- Nationwide – Integration planning for two building societies, covering actions required to integrate retail and contact centres and deliver related merger benefits, while insulating customers from impacts
- Netia/Tele2 –Assessed customer operations of alternative Telcos with radically different operating models, to develop single operating model to deliver acquisition benefits
- Private equity, acquisition of market researcher –Assessed separation plans from parent, and cost reduction plans based on technology and outsourcing
- TDF/Antenna Hungaria – Developed detailed plan to help TDF take control of AH, realign its strategy to an infrastructure focus and deliver cost savings. Led management team to agree integration objectives
- European Cable TV Altnet –Synergy planning across sales, marketing and networks in preparation for final binding offer for other competing Altnet delivering Pay TV, MVNO and fixed telecoms services.
- Innovation – Acquisition planning for a publicly quoted client to enable it to acquire, under Class 1 procedures, a loss making business and plan delivery of synergies required to turn it around
- Key player in the music industry – Reviewed previous restructuring actions and a plan to reduce costs, analysing cost base, identifying major risks to base case plan and some upsides
- Mach–Synergy planning to support financing of acquisition and integration of a mobile billing intermediary business
- PE House/Towers Business – Assessed synergy to raise £250m of finance, covering integration of field operations, procurement, and investment programmes
- Towers Business –Post acquisition merger planning under onerous ‘Hold Separate’ conditions, helping to control a high level of business risk, putting in place a ‘ready to go’ integration programme
- PE House, owner of media service business –Advice and challenge on ‘low-balled’ synergies. Helped PE House obtain commitment from top management to higher and more reasonable synergy projections
- Datatec – Operational Due Diligence. Identified key issues on acquisition of distressed US network integrator for group building worldwide service delivery footprint
- Datatec – Analysed similarities and differences in two acquisitions with a high degree of overlap, but some unique elements. Proposed new structures and a carve out/integration roadmap
- Macquarie – Assessed vendor preparations for the separation of Airwave from O2, assessing issues, e.g. impact on contracts, and standalone costs, and developed separation roadmap for acquiring PE house
- Financial Trading Business – Advice on people, transaction and valuation issues created in carving out and moving a business within a complex corporate structure, including General Partnership, LLP and PLC entities
- Macquarie – Diligence for Arqiva refinance – Assessed execution risk on a massive contract with large failure penalties and assumptions underlying a £1b Capexplan
- Assessing and making bankable synergies between mobile billing players’
- Provided advice and challenge on synergies arising from the merger of specialist mobile roaming service providers with overlapping operations in Europe, India and the US, enabling them to be ‘banked’ as part of capital raising to support a deal
Mach
Assessing synergies between mobile billing players
The revolution in communication, media and online commerce is creating requirements to bill for services internationally and in innovative ways. Within the mobile telecoms value chain, specialist organisations already process billing records generated by roaming callers, and provide a clearance function between operators as each other’s customers roam from network to network. There are two forms of clearing: data clearing, sending records to the right service providers; and financial clearing, calculating and ‘netting off’ bills between telcos for services rendered to end users. Companies performing these specialist function enjoy both high margins and an interesting strategic positioning for 21st payment solutions. There is growing concentration of among players in the industry. Mach and its owners, Warburg Pincus, were presented with an opportunity to purchase one of its competitors. To fund the purchase, Warburg Pincus needed to refinance Mach to leverage increased earnings and ‘bank’ synergy savings.
We provided full support of the transaction, performing due diligence for the refinance of Mach and on the target, Cibernet. The data and financial clearing functions of mediation rely on highly automated processes to deal with millions of billing records. It was envisioned that merger would enable rationalisation of multiple platforms, promising headcount and IT synergies. David was responsible for reviewing the synergy plans developed by Mach as they gained access to data on Cibernet, and provided an assessment of achievability of ongoing savings, one off costs and time of realisation.
David ensured synergies were well planned and eliminated overlaps. To deal with uncertainty he proposed a contingency, which Mach adopted. Mach’s bid was successful.
