Doing an acquisition

Overview

Any organisation considering growing by acquisition needs to carefully assess how it will get to the right deal and be very clear about all the assumptions it is making about that deal. It needs to determine a fair value for the target business and to understand and validate the key financial, commercial, operational and strategic aspects of the target. It makes sense to use past trading experience to assist in forming a view of the future and a thorough due diligence exercise is important to confirm that there are no 'black holes'. Once satisfied in these areas, the organisation is likely to need help to implement a bid strategy, structure the deal to minimise risk and to maximise funding and tax efficiency.

Potential issues

Expansion: You want to expand your company's current portfolio of products and services or its customer base through the acquisition of new ones.
Entering new geographical markets: You want to spread your company's market risk by purchasing a company providing similar products or services in another country.
Diversification: You are seeking growth opportunities that new sectors or services provide.
Identification of targets: You need support in conducting a market search to identify opportunities.
Understanding your target: You want to know how the target business operates and need to assess its future prospects before agreeing to buy it. You also need to know whether it would be a good cultural and operational fit with your existing business.
Valuations: You need to determine the value of the target.

How can we help?

Identification of targets: We can help you to identify the right acquisition target to fit with your strategic ambition. We do this by using our industry specialists and our national and international network of practitioners.
Valuations: Once the target has been identified we can support you in placing a value on the business and in assessing your funding options and deal structure.
Due-diligence: We perform comprehensive due diligence reviews which covers a range of areas including, financial due diligence, commercial and market due diligence, business plan reviews, taxation and pensions reviews and synergy validation. We assess the reliability of the reported results to estimate earnings and future cash flows and to identify any issues.
Doing the deal: We can support you in executing the transaction and in particular in developing your bid strategy, negotiating heads of terms, considering integration issues and finalising the legal agreements which play a key role on any transaction. Our approach is to work with you and your legal advisors to secure the right deal from your perspective and to ensure that key financial and accounting issues are addressed in a way which achieves the objectives that you have set for the transaction.