Succession: what the Bpifrance letter doesn't say
There's what the letter says, and there's what it doesn't say: how much you'll actually pocket.
Since May 2026, the French State has been sending a letter to every founder turning 55.
The message is clear: anticipate your succession. Bpifrance is mobilizing its tools, the government presented its plan on April 23rd in Bercy, and the stated goal is to reach 25,000+ sellers and would-be buyers per year. It's a serious initiative against a massive backdrop: 500,000 founders will retire in the next ten years.
But there's what the letter says. And there's what it doesn't say.
What it doesn't say is how much you'll actually pocket.
Marc's case
Take a concrete example. Marc has run a regional industrial SME for 22 years: custom technical parts, 40 employees, €7M in revenue, around €800k in EBITDA. He's 57. He's thinking about selling in two to three years. He had an indicative valuation done: EV between €4M and €5M depending on the buyer (multiple of 5-6x). He thinks that's "good."
What he doesn't see yet: his real equity value, once bank debt and social liabilities are deducted, is closer to €3.2M to €3.6M. A first gap.
What Marc isn't factoring in
1. The PFU rose to 31.4% in 2026. On a net capital gain, the exit tax represents a significant bite, even with the €500k retirement allowance (maintained until 2031, but social contributions remain due on the full amount).
2. The apport-cession rule has been tightened. If Marc wanted to contribute his shares to a holding before the sale to defer taxation and freely reinvest part of the proceeds, he now has to reinvest 70% of the sale proceeds (versus 60% before the 2026 finance law). The portion he can freely deploy dropped from 40% to 30%.
3. His multiple is fragile. The buyers who looked at the file identified two undocumented risks: a client dependency (one client represents 38% of revenue) and the absence of formalized procedures around key know-how. Both points weighed on the first negotiations.
The gap between expectation and real liquidity
Result: the liquidity Marc was expecting and the real liquidity after tax, structure, and risk discounts weren't the same. The gap was on the order of €600k to €800k depending on the scenario.
It isn't an isolated case. It's the norm when sale preparation begins the moment the founder feels ready to leave, rather than two to three years earlier.
What we do
What we do at Seichō Partners is map that gap as early as possible. Identify the risks that compress the multiple. Model real liquidity across structures. And help the founder decide with full information, rather than against an indicative valuation taken at face value.
The Bpifrance letter is good news. It raises the question. Our work is to bring a quantified answer.