Family offices have gone from representing 12% of buyers in the Spanish middle market in 2020 to 19% in 2025. Almost one in five transactions now has family wealth behind it — not a fund with an exit timetable.
At RLD, we see this in every transaction we manage. The buyer profile has changed and, with it, the rules of negotiation.
The seller no longer wants a fund in a hurry
The entrepreneur who has spent 30 years building something does not want the buyer to break it up over four financial years. They want to know that the team will remain, that the brand will survive and that their project will not end up as a divestment report.
Family offices understand this because they come from the same place. Many have gone through their own sale process — they know what it feels like to be on the other side of the table. And they offer something that private equity structurally cannot: a 10- or 15-year horizon with no exit pressure.
The numbers confirm it. In 2025, 55% of sellers in the middle market were family businesses. And increasingly, they prefer to sell to another family.
What we continue to find in due diligence processes
The fact that there are more buyers with appetite does not mean that closing a transaction is easier. In the transactions we manage at RLD, we continue to encounter the same issues that destroy value when it is already too late to correct them:
Personal assets on the company’s balance sheet. The beach apartment owned by the company. The son’s car. Contracts with relatives that were never formalised.
Total dependence on the founder. If the buyer perceives that the business does not work without the owner, the price goes down. It is that simple.
Accounts that cannot withstand a buyer’s audit. Not because of fraud — but because of years of accumulated disorder with “lifelong” advisers.
None of this makes a transaction unviable. But entering the process without having corrected it beforehand means negotiating from a position of weakness.
Generational succession can no longer wait
Only 1.2% of Spanish family businesses have reached the third generation. Those with a prepared second generation have options. Those without one have a problem.
Selling to a family office has become the most practical succession tool in the market. It is not giving up — it is choosing who continues the project when the family cannot or does not want to do so.
What we do at RLD with this
We have been working in M&A for 37 years, and what experience has taught us most is that the success of a transaction is not measured at signing — it is measured in the preparation. The entrepreneur who comes to market with their house in order negotiates from a position of strength. The one who does not negotiates from improvisation.
We support family wealth throughout that entire journey: from vendor due diligence that anticipates what the buyer will find, through to execution and closing.
If you are considering a transaction or simply want to understand your options, write to us at rld@rld.es
