A growing number of investors no longer seeks mainly to earn money by running businesses, but by making transactions on property rights of companies. The purchase and resale of industrial and commercial establishments are moments where large sums of money are exchanged quickly and in which fortunes are made ​​and unmade. What are the consequences of these changes in ownership on the constant long-term development of the institutions concerned and prosperity (or decline) of their stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, small investors and local) ? We propose here to examine these issues from the case study of European investment in the Brazilian bioethanol.