A DIFFERENT APPROACH
Delivering a corporate transaction puts a lot of pressure on management – and that’s on top of the ‘day job’.
I partner with your management team to proactively manage the project, provide support and guidance, anticipate and resolve issues, and interact directly with your other advisers, including the banks, lawyers and accountants.
My approach is pragmatic and “hands on” whilst retaining a strategic view of the transaction and all the interlinking parts.
The role is not a ‘one size fits all’ and will be tailored to fit your needs. At all times the focus is on finding the right balance for you between providing strategic support and advice and rolling my sleeves up to get things done.
I leverage my in depth experience from over two decades of working on corporate transactions, covering IPOs, dual track exits, demergers and M&A for companies across a wide range of industries and geographies.
Scroll down for a more detailed description of the role and its benefits.
Having a full time resource keeping the team on top of the IPO process and ensuring we had full visibility of what was happening on a day to day basis was invaluable…the sheer volume of materials to review, questions to answer and documents to turn around was way higher than expected. The process is very iterative and if you slow down the cycle time then the deadlines come under pressure.
CFO
Group FC
The role
I specialise in performing a project leader role for corporate transactions such as IPOs, dual track exits, demergers/divestments, and reverse takeovers, with a particular focus on Equity Capital Markets transactions.
A full time role, embedded in your team, which will adapt to meet your needs as individual members of the management team and those of the company.
A typical scope includes:
- Acting as sounding board with a strategic view of the process and understanding of all the interlinking parts
- Proactively identifying and resolving issues
- Being the key point of contact for the company’s advisers – banks, lawyers and accountants
- Managing the drafting of the various documents from the company’s side, including the prospectus, shareholder circular or IM, analyst and investor presentations, and market announcements
- Managing financial and legal due diligence request lists and datarooms
- Coordinating fact checking and collating feedback on the reporting accountant’s diligence reports (long form, working capital, FPP procedures) or vendor due diligence reports
- Managing the remediation of the company’s Financial Position & Prospects (“FPP”) procedures recommendations raised by the reporting accountant. Drafting of the FPP procedures memorandum if required
- Managing the company’s input into the verification process for the transaction documents
- Reporting to the Board and senior management
“…there’s a lot of ‘common practice’ that gets held out by the advisers based on how they have done previous processes. When you haven’t been through an IPO before it is very helpful to have an independent view on whether the proposed approaches are really required or whether it is just your adviser’s standard approach’”
CFO
THE BENEFITS
A project such as this is incredibly time consuming and often company performance is impacted as the management team is pulled into the transaction. Added to that it is often difficult to free up someone within the company to focus on leading the transaction. Adding a dedicated knowledgeable resource to the team greatly alleviates the time pressures on the management team and enables you to focus on the key issues and business as usual.
I have done this before, many times, so I know the pitfalls, what’s coming up, what needs prioritising and how it may impact you personally. I sit in your team and provide expert guidance and advice on what is a complex process with many advisers pulling in many directions.
Through my role I aim to:
- be an independent and objective sounding board, providing guidance and advice where needed to support your decision making
- alleviate time spent by you as a management team on understanding and running the process, allowing you to focus on the strategic and commercial issues alongside the ‘day job’
- use my detailed knowledge and experience of the transaction requirements to reduce the delivery risk of missing the transaction deadlines and adviser cost overruns
- use my flexibility and broad experience to dive into areas where more hands on support is needed to keep things on track or help the company through the transformational process
Johanna seamlessly integrated into a complex and challenging process, building instant rapport with both us, the client, and key third party advisors.
She demonstrated exceptional technical knowledge combined with a highly commercial and pragmatic approach. We most valued the robust spirit of challenge tempered with sage counsel.
Head of M&A
Johanna provided valuable insights from the IPO readiness assessment and FPP procedures recommendations.
Overall, a well-coordinated project and a pragmatic solutions-based approach.
CFO