We have unrivalled experience providing technical, environmental
and regulatory advice to the potential purchasers of water and
environmental companies.
Potential purchasers need to understand the relevance and
materiality of technical issues and how they impact on enterprise
value. Examples of issues to be considered by a potential purchaser
include:
- Capex programme deliverability
- Operational strategy, outsourcing and efficiency
objectives
- Risk management
- Asset portfolio condition and management strategy
- Staffing and organisational efficiency issues
- Regulatory performance and outlook
- Process technology viability and legacy issues
- Impacts of impending national and international directives,
particularly with respect to water quality and health
- Tariff and revenue issues with respect to population levels,
non-revenue water, metering and competition
- Customer service performance
- Environmental performance and litigation history.
Our dedicated M&A advisory teams, drawn from across our various
businesses, combine cutting edge technical knowledge, commercial
skills and perspective, with a passion to make a difference. Our
senior staff have experience operating at board level
internationally.
We have advised on all the landmark water utility transactions in
the UK – arguably, the world’s most regulated water market. This
offers our clients a unique opportunity to gain an insight into
current issues and future developments.
Our approach to due diligence is responsive and always targeted to
meet deadlines imposed by the transaction process.
Our global reach allows us to easily undertake physical asset
evaluation and our technical depth means that we can present
position papers to define or explore bidding strategy. From recent
transactions we have built strong relationships with the majority
of premier league financial advisors in London and Europe – this
has allowed us to develop our approach to scenario planning and
risk mitigation. Working with international lawyers we are able to
comment on the significance of environmental pollution and on the
likely outcomes of complex tariff mechanisms found in modern
structured finance deals.
On the sell-side, we provide a specialised service to assist our
clients in making a realistic appraisal of their fixed assets, and
in preparing for disinvestment, mergers or de-mergers,
acquisitions, take-overs, insurance or liquidation, collaborations
and joint ventures.
