Rushing the due diligence on a merger left a big bank with a lot of questions – and unable to make key decisions until the deal had closed. Fortunately, KPMG was on hand to turn complexity into clarity.
Explains a KPMG advisor who worked on the deal: “Coming into the deal just before it closed, we immediately spotted many unknowns in relation to the target company’s operating model.
“Once we’d accurately scoped out the issues at stake, we split the integration work into several streams then connected up each team with its counterpart in the other company,” said the advisor.
“Next, we set the various teams to work to produce performance plans and KPIs for their parts of the new business – no easy task given that much of the financial information was missing due to the original lack of due diligence,” he said.
The integration soon began to move in the right direction and gain momentum – although at the time of publication it seemed set to go on for 18 more months, “far longer than it really ought to,” says the KPMG advisor.
“Unfortunately, we’re still doing work that should have been completed before the deal was even signed.”