In day-to-day operations, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a strategic move by one company or set of companies to acquire another company. In this case, the acquiring company takes over the assets and goodwill of the acquired company. Mergers can also be used to create larger entities than either entity was operating as prior to the transaction, often through the purchase of an existing business by shareholders in order to create a holding company.
Often, firms involved in M&A require various levels of support during the process as they may not have adequate expertise to see out the process. Merger and Acquisition support services are available for acquisition in different formats such as consulting engagements, advisory services, equity incentives or performance-related bonuses from Fintalent, The hiring and collaboration platform for tier-1 M&A and Strategy professionals. Mergers and Acquisitions Support provide services to firms involved in various levels of M&A. Some of these services include:
- Due diligence consulting: M&A Due diligence is a process of analyzing all aspects of an acquisition target, such as financial standing, financial performance, legal status and corporate governance, to understand its strengths and weaknesses. The objective of performing due diligence is to recognize the pros and cons of an acquisition target. The result provides a foundation for final transaction decision-making.
- Transaction process consulting: Transaction process advisory is a specialist service for supporting the integration of operations across companies or geographical areas post-acquisition or merger with a multi-disciplinary approach that enables the different parties involved to work together effectively with no surprises along the way.
- Liaison with shareholders: Support to the board is provided by the management team to ensure that shareholders are kept informed throughout the process.
- Documentation support: The company’s support includes accessing other parties’ records, providing internal documentation to facilitate internal transactions, providing internal training material or internal training for employees on how to work within the new entity after the merger or acquisition, and providing internal support to key HR personnel who are facing a new organizational structure after an acquisition.
- Integration planning: Integration planning service provides efforts in identifying potential integration risks and opportunities ahead of time in order to avoid problems during integration phase while building on strengths of both companies.
- Post-integration support: To ensure that the company is operating effectively post-integration, this service provides ongoing support to both the new entity and the old entity.
- Communication with all relevant stakeholders: This service facilitates communication between the board, management team and all key stakeholders prior to, during and after integration so that all parties know what they need to do leading up to completion of transaction.
- Annual general meeting for shareholders: This service assists with preparation of information for AGM or extraordinary share holder’s meeting or communicating with shareholders for annual general meeting obligations in line with Australia Corporate Law.
- Corporate governance training: This service provides training on corporate governance practices, which is an opportunity for employees to get to know their new CEO, Chairman, new directors and all relevant key company personnel.
- Contract negotiation support: This service assists with contract negotiation between the acquirer and the target.
- Business case development support: The business case is a set of documents that provide justification for an acquisition or merger to proceed rather than not proceed. It presents the management team’s business justification for pursuing a transaction and highlights its individual strengths in terms of strategy, technology, personnel and market position (among other areas) relative to the competition. It also discusses the risks involved if the transaction does not take place.
- Performance management: Performance management provides a framework for measuring and tracking the long-term performance of both entities as well as entities owned by those merged or acquired. This service measures and tracks the successes and challenges faced by the combined entities as well as those of individual businesses and the results achieved against business plan benchmarks. The data is presented, analysed and acted upon to stay on track with company priorities and objectives.
- Closing Process: Clients receive support for making final decisions on whether or not to close a transaction through due diligence, contract negotiations or other steps required during closing.
- Post-acquisition or merger integration planning: The purpose of this service is to identify potential integration risks and opportunities ahead of time in order to avoid problems during integration phase while building on strengths of both companies.
- Post announcement due diligence: Support provided to the acquirer after the announcement in dealing with regulatory agencies and authorities, shareholders, employees, business partners and customers in a way that protects their interests and maximises shareholder value.
Firms that undertake a Merger and Acquisition often require one of the above listed services or more and where they lack requisite competence, they are inclined to seek out these services from experts outside of their firms often on negotiated contract basis as their service may not be required for a very long period. Fintalent, The hiring and collaboration platform for tier-1 M&A and Strategy professionals has the largest pool of experts to handle all forms of Merger and Acquisition Support ranging from Due diligence experts, contract negotiation consultants as well as integration planning experts to meet the needs of firms.
