M&A Deal - Corp Development of Acquirer vs IBD

I see that most large companies have corporate strategy groups which are in charge of M&A deals among other things.

However, all of them hire investment banks as advisers on these deals.

My question is who is doing most of the work on an M&A deal, or where does it overlap?

Walking through a hypothetical deal would be very helpful

Thanks everyone

5 Comments
 
Best Response

Fine, enough bumps for me to at least partially answer your question.

Look at any merger agreement or S-4 or whatever you call them and you will see the various investment banks give fairness opinions. These fairness opinion will protect the companies from legal harm (in most cases)if the acquisition doesn't pan out. Also, in a lot of situations, it is implicitly understood that if you want financing from a bank on this transaction, you best hire them as advisers too. Another reason is that the bankers know the market for the companies they cover. If you are selling a part of the company you want to get the best price of your shareholders. Most likely, a banker will have already spoken to most of the potential acquirers of the part of the company you are trying to sell and will have a good idea of who is interested and who isn't and at what prices.

 

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