Acquisitions - Disposals - Closures
Extraordinary events of strategic significance such as a company acquisition, disposal of a branch of a company or closing a company by going into voluntary liquidation are occasions for temporary management. They may occur once in the life of a company, and when they do, there is a need for teams of expert, effective top level managers who have handled similar issues in the past. These managers must be ready to get down to the task, leaving aside day to day administration for as long as is necessary. Usually this falls to General Managers or Managing Directors, and such resources are not likely to be available from inside the company itself or even from inside a larger group. To reduce risk and cost, the ideal solution is to seek the support of Contract Manager s.r.l., whose team includes General Managers and Managing Directors who have managed similar extraordinary events in the past.Assignments in this area last from one to two years.
ACQUISITIONS
An acquisition is usually followed by downsizing – cutting staff, letting go some of the managers from the previous ownership and optimizing the various business processes. All this has to be done rapidly in order to proceed with integration of the new company and enhancement of its existing technical, production and commercial capacity. It may often be worth asking Contract Manager s.r.l. to carry out the restructuring before announcing the name of the Group making the acquisition.
DISPOSALS
This is usually of branches or divisions of the company that are not performing well. Hence the support of Contract Manager s.r.l can help to “freshen up” a business before selling it off by undertaking restructuring, at least on a partial basis, in order to present a more appealing organization to the new buyer. The task of Contract Manager s.r.l. is not to promote the disposal of the business but to manage the processes of reorganization and/or restructuring. Mergers and Acquisition management does not come within the range of services we offer, as it requires highly specialist knowledge and appropriate connections with major group holdings, private equity, investment companies etc.
CLOSURES
This is a marginal area but it has often come up in the twenty years we have been in business. Most of the closures we have handled have followed voluntary liquidation on the part of Groups or entrepreneurs who wanted to exit from the business holding their heads high, without going through bankruptcy proceedings with compulsory winding up. For the company name and image, this would have meant being “dragged through the mud” in the business community. Again it is advisable to seek the support of managers who have already managed the closure process. It is also better not to involve accountants or lawyers until the major management issues have been dealt with - relations with suppliers, banks, trade unions, human resources, technical assistance and standing contracts. An experienced manager who adds value to the existing tangible and intangible assets can be of great benefit. If this phase is managed carefully, major and sudden loss of worth can be avoided in the company to be liquidated.
