As global economic headwinds reshape M&A activity, carve-out transactions are looking increasingly attractive to both corporate shareholders looking to divest assets and to investors looking to acquire assets with high growth potential. Leading these intricate transitions is Peter Rodrigues-Renon, Value Creation Lead at Stax Consulting with nearly 20 years of experience advising top-tier private equity (PE), Fortune 500 companies, and high-growth start-ups. Known for his hands-on approach to M&A, Peter specialises in maximising deal value and accelerating returns, particularly when executing carve-outs. In our conversation, he shared his perspectives on the opportunity to optimise commercial growth in complex carve-outs, the opportunity to drive value creation in software and service businesses, as well as the potential for strategic debate in the M&A space.

Carve-Outs as Strategic Value Drivers

Carve-outs are increasingly seen as a strategic approach for companies to unlock value within their non-core segments. This strategy allows companies to streamline focus on core area while capitalising on the market’s view of growth and value potential of the carved-out unit.

For Peter, carve-outs represent a powerful way to unlock value in today’s competitive M&A landscape. “A successful carve-out requires more than an operational separation—it’s about structuring the deal in a way that maximises focus on a new relationship with customers, pricing, products and growth to drive improvements in EBITDA, cash flow, and operational scalability,” he explains.

He reflects on his work with Private Equity buyers, noting that each buyside carve-out presents unique challenges. From the buyer’s perspective “You’re not just preparing to transition a business to standalone, you are optimising the growth value creation plan within the holding period whilst balancing the duration, cost and disruption of a carve-out on the management team. It’s an intricate balance between detail-oriented planning and staying flexible enough to pivot when necessary.”

Driving growth AND Operational Separation

Carve-out consultants’ frameworks and methodologies are derived from balancing ‘pace vs risk’, i.e. how fast can you execute a separation whilst being certain that planned costs are delivered without undue operational disruption. To Peter, this makes sense, to an extent, but creates a huge opportunity for a buyer that combines commercial with operational perspectives during the deal “I have delivered a lot of carve-outs, the approach is highly refined but I increasingly notice that the carve-out advisor industry is incentivised to focus on the drivers of operational complexity in separations, such as shared: IT, data, facilities, processes and supplier contracts etc. Commercial issues, typically, have less ‘operational complexity’ and therefore receive less focus and yet can have a disproportionate negative impact of long-term value by impeding growth, fuelling revenue leakage and degrading customer relationships. Savvy buyers see this and prioritise carve-out effort appropriately to focus on value”

Scaling up Tech and Service Businesses with a focus of growth into US

Peter’s expertise has been established from working across industries, however he has a particular concentration on software and platform service businesses “I love working with tech and software service companies because they combine high growth potential with a complex history of products, pricing and acquisitions” he explains. “These businesses are dynamic that makes identifying the value opportunity and refining it into a deliverable value creation plan both challenging and rewarding.”

Growth and value creation in these sectors can come from multiple directions “of course the usual ‘go deeper, go wider, organically or through M&A playbooks ‘exist” however a trend Peter is observing involves the US “If I had a pound for every business plan I see with a ‘US expansion’ line…”, he explains “it is seductive as the market size is compelling and macro factors increasingly favourable, however deciding to buy or build, where to focus, when and with what team and skills can be insurmountable for many businesses”. The challenges of US growth from the perspective of European leadership teams are frequently “materially underestimated” in his view. Peter recommends that “Buyers without extensive direct experience of driving US growth or US M&A if considering growth through acquisition discuss value creation during due diligence with experienced US growth advisors like Stax, or at least heavily discount their offer.”

Opportunities for Debate and Diverse Perspectives in M&A

Peter believes that constructive debate among M&A professionals drives better strategies and innovation across the field. “There are so many approaches to value creation and operational diligence, and often, experts bring vastly different philosophies to the table,” he shares. “It would be incredibly valuable to see top minds in M&A discussing the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind different strategies, especially in areas like carve-out value creation where approaches can vary widely.”

Peter sees platforms like Strat Journeys, The Consultancy Group’s community hub for strategy professionals, as essential to creating a space where these conversations can flourish. “Strat Journeys could be a game-changer in terms of bringing together diverse perspectives in a constructive way,” he says. “When strategy professionals have a space to exchange ideas openly, it fosters growth and creativity in the industry. That’s where real progress happens—through dialogue and challenging each other’s thinking.”