Mergers, acquisitions and valuations
Helping you measure the value of your business
We help our clients understand what their business, shares or assets are worth, and what is really driving that value.
We also provide support and advice on how to enhance deal value and help our clients determine strategic options and priorities to maximise value.
Our ability to offer independent valuation and strategy advice that looks at both commercial and technical aspects can provide new insights or fulfil an important corporate governance role.
Mergers and acquisitions
Our Corporate Finance team is the largest in the country, with a proven track record across a diverse range of sectors. We offer a seamless delivery
Our links to the global network of PwC firms
PwC's pool of dedicated M&A professionals offers a full range of transaction advisory services including:
- Divestments
Sell-side lead advisory services with a particular focus on privately-owned businesses and non-core operations
- Acquisitions
Buy-side lead advisory services, advising both private equity funds and corporates
- Private Equity
We foster strong relationships with key Australasian private equity firms, and specialise in matching the private equity firm to the right investment opportunity, and assisting with subsequent exits
- Capital Raisings
We offer advice on capital raisings principally via bank debt, mezzanine debt, high net worth individuals and private equity
- Strategic Relationships
Formation of strategic relationships, including joint ventures and mergers.
External recognition of our performance
- #1 ranked in New Zealand by number of transactions completed for every year since 2005 (source: Thomsons)
- #1 ranked Globally by number of transactions for the past five years, 2013-2017 (source: MergerMarket)
Our Merger and Acquisitions specialists
Auckland
Managing Partner | Corporate Finance | Strategy & Investments, Auckland, PwC New Zealand
+64 21 884 616
Canterbury
Wellington
Valuation advisory
We help our clients understand what their business, shares or assets are worth, and what is really driving that value. We also provide support and advice on how to enhance deal value and help our clients determine strategic options and priorities to maximise value.
Our ability to offer independent valuation and strategy advice that looks at both commercial and technical aspects can provide new insights or fulfil an important corporate governance role.
Our services
Need to know and understand the value impact of your strategy or decision?
Whatever the size of your business, we can provide robust valuation advice for any situation.
Valuations are subjective and can be controversial so it is often helpful to have an independent opinion that is robust and will withstand scrutiny. The ability to do this comes from experience and specialist knowledge, and our dedicated valuation practitioners will draw on and share their deep expertise for your benefit.
Whether you need a valuation for a company or asset transaction, shareholder transactions, financial reporting, dispute resolution, tax purposes or something else, we will provide you with analysis and an opinion fit for that purpose.
Dispute valuations
Companies involved with contract disputes need advice and assistance with damages analysis and valuation. With significant experience in dispute matters and our extensive resources, we provide companies with credible, clearly conveyed analysis supported by the appropriate research and experience.
Need to meet financial reporting requirements for intangible assets, impairment testing or to report performance to your investors?
Purchase price allocations
We undertake fair value assessments in order to meet the requirements of relevant business combinations financial reporting standards (and withstand the scrutiny of your auditors).
Impairment testing
We provide support to clients in preparing/reviewing their ongoing goodwill impairment tests following a transaction.
Revaluation of investments
Management needs to communicate the performance of assets and recent investments to investors and stakeholders. We provide independent assessments of the current fair value of investments. Our independence provides comfort to investors and our robust analysis and insights into how value may have changed helps management going forward.
Need help to determine your strategic options and priorities?
We help our clients determine the right strategic priorities to grow profitability and maximise value, and offer support and practical solutions to achieve those objectives.
We offer:
- Independent, practical and objective advice to ensure your planning processes deliver the expected outcomes
- Well-drafted business planning documentation and sophisticated financial models that can become useful management tools for the future
- Robust technical know-how, developed thorough research and deep industry knowledge
- Guidance and support to help you navigate potentially difficult negotiations with shareholders, creditors, management and other stakeholders that sometimes have conflicting interests
- Merger strategy assistance to help you fully understand the implications of any proposed merger:
- Comfort a merger is beneficial
- Understanding how the combined organisations will operate
- Strategic rationale
- Relative valuation
- Merger benefits
- Risks and mitigants
- Transaction structure
- We also help with process issues such as managing vested interests, staff sensitivity around transactions and confidential information.
Do you have enough information at your fingertips to make a truly informed investment or strategic decision?
Cost of capital
Efficient use of capital is key to creating value and understanding the cost of that capital will better inform your decisions.
This requires an understanding of the rate of return required by the providers of both debt and equity capital, having regard to the risk factors inherent in the business. Businesses or projects that earn returns greater than the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) will add value for investors.
We can provide you with an up-to-date assessment of WACC to reflect market conditions and the current risk profile of your business, project or group to ensure you are creating value through your investment decisions.
Forecast analysis & value driver identification
We help our clients go deeper than traditional valuation analysis to identify the underlying value drivers that support a set of business projections. At a more granular level, clients are better able to identify opportunities to maximize returns and minimize risks. Properly applied, cash flow forecasts give consideration to all reasonably foreseeable outcomes. Thinking through the strategy and working with our diligence colleagues, we help clients frame potential outcomes, which improves the accuracy and usefulness of valuations.
Understanding the assumptions under which a deal makes sense helps inform Board decisions and also helps clarify the key things that should be monitored post-deal.
Need to develop or review your financial model?
Financial models provide insightful information, allowing you to explore the financial impact of strategic decisions and support your business plan or investment decision.
Working with you to understand and analyse your key commercial and financial drivers, we can design and build a model to show the impact of different financial or commercial assumptions on profitability, cash flow, balance sheet, tax and financing structure.
Financial models can be highly complex and require substantial time and expertise to develop. You’ll receive a robust and reliable financial model that is tailored to your needs. We have extensive experience in creating financial models to assess acquisitions, capital raisings or restructurings, working capital management and project viability.
Got time to review your current financial model?
We also offer extensive model testing services so you can be confident the model you have built is reliable. This involves testing the mathematical accuracy of the model and providing commentary on the reasonableness of key modelling assumptions.
Do you need an Independent Expert’s Report?
Our experience in preparing independent expert's reports will ensure directors and shareholders receive clear, unbiased and independent advice.
Preparing an Independent Expert’s Report requires demonstrable competency, independence and integrity. Independent reports involve dealing with regulatory bodies (NZX Market Surveillance Panel and the Takeovers Panel) and being familiar with all the procedures needed to meet their requirements.
How we can help
We have prepared more than 30 independent expert’s reports in accordance with the requirements of the NZX Listing Rules and the Takeovers Code.
The reports have covered a wide variety of situations, including:
- High profile contested takeovers, pursuant to the Takeovers Code
- Changes in shareholding above the fundamental 20% threshold (requiring shareholder approval pursuant to the Takeovers Code)
- Material related party transactions (where approval by non-associated shareholders is required pursuant to the NZX Listing Rules).
You can rely on our strong reputation for producing high quality, comprehensive reports that present well-founded opinions; combining industry knowledge, insightful analysis and sound application of appropriate technical valuation methodologies.
Our reports aim to ensure independent directors and non-associated shareholders receive clear unbiased and independent advice. They’ll be informed about the proposed transaction, range of potential consequences and implications for shareholders to help them decide how to vote or respond to any situation.
Independent reports under the NZX Listing Rules and Takeovers Code must be prepared in accordance with strict timeframes as prescribed by the relevant rules. We have an excellent record of on-time delivery of high quality reports.
Our Valuation Advisory specialists
Auckland
Canterbury
Wellington
Deals insights - Winter 2017
Our Deals Insights publication provides updates on key issues associated with M&A, valuation, real estate, and other deal related topics. The publication also provides estimates for selected New Zealand listed companies of earnings multiples, equity betas and the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) as at 31 December 2016.
Managing Partner | Corporate Finance | Strategy & Investments, Auckland, PwC New Zealand
+64 21 884 616