A merger or acquisition can be a critical component of a company's long-term growth strategy. But M&A activity can also potentially consume vast amounts of time and money and never achieve the intended business and financial goals. To better position an M&A deal for success, an acquiring company must identify and assess all the risks involved, both pre- and post-transaction.

The challenges of an M&A transaction include performing due diligence, structuring and valuing the deal, and integrating corporate processes and cultures. In analyzing a proposed transaction, an acquiring company must evaluate all the liabilities of the target company. These can be as varied as assuming responsibility for a pension plan or a product that is no longer offered or manufactured, or becoming the owner of a site that was previously contaminated.

Marsh's Private Equity and M&A Services (PEMA) is a global resource dedicated to all phases of this process, from assessing clients' risk before the sale, to implementing loss reduction strategies after. Marsh's PEMA professionals work on a confidential basis with clients to:

• Help uncover hidden liabilities of the target company;
• Provide expertise in areas where the client's risk manager may not have experience, such as restructuring insurance programs assessing loss control strategies or evaluating how claims will be handled;
• Quantify insurance issues that can impact the purchase price, such as accruals or workers compensation losses; and
• Advise on the employee benefits issues of the merged company, such as creating a new health plan, or handling communications with employees.

Because every company carries its own particular risks, each restructuring presents different challenges. PEMA offers clients the full breadth of MMC resources housed within all our operating units to help identify, quantify, and address the unique combination of risk issues associated with each M&A transaction.

CONTACT:

Karen Beldy Torborg
PEMA North America Practice Leader
New York, NY
212-345-3659

Related Information

Our report, M&A Beyond Borders: Opportunities and Risks, captures insights from 670 C-suite/senior executives from organizations around the world, about their attitudes to cross-border M&A.