Business Advisory: Integrated M&A

After being unsuccessful in a bid process, the Board and Executive wished to conduct a thorough assessment to understand why it failed with the intention of using the lessons learned to improve the likelihood of future M&A success. 

The project was delivered across three phases: 

A deal review was conducted across the transaction lifecycle that included: 

• evaluation of the client’s M&A mandate;
• review of the M&A strategy and track record;
• analysis of the organization’s relevant capabilities; and 
• assessment of the organization’s M&A readiness. 

Following the review process, the drafting of a comprehensive report detailing the findings including observations, recommendations and outlining next steps was produced. 

The organization was subsequently supported through the implementation of the recommendations and next steps. 

Key deliverables:

• The deal review process was conducted through several meetings, workshops, document discovery and interviews with major stakeholders including the Board, Executive and external advisers including the investment bank.  
• A comprehensive report on the findings was produced.  
• The report was presented to various stakeholder groups including the Board and Executive. 
• We provided ongoing implementation support for the organization as it implemented our recommendations.  

We delivered to the client:

• An M&A Post Deal Review report providing the client recommendations to improve its M&A practices  
• Universal acceptance within the organization of both the current state and recommendations to position client for future M&A success
• All recommendations implemented and client now has a well-defined M&A mandate and strategy, has uplifted its internal M&A capability and is better prepared and more confident about achieving their M&A goals

The region’s largest wealth manager acquired the fourth largest competitor in the market and turned its attention to completing a post-merger integration. The integration was extremely challenging from both a people and technology perspective.

Our client’s primary concern was three-fold – the design and implementation of an effective, unified operating model which addressed the inevitable cultural challenges; the integration of all investment platforms; and the retention of their advisor network (and thus funds under management). The project involved a significant technology challenge while simultaneously implementing a massive change management program.  

The merger necessitated the joining of a number of dealer groups within the two organizations and the rationalization of their respective investment platforms into a single platform. This rationalization meant foundational changes to the way that around 3,500 individual advisors performed their jobs, including significant changes in responsibility and accountability for those advisors.  

Initial analysis indicated a gap existed in the integration capacity and capability across both organizations. It also became quickly apparent that the initial integration planning lacked the required level of detail and rigor.  

We designed an integration and change program for our client leveraging our Business Led Change model and assumed the Program Director, Change Lead and Implementation Lead roles to design, guide and lead delivery of the project. Completion of the program occurred over three years and involved a project team more than 300 people, many of whom were subject matter experts seconded from within our client’s business. 

A key feature of the underlying approach was engaging the advisor network to co-design its future and leveraging that process to get the advisors using the platform before it was fully live.  

Key deliverables included:

• The development and implementation of a new operating model to support the target platform and its users. 
• The consolidation of multiple legacy platforms and associated products onto the single web-based investment platform. 
• The modification of the target platform to be able to manage products that are decades old and each with their own nuances which are no longer common practice in the market. 
• Development of new products and features for the target platform along with industry leading with straight through processing. 
• Modifications incrementally introduced into production for the target platform over a three-year period in a way that ensured no loss of functionality or performance to the target platform over the development period. 
• The development of a migration solution to bring all relevant historical information from legacy platforms across to the target platform. 
• The successful consolidation of multiple Master Trust products onto a single web-based platform, delivering increased customer and advisor functionality, straight through processing and self-service functionality.   
• Embed of significant process and people changes around the new platform. 
• Successfully guide advisor network through a fundamental change in their working lives. 
• Six-weekly reporting to the board.

We delivered:

• The successful consolidation of multiple investment products onto a single web-based platform, delivering increased customer and advisor functionality, straight through processing and self-service functionality. The development of new products and features, coupled with straight through processing was a game changer for advisors and clients alike. 
• Our client successfully delivered one of the most complex wealth management integrations in the world. The successful adoption and embedding of the new platform and products across a geographically disparate advisor network of over 3,000 offices across Australia and an international internal workforce was a key highlight in the story of the implementation. 
• Costing ~USD160 million the change included changes to three operating models, seven core systems, four investment platforms, impacting 500 staff across 2 continents, 4,500 financial advisors and ~345,000 customers.  
• The merged company did not lose a single advisor through the project and the organization’s operations functioned far better because of the successful change management process.  
• The merger’s five-year investment targets were achieved in less than three years (ahead by two/three years) with the platform now boasting more than USD25 billion in funds under management.