Bid Support & Defence
We provide bid support services that help companies make and defend hostile public bids. If you are a bidder, we prepare hostile reviews on your own business and analysis of the vulnerability of the target.
For defenders, we work from the moment a hostile bid is announced to help defend or achieve the best price for your company. We help company management position themselves favourably to the markets during the bid.
We also carry out 'dummy' defence assignments for clients who feel exposed, but before a bid is announced. Many companies commission defence reviews as a routine board activity to help maintain an objective external view of their company.
Potential issues
- You are looking to acquire a public target in the coming months.
- You think that your company may be vulnerable – because of underperforming share indices, market criticism or the possibility that the company may be broken up.
- Your company is announcing a restructuring, a change of strategy or an ambitious acquisition.
- Your company has problems with management succession.
How we can support you
- Your organisation benefits from our early involvement, our familiarity with the process and priorities, and our understanding of how to work with the wider defence or attack team.
- We assist in developing the arguments on value, supporting your proposition and helping to strengthen your position - both in the market and with shareholders – and so to increase the chances of a successful result.
- We can help the company's management team position itself well in the eyes of the markets during a bid.
Pre-deal analysis
Any business seeking to make an acquisition needs to understand not only the specific performance of the intended target, but how this relates to projected market conditions and its competition within a specific industry. A whole range of factors can influence the competitive state of a market. These include technology, customers, legislation, powerful buyers and the emergence of new geographic markets. Each of these needs to be considered for the impact that they might exert on the future value of an acquisition. A potential acquisition may be projecting very high earnings growth. Equally, earnings projections may be based on the development of new products or markets. These assumptions need to be validated against the competitive and market dynamics as well as the companies strengths and challenges. PwC’s commercial and operational due diligence services are supported by our dedicated industry knowledge and our broad geographical reach. We have enormous reach in terms of industry depth and international capabilities which allow us to rapidly understand businesses, and therefore make specific quantified remarks on their ambitions and plans. For further details please visit:
Commercial and Market DD page
