ACC41040 Business Combinations

Academic Year 2021/2022

Mergers and Acquisition is the seen as the fashionable side of corporate finance. One of the best business narratives ever written is Barbarians at the Gate the story of how KKR took over RJRNabisco. As a topic, Mergers & Acquisitions integrates all of the business disciplines. Often thought of solely as a finance topic (witness the module code) this is the ultimate integrative topic. To successfully execute an M&A transaction requires an understanding of Finance (valuation & financing), Strategy (rationale), Project Management (execution), Leadership & Change Management (People) and Legal (Regulatory). You also have to be able to chunk information form the lowest level of detail to a C-suite presentation .

In our time together we can only scratch the surface of many of these topics. As you all have strong finance backgrounds we will cover the financial aspects of M&A and “hang” the other material on the financial hooks. As a finance expert you will be expected to value the target and the synergies that will be realised in the transaction. To do this effectively – you need to understand the rationale (strategy) for the transaction.