Executive Consulting Mergers & Aquisitions Origination Fundraising Advice

While advisers play vital roles in the delivery of a major corporate initiative for a company, at the end of the day, it is the board and management who are responsible for ensuring that the initiative delivers value for shareholders.

Too often, despite the high quality of a company’s external advisory team, shareholder value is destroyed rather than created, through a major corporate initiative. Shareholder value will always be at risk in a transaction where there are:

• Better options to generate shareholder value than the proposed transaction
• Inconsistencies between the stated rationale for the proposed transaction and the company’s strategy for generating shareholder value
• Deficiencies in the execution of an otherwise strategically sound transaction
• Deficiencies in the integration of an otherwise well executed transaction.

Assuming that the strategy underpinning a major initiative is appropriate, the key component of success is the ability to execute in a disciplined and robust manner, with particular emphasis on identifying, assessing and managing the wide array of risks that will invariably emerge in the conduct of a transaction.

These risks do not just include those relevant in the assessment of value in due diligence, such as financial, legal and tax risks; they also extend to communications, people and operational risks that, invariably, continue beyond the execution phase of a transaction.

Where a major initiative is contemplated, the outcome very much depends on whether the company has senior people available, with the necessary capabilities and experience, to execute all aspects of the transaction, including risk identification, assessment and management, as well as undertake their day-to-day responsibilities as executives of the company.

Senior executive bandwidth is an easy concept to understand. What is not as well understood is the importance of having an experienced resource working with the company’s board and executive team to ensure that:

• A disciplined approach to execution of the transaction is maintained.
• The day-to-day process demands of the transaction are met, without any undue disruption to the company’s activities.
• The activities of the company’s external advisory team are co-ordinated.
• The company’s board and executive team members are relevantly kept informed of all key issues as they arise during the transaction.
• The interests of all relevant stakeholders in the transaction are assessed and managed.
• All key risks of the transaction are identified, assessed and managed.
• All relevant strategies and plans are developed to deal with the communications, people and operational risks of the transaction from the day of announcement to completion.
• The related operational processes – for example, demerger or integration – are executed with the support of all stakeholders, and minimal disruption to the business.

This is where I come in…..

Where a company needs to support or address concerns about:

• the bandwidth in its executive team, having regard to the day-to-day requirements of operating the business, or
• the capabilities and experience of the senior people available within its executive team,

to execute all aspects of a large and complex transaction, I can provide the necessary skills and experience to ensure that the company’s objectives are achieved.

In particular, I can offer:

• Preparatory support for the transaction, including analysis of key organisational issues, as much as 6 to 9 months out from the projected date of the transaction.
• Strategic counsel for directors and executive management on key transaction and operational issues.
• Project management services, including co-ordination of the internal executive and external advisory teams, including investment bankers, lawyers, accountants, tax advisers, and communications and investor relations consultants.
• Process support for all aspects of the transaction – in other words, the day-to-day ‘heavy lifting’ that is required to ensure that it is completed in accordance with timetable and within budget.
• Operational support to managers of key corporate functions, including finance, legal, investor relations, communications, strategy and human resources, and individual business units impacted by the transaction.
• Operational planning and execution services for business operations and corporate functions to ensure that the anticipated benefits of the transaction are realised to prove the investment case.
• Due diligence committee representation.

With the benefit of having advised on, managed and implemented major M&A, capital raising and restructuring projects for nearly 30 years, I am focussed on:

• ensuring seamless, but disciplined and robust, execution of all major corporate initiatives, not only from a transactional perspective, but also from an operational perspective, before and after completion, and
• the mentoring and upskilling of senior executives and managers in order to facilitate the conduct of future transactions and projects.