Mergers & Acquisitions

In a marketplace littered with acquisitions failing to deliver on expectations, MSC Group know success demands both the vision to imagine bold transformation strategies, and the hands-on capabilities to see them through.

Extensive experience equips us to help both corporates and private equity firms across many industry sectors, identifying the right targets at the right price at the right time.

Our rigorous analysis, hands-on support and rapid deployment of experienced resources help us guide clients throughout the transaction process, from target search and screen through commercial strategic due diligence to business planning, post-merger integration and profit / performance improvement.

Increasingly, we are also called upon to help sellers: putting together Vendor Due Diligence reports that help present their assets objectively and to maximum advantage, attracting the best possible bids from the best possible bidders, streamlining and speeding up the transactional process, and – ultimately – gaining the best possible price.

The virtuous cycle for M&A begins by building a strong M&A capability that forms the foundation for the success of the model's five key steps:

  • Corporate strategy and acquisition strategy: Develop a clearly articulated strategy and an M&A plan that reinforces that strategy. Strategy is our Company's heritage; with many years of experience helping companies develop time-tested strategies, we understand the types of deals that create value and those that don't.
  • Deal thesis: Invest with a thesis. Successful deals are guided by a meaningful deal thesis that is tied to a firm's growth strategy and that spells out how the deal will add value both to the target and acquiring company.
  • Strategic due diligence: Ask and answer the big questions. The best acquirers investigate targets with a nose for what's really important, identifying the key sources of ongoing value and sniffing out any "perfumed pigs" buffed up for sale. A frequent acquirer knows exactly where it can add value and is therefore able to set its own price—and to walk away if the price isn't right.
  • Merger integration planning: Integrate where it matters. No two integrations are the same, and companies must carefully consider aspects from culture to IT in order to realize the full value of the deal.
  • Merger integration execution: Nail the short list of critical actions. Merging two companies requires rigorous follow-through on a long list of integration tasks, large and small. Doing both is hard. Part of the answer lies in a few, powerful guiding principles: tailor the integration thesis to the deal thesis; integrate where it matters; and act with deliberate speed.

MSC Group's mergers and acquisitions consultants help companies build and execute on their own repeatable models for M&A. We also apply our expertise to guide companies and management teams that are deciding where to grow and shed through joint ventures and alliances or divestitures and separations.