2021 Year in Review
At the end of 2020, US Partner Scott Whitaker predicted “2021 is likely to be an M&A bonanza despite potential head winds.” Indeed, he was correct.
2021 saw unprecedented growth for Global PMI Partners with more projects completed and more talented consultants added to our global team than ever before. To put this in perspective, we average about 60-70 post-merger integration projects per year globally, about 80 percent of which are integrations and 20 percent of which are carve-outs or other advisory services. We are on track to close out 2021 +70% YoY which has kept us extremely busy.
“We have seen a steady flow of deals across most industry sectors, rising to a crescendo as we headed into the start of Q4,” stated UK partner Chris Charlton.
The US closed roughly two dozen integration deals, mostly in the lower middle market, added Whitaker.
“Our clients are focused on addressing platform scalability gaps during their hold periods, and our IMO Mobilization process helps their platform companies manage add-on and ‘merger of equal’ scenarios while strengthening their internal integration capabilities,” he added.
Charlton added, “the need to identify and deliver significant synergies has been further fueled by many deals with high-valuation multiples, raising the bar for challenging integration projects.”
Our agile approach and the value we add as acquisition, carve-out, and post-merger integration specialists working across multiple industries and across borders seems to fit into the post-Covid world that is emerging.
While we are traveling less than pre-Covid, we learned we could be just as effective and efficient using online platforms (Teams, Zoom, etc.). Our consultants proved to be adaptable and flexible throughout, deferring to the clients’ preferred collaboration tool while remaining loyal to our highly effective application of Smartsheet and TeamWork to the IMO Mobilization process. This brings great value to our clients compared to the relatively low cost of our licenses.
Our methodology a true value differentiator
While we conduct a top-down analysis when looking at and evaluating a potential acquisition pre-deal, it is our bottom-up analysis, planning, and execution of the post-signing integration project that serves as the cornerstone of our methodology.
“We are guiding rather than telling line managers what to do with less consultants than our competitors,” said Nordics partner Michael Holm. “Activating line management just after signing in a bottom-up approach coupled with some top-down analysis results in empowerment, passion for the deal, better change management, and fewer cultural integration issues,” he added.
At Global PMI Partners, we deploy a “minimum effective dose” of consultants with a maximum impact on overall integration success.
Looking ahead: business resiliency and a new normal
Our methodology will continue to be key while we remain nimble on the business front.
“Our teams in DACH, France and Benelux have been servicing both very small and very large deals,” said Benelux partner Christophe Van Gampelaere. “We also see a growing need for European clients to be their ‘eyes and ears” on the ground in China, as Covid-related travel restrictions don’t allow them to send their teams into the country,” he added.
China Partner, Robert Yu emphasized GPMIP’s strength in building cross-border bridges when in-person interactions cannot take place, and may not for some time, depending on your location.
“As companies adapt themselves for the new norm of working remotely, we found that video calls still cannot quite replace in-person interactions, especially in the cross-border and cross-culture M&A situations where travel restrictions presented real challenges,” said Yu. We were able to add tremendous value to help our clients’ global teams to work and communicate with their local workstream/functional counterparts leveraging our global footprints and highly experienced local resources.”
“Italy business is expected to grow, also thanks to PNRR (Recovery and Resilience Plan),” said Italy Partner Sergio Bruno. “Italy is used to demonstrating a good capability to grow after years of crisis, we have done this several times in the past centuries,” he added.
Expansion and new faces at Global PMI Partners
We have welcomed many new faces in 2021 to support this surge of activity.
In the Nordics, Mikael Kruhsberg joined as Partner at the start of 2021 adding experience from large industrial companies and FMCG to the Nordics team.
The UK added 30 new team members and the Americas region doubled their number of consultants to the US team while establishing a strong GPMIP Latin America presence.
Stefan Hofmeyer, US Partner commented about Latin America, “It’s exciting to see how much impact we can bring to regions of the world typically overlooked as target opportunities.”
This year we were happy to announce the addition of Senior Executive Advisors; Hauke Moje, Michael Maier, Christoph Jores, and Andre Petzold in the DACH region, Mikael Rangnitt and Jens Sandström in the Nordics region, Jan Veerman and Leon Bouwman in the BeNelux, Jean-Charles Cuellar in France, Christian Terry, AP, now leading our business in Iberia, and a large number of associates and M&A subject matter experts.
To our client and business associates: Thank You
We would like to thank our clients and business associates that placed trust in us to help guide their strategic initiatives during 2021.
We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to a successful 2022!
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