Mergers and acquisitions (M&A)
People expertise. Sustained performance.
In a world characterised by business model disruption, inorganic growth strategies are increasingly critical to success. With investor pressure coming from all sides, the current dynamic deal environment requires a combination of knowhow and effective execution to deliver sustainable value today, tomorrow and well into the future. It also demands a dynamic mergers and acquisitions strategy.
Thanks to our global scale and local footprint, Mercer has the business acumen, deal experience and people expertise to solve your toughest people challenges — we can work anywhere in the world and act at a moment’s notice. We aim to help you maximise value, mitigate risk and moderate costs to capture the full value of your deal.
The diversity of our clients — in terms of size, maturity, industry sector and geographic location — means we can collaborate with all types of organisations to tackle a broad range of issues. Simply put, we know what needs to be done — when, how, why and by whom. We can work with you to manage the most complex deals, streamlining every step of the process to drive growth and help your business soar to new heights.
People risks in transactions, if not proactively considered, can have an enormously negative impact on deal value. People are the common denominator in delivering economic value, and it’s too often overlooked and addressed reactively when problems arise.
What makes Mercer different?
years of deal experience
transactions annually
country operations
cross-border transactions
languages
Strategy and readiness
- Investment thesis research
- M&A readiness assessment
- M&A playbook development
- M&A Ready™ training
Due diligence
- Human capital due diligence
- Separation diligence
- M&A talent insights
Pre-close planning
- Integration planning
- Separation planning
- Turnaround planning
- Project management office
- M&A talent insights
Post-close
- Day One readiness
- Integration management
- Transition service agreement support
- Separation management
- M&A talent insights
- Synergy capture
Driving long-term deal success requires thoughtful and well-executed integration. Building on the findings of due diligence, our approach to integration planning includes:
- Developing a comprehensive integration strategy and roadmap to deliver on the end-state vision for Day One and beyond
- Establishing project-governance principles, including those relating to decision-making, issue escalation and communications
- Understanding and identifying the critical components of the cultures of both organisations, and developing an integration approach that will maintain them
- Outlining a communication and change-management strategy to support the new operating environment
To deliver enhanced deal value, buyers and sellers need workforce expertise combined with real-world, practical and tactical execution experience on a global scale. This is what we provide.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As)
In a world characterised by business model disruption, inorganic growth strategies are increasingly critical to success. We have the business acumen, deal experience and people expertise to solve your toughest M&A challenges. We can act at a moment’s notice.
Divestitures
Divestitures can unlock hidden shareholder value and generate cash to fund growth and innovation. Paying close attention to workforce risks can maximise sale price, increase speed of sale and enhance profitability.
Restructurings and turnarounds
Successful turnarounds require both financial restructuring and planned operational recovery. Aligning human capital strategy with strategic objectives is crucial for success.
Joint ventures and strategic alliances
Joint ventures and strategic alliances provide quicker results than building an entirely new business. They also appear to present less complex logistical challenges than acquisitions. Yet misaligned strategic goals, unclear governance, skewed operating models, indistinct workforce strategies and cultural mismatches can lead to underperformance.
Heightened competition means buyers often have to commit without performing adequate due diligence, mitigating risk, determining compliance issues or fully developing post-merger integration plans. Mercer’s project management operations (PMO) approach combines world-class process management with real-time consulting. The result is the rapid identification and mitigation of risk.
Our focus
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Workforce strategy
Determine critical roles and the talent needed to drive success. Formulate workforce strategies to address any gaps. -
Operating model
Develop your future strategy and operating model, including organisation design, governance and decision rights. -
Talent assessment, retention and onboarding
Maximise deal success by assessing talent, identifying and selecting leaders, and retaining critical skill sets. -
Change management and communication
Conduct change management planning and integration focused on moving key stakeholders from both entities. -
Culture
Identify cultural risks to deal objectives, and build a comprehensive integration strategy and operating environment. -
Talent insights
Implement an AI-based approach to understand skills, identify risks and retention implications pre-close, and develop post-close talent strategies.