Acquisitions can be an excellent means of enhancing shareholder value in a privately owned business. However, selecting the wrong target or not having the range of skills to properly manage the process may result in a golden opportunity becoming a liability. This guide takes you through the key stages of a successful acquisition.

Pre-acquisition planning
Each stage in the acquuisition process is crucial to a sucessful transaction but before you even reach the starting blocks you should ask yourself the question Why are you buying?

Acquisition is clearly not the only way to achieve business growth and may actually give rise to a broader spectrum of management problems. It may however, be a good means of responding to changes in your market, generating cost-savings or providing important integration or cross-selling benefits. In any event, it should be a carefully planned strategy which should articulate what the acquisition is seeking to achieve in order that potential targets can be appraised. It should take into account not only the tangible expectations in terms of earnings but also the capability of people in your organisation to manage the process and the post-acquisition intergration without a detrimental impact on your existing business.

For more information download our Growth by acquistion brochure. (pdf)