Are you thinking about Buying or Selling or forming a Strategic Alliance with an Air or Ocean Freight Forwarder, Trucking Company, Freight Brokerage business or 3PL firm?

Dan Goodwill & Associates offers a full range of services from strategic assessment to implementation. We can help you with your purchase, sale, joint venture, partnership or strategic alliance. Call us today (416 932-9701) or e mail us (dan@dantranscon.com) to discuss your specific requirements.

Strategy and M&A Consulting Services Offered:

All of the specific services set out below relate to the sequential steps in a typical M&A process and are described in the context of either acquiring a business or forming a joint venture, partnership or other form of strategic alliance. These services can be equally applied to selling a business as well. We are fully prepared to provide these services to sellers to help you achieve the best price and the best terms and conditions from the sale of your company.

1. Strategic Evaluation: In their ongoing efforts to strengthen market position and maximize shareholder value, many owners and “C” Level executives come to the conclusion that organic growth alone will not achieve the desired results and that it is time to make a quantum leap forward through some form of corporate alliance or merger. However, they are uncertain as to which form of restructure, be it a strategic alliance, partnership, joint venture, merger or acquisition is the best way to achieve that quantum leap. In order to answer these questions, we conduct a current situation analysis and then identify and evaluate the strategic options available to capitalize on market opportunities or correct major business deficiencies.
2. Target Selection and Assessment: Whether it’s a strategic alliance or an acquisition, picking the right partner or target is a vitally important part of the process. To do this well, it is essential to establish the correct set of selection criteria and to do a thorough analysis of projected sources of value. We work with our clients to design the correct selection criteria and use leading edge tools to identify potential targets, measure them against the selection criteria and model the sources of value to be derived from the deal.
3. Approaching The Target or Partner: Having selected the right targets or partners, success can be significantly influenced by thinking through the best strategy for approaching and communicating with the target. This involves clearly understanding the ownership structure, developing an assessment of the key players within the targets’ organizations and formulating the strategy for approaching them. We will lead the process for determining the best strategy and then either assist with or lead the approach to depending on your specific requirements.
4. Negotiating The Agreements: Whether it’s the Letter of Intent, the final Purchase & Sale Agreement or anything in between, key attributes of the target company or anticipated benefits resulting from the merger (that formed the rationale supporting the deal in the first place) must be protected and at times even realized in the formal agreements. There are a variety of tools and structures that ensure the buyer’s ability to maximize the sources of value of the investment. We can either lead or assist in the negotiation of the agreements to ensure that this value is protected.
5. Valuation of the Target and Synergy Valuation: Using valuation tools including discounted cash flow models, multiples comparisons methods or other tools, we can support the client in the determination of the base or stand-alone value and we can also support the development of synergy benefits estimates.
6. Conducting Due Diligence: This is the one opportunity to ensure that the financial and business health of the acquisition target as portrayed by management and preliminary information gathering is the reality. We can organize and lead the overall due diligence process and we can also conduct due diligence in specific business related areas.
7. Integration Planning: In most cases the value to be derived from a acquisition is based on some level of integration, whether it’s relatively limited in scope as in the case of some back office functional integration or whether it involves complete operational and sales integration. A well-constructed integration plan that takes into account IT issues, all the cultural and human resource issues at the executive and employee level is pivotal to ultimate success. We can lead or support the development of a comprehensive and rigorous integration plan.
8. Implementing The Merger: The main challenge in implementing the merger is that all the key managers and executives who are required to manage the company under normal conditions are suddenly vital to ensuring that the merger proceeds smoothly as well. This can often lead to conflicts and dilution of management focus and there is a high probability that something will go wrong. Depending on circumstances, there are ways of structuring and managing the merger implementation that protect base performance while securing the merger benefits. We are able to assist in putting these structures into place.