Montréal, April 30, 2025 – The Fonds de solidarité FTQ ("Fonds") and BCF Business Law ("BCF") have teamed up to create Mouvement Repreneuriat au féminin, an initiative designed to encourage business buyouts by women and to adapt support programs and tools from a gender perspective. The launch will be marked by a round table on June 17 that will bring together some 30 key players in the field to identify concrete actions and initiatives to increase female representation in business transfers and help women execute successful buyouts. The recommendations arising from the discussions will be unveiled in the fall to guide the Mouvement's next steps.
An important initiative
Nearly 1,000 Québec businesses will be up for sale in the
coming year, yet women account for just 26% of buyers, a figure
that drops to 18% if transfers to spouses are excluded. This low
rate of female representation highlights the need to develop the
potential of women entrepreneurship to ensure the long-term
survival of Québec companies.
To this end, the Mouvement aims to mobilize the business community
around women-led buyouts, to understand the issues faced by women
in this regard and to identify concrete actions to remove obstacles
and encourage more women to acquire existing businesses.
"To foster a strong Québec economy, we need to keep
locally founded companies here at home. Business succession is
important to Québec's prosperity, as is the search for
qualified buyers. Women represent extraordinary potential as
entrepreneurs and buyers. Our aim with the Mouvement Repreneuriat
au féminin is to offer solutions to meet the needs of women
entrepreneurs," said Natalie Brown, Vice-President, Legal
Affairs, and Corporate Secretary, at the Fonds de solidarité
FTQ.
"By co-creating this movement, we hope to enable women to
seize buyout opportunities and to find concrete solutions that will
help secure Québec's economic future. At BCF, fostering
the success of business leaders and informing their decisions at
decisive moments also means responding to the current challenges of
business succession," said BCF managing partner Julie
Doré.
Bringing together the driving forces of the ecosystem
To kick-start the Mouvement, the Fonds de solidarité FTQ and BCF Business Law will be bringing together some 30 key economic, financial and entrepreneurial actors for a round table on June 17 in order to find ways to increase women-led buyouts.
About the Fonds de solidarité FTQ
The Fonds de solidarité FTQ is a source of pride in
Québec, fulfilling its mission through a unique business
model created more than 40 years ago. Since then, the Fonds has
rallied Québec into action thanks to the retirement savings
of 795,374 shareholders.
With net assets of $21.7 billion as at November 30, 2024, the Fonds
supports nearly 4,000 companies through direct and indirect venture
and development capital investments based on the belief that impact
is created as much by financial as societal returns. For more
information, visit fondsftq.com or our company page on LinkedIn.