Never worked on a merger

After two years in M&A I have never actually closed or even been on a merger transaction. All of my deals have been sell-sides to private equity buyers. I’ve worked on divestitures, I’ve worked on acquisitions I guess since the client has been acquired, but definitely have not worked on a merger.

It even feels weirdly inaccurate saying I do “mergers & acquisitions” on my resume. It’s like there’s a gap in my knowledge since I haven’t touched an accretion dilution model on the job (can’t imagine I ever will). Any other acquisitions and divestitures monkeys in a similar boat? 

5 Comments
 

Analyst 1 in IB-M&A

Same thing for me, 9 mos in & only worked on Buy and Sell Side transactions. I think it's just part of the business, if you were interviewed about it however, I would just say a merger fell apart in DD

Nah don’t lie

 
Most Helpful

What do you mean by merger? Public deal?

So what? The bulk of m&a is private deals anyway.

There are two sides to a public deal: the technical/regulatory, and the financial.

The financial analysis, DD, etc will be somewhat similar to what you’re used to. Access depends on the situation, etc

Technical varies, takeover laws apply but typically uou’ll have m&a bankers who manage that specific part of the deal (in the UK it’s « code » bankers).

A simple acquisition for cash is dead simple. More complex structures are bespoke. And you can find complex structures in private deals too.

Also, most public deals fail.

Just relax

 

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