When merging or restructuring organisations, there are many traps for the unprepared venturer - poor strategic fit, inaccurate valuation of targets and failure to properly integrate merged entities can create long-term management headaches, generate shareholder discontent and dilute the focus on core business activities. It's no surprise, then, that up to 80% of mergers and acquisitions fail to realize their full potential or deliver promised benefits.
SMS assists clients with mergers, takeovers, divestments and restructures, delivering integration planning and program management of the integration process. We offer a structured, modular approach that addresses the key requirements for integration success: people, technology, organisation and business processes. We can perform the three major steps (due diligence, execution and implementation) and we can tailor the scope of our involvement to your budget and requirements.
- Due diligence - An overarching process for the entire merger/acquisition, due diligence recognises the responsibility of all parties to share an open discovery of the true value of all aspects of the target company. It includes:
- initial discovery
- review of accounting
- costing of change over
- applications
- networks
- teams structure
- technology processes
- Execution - The deal-making process – once discovery has been agreed, terms and conditions for change of management must be negotiated including: change of title, payment and transitional timetable for the hand over.
- Implementation - The integration, change over and divestment processes should work without stress, cost over-runs, or losses through poor planning.
Numerous merchant banks and large corporate entities, both in Australia and overseas, have benefited significantly from SMS's market-leading M&A and Business Integration capabilities when looking to capitalise on business opportunities. We've helped them to minimise risk, obtain relevant knowledge, decide whether to act on specific opportunities and increase the speed and effectiveness of transitions.