Mergers and Acquisitions

As companies grow, the benefits of a well developed and executed M&A strategy cannot be overstated.

Successful companies consistently refine their product and service portfolios by both entering and exiting different business segments.

Sometimes it is possible to enter new segments organically by bootstrapping from the company's own resources. However, on many occasions this does not make sense: developing the new line from scratch may be too difficult or time- consuming and it makes more sense to make an acquisition of some or all of another business.

Most small business owners have little or no experience of this type of transaction so how do they know whether they are doing the right deal at the right price as they usually lack dedicated corporate development staff.

The Boleyn Advisory Group helps our clients by providing this service on an as needed basis.

Our forte is Operational Due Diligence which is the key part of any merger or acquisition and requires an ability to look beyond a company's financial statements and drill down into the questions that must be answered to uncover a company's potential.

These include:

• What is the size and projected longevity of the market?
• Where is the company in relation to its competitors?
• Can the company satisfy its customers or are they seeking other vendors?
• Are the ‘hockey stick’ revenue projections robust and what is the probability of achieving them?
• Is the sales pipeline really a sales pipedream?
• Will the fixed assets be useful or are there technological changes in the industry that will make them obsolete?
• Are the internal systems and processes for product development, manufacturing, sales, supply chain management etc. robust and how much room is there for improvement?
• Where are the strengths and weaknesses in the management team?

As well as acquisitions, companies often seek to merge for a variety of reasons. These reasons may include reaching new customers, reaching critical mass or other synergistic reasons. At other times, it may make sense to co-operate with a competitor or complementary company on a specific project and you may wish to form a joint venture.

Once again, it would be wise to understand exactly what you are getting yourself into and the Boleyn Advisory Group can help with both structuring the agreements and any integration issues.