The role of investment bankers in cracking the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) deals is to suggest other enterprises and execute the transactions where the business owners keep on selling their business to buyers, get smaller targets, and divest or get specific divisions or assets from other enterprises. The execution of sell-side and buy-side deals of M&A is done by them.
In simple words, investment banking is the industry that fuels the engines of M&A. The merger of two or more enterprises takes place through the M&A process, which can be complicated as there are a lot of places that are moving. It demands specific expertise in fields, especially valuations, capital raising, communication with investors, deal negotiations, and many more.
Professionals whose aims for investment banking careers, they must make sure to attain enough specialization, enabling them to act as intermediaries for firms that want to get or merge with other firms.
M&A group in investment banking
The US investment banking industry is considered to be the home for around 3,000 enterprises, earning about USD 140 billion. It is huge and has a impactful role in some of the major transactions, which occur across every other industry.
M&A is the main subset of investment banking. Where most of the 3,000 investment banks in the US operate with M&A process and capital raising by providing diversified service scope, which consists of:
- Underwriting for IPOs
- Sales &Trading
- Equity & industry research
- Advisory services
Types of Mergers and Acquisitions
The investment banking industry can crack any deal by incorporating several types of mergers and acquisitions. Some of them are:
· Conglomeration
Conglomeration is considered as a merger between entities when there is no business overlap. Here usually it won’t perform any kind of operations in a common business space.
· Friendly Acquisition
Friendly Acquisition occurs when the targeted enterprise’s management and board of directors will be considering an agreement with the acquisition. Here the negotiations happen in an amicable way, and the deal proceeds with mutual consent.
· Hostile Takeover
Hostile Takeover happens when the acquiring enterprise makes a bid to buy the targeted enterprise without considering the approval of its board or management. This usually happens when there is a direct approach to the targeted enterprise’s shareholders to obtain control.
| Read More: M&A Investment Banking
The Role of Investment Banks in M&A Deal
The investment banking industry offers provide advisory services for enterprise owners during M&A. The aim of an M&A investment banking is to ensure that the deal happens at the fairest and most profitable price for both interested entities, i.e., buyer and seller.
Let’s understand in-detail about the role of investment banks in an M&A deal:
· Offering Industry Insights
Giving end-to-end information related to the industry is the job of an investment banking industry, and also to take informed decisions about an organization are most relevant for the process of M&A. For example, in the retail industry, it’s about the scramble for e-commerce. And for the oil and gas industry, it’s totally related to the energy transition.
· Deal origination
The investment banking industry seeks the enterprises that are most relevant and attractive, and then decides which enterprise can be either acquired or suitable for merging.
· Valuation of a firms
Valuing the firms, public and private, is the basic need of an investment banking industry. It will usually develop a valuation by using complex financial model that considers the account of all the targeted enterprise’s current and projected financial results. Its main responsibility involves providing proper suggestions to the enterprise on any deviations from this valuation.
· Negotiation
The professionals who want to excel in their investment banking career path must be familiar with this. Because negotiation is very important as it acts the intermediary, so from their side, they are sure about the transaction of some kind, and want to be transparent about it. If this results in some form of negotiation, this will be considered to offer their client in the process.
· Due Diligence
The investment banking possesses more potential of knowing the factors to look out at the due diligence step comparatively than the average business owner. It also has its legal team to take care of regulatory and compliance factors that are relevant to the deal.
· Post Merger Integration
Post Merger Integration (PMI) or just simply ‘integration’ is an aspect that adds or eliminates the value that occurs after the transaction is closed. The larger consulting industry has developed the playbook that enables them to advise enterprises on the integration, of the newly acquired enterprises into their own.
Conclusion
Investment banks act as vital advisors throughout the M&A process, from the initial strategic considerations to post-merger integration. Their expertise and collaborative efforts with their clients and other professional service providers lead to the success of any M&A deal.