IC meeting. It changes how you bid.
Read → 12 May 2026IT/OT integration after a carve-out: what breaks in the first 90 days
Carve-outs from large industrial parents look clean on paper. Then Day 1 arrives and the portfolio company discovers the parent's stack was not a single system — it was a dense web of services and identity dependencies that nobody documented.
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