Analyzing and presenting the company subject to the transaction with perspicacity

Analyzing and Presenting

With
perspicacity

Throughout M&A transactions and their financing, the seller then the buyer, investors and banks successively analyze and produce information, with know-hows, perspectives and interests of their own.

Different documents are used to present the target and/or the buyer:
– The information memorandum and the target’s business plan, usually drafted and modeled by the seller’s advisor.
– The documents prepared by the buyers for their executive committees and/or investors, banks, …
These documents and the information to which they refer are investigated, from the start of the negotiation until the due diligences (investigative audits) phase.

Which questions to ask first?

  • What is your anticipation of the upcoming negotiation’s main issues?
  • Does the documentation reflect your knowledge of the company?
  • How are the questions addressed, which according to you will be at the center of the negotiation?
  • Which information will be requested (or will have to be obtained) and at which stage of the negotiation?
  • Does the documentation rely on information that can easily withstand due diligence investigations?

How to answer these questions?

  • By identifying what makes the specificity of the company at the same time from a synthetic point of view (strategy, business model, …), and from an analytical point of view (markets, products/services, organization, management, production means, technologies, financial data, …).
  • By anticipating the questions of the persons making the investment / financing decision.
  • By focusing on information answering these key questions, then by analyzing them with an adequate level of details.
  • By identifying on which elements, the due diligence investigations will focus:
    – Depending on your sector of activity.
    – Depending on the specific situation of the company.
  • By having a Vendor Due Diligence carried out, if you are selling and do not know your company inside out.
  • If you are buying:
    – By being accompanied by advisors and/or experts complementing your management’s know-how.
    – By building up a task-force in charge of analyzing the transaction, preparing and implementing the post-merger integration.