Arthur D. Little’s Corporate Finance Advisory Services (CFAS) team provides independent, impartial and expert advice to ensure the good deals get done. We achieve this by leveraging our firm’s global strengths in dealing with strategy and organizational issues in technology-intensive industries.
We can support you throughout the transaction process, including:
We typically work with (rather than as) the investment-banking corporate finance advisor to maximize our clients’ prospects for success.
Following a successful transaction, we can coordinate support from within Arthur D. Little to ensure effective post-merger integration, to identify and realize synergies and to release working capital.
With our industry-specific knowledge and business-planning skills, we are also well placed to help financiers identify businesses’ defensible cash-generation potential in restructuring situations.
We support our clients throughout the transaction process by offering tailored services that build on our strategy-consulting heritage. Typically our engagements involve one or more of the following activities:
Working with management, we identify the key criteria for target/purchaser selection based on the client’s strategy and the dynamics of the target industry. Activities involve scanning for potential targets/purchasers, profiling and screening those entities, and then performing a more detailed analysis to identify potential synergies in support of valuation discussions.
We assist vendors and purchasers in developing quantified plans that reflect current industry conditions and target value-growth opportunities. We help our clients to communicate the opportunities effectively to ensure that good deals are completed to their maximum benefit.
We review business plans for both sellers and buyers, giving our assessment of the ability of the organization to deliver its financial forecasts, based on our understanding of the demand and competitive conditions in targeted markets, the strength of the strategy set out by management, and the resources to be used to support delivery.
Our work focuses on the mid-term (rather than on forecasts for the current financial year). It is differentiated by our understanding of the commercial and technology environment and our aim to provide a numerical assessment of identified risks and opportunities. We can also provide technical due-diligence services in sectors where our strategy activities require us to have such operational expertise.
Our advice is sought in a variety of situations to assist with strategic decisions, in support of merger-and-acquisition negotiations, for accounts preparation (e.g., goodwill impairment testing), or in support of litigation. We employ the valuation techniques most appropriate to the specific situation, which may include multiple comparisons, discounted cash-flow analysis and options pricing, with our work differentiated by our understanding of the economics of the underlying businesses.
Post-transaction activities to secure value are extremely complex to handle and can potentially frustrate top management, the investment community and – most importantly – the companies' employees, who have to take the roles of integrators and change agents. To achieve long-term success, stringent leadership throughout the post-transaction process is essential, stressing each single issue carefully but pragmatically. With our long history of successfully supporting companies in mergers, acquisitions and alliances, we can help our clients to manage post-transaction integration activities to meet specific industry and company priorities.
Working-capital release can be an important generator of returns to owners or a source of funding for growth. We have experience in assisting companies, particularly those with multiple business units spread across many geographies, to identify opportunities to release cash and then successfully execute the working-capital release plan.
Restructurings and work-outs entail assisting owners and management in identifying opportunities so they can streamline businesses and stabilize cash flows. Activities include preparation and review of cash-flow projections following market and operational reviews, support for restructuring, and assistance with divestment activities.