"Having good market intelligence is no longer optional in this day and age"
Rakesh Pabbi - Senior Partner
Mark Douglas had no idea what five extra days off a year could do for his company.
It was January of 2017, and Douglas, CEO of the marketing and advertising company SteelHouse, announced to his team that every month without a three-day weekend would now come with a so-called "SteelHouse Day."
For one Friday or Monday each month, the entire company would shut down.
The Crown Commercial Service has commenced the second tender process to award firms a place on its Management Consultancy Framework. Management Consultancy Framework 2 (MCF2) is projected to be worth over £2 billion, and will pertain to business consultancy services; procurement, supply chain, and commercial consultancy services; complex and transformation consultancy services; and strategic consultancy services.
We have a deal—a preliminary one, at least.
Late Tuesday, after a fifth buyout offer from Takeda, Shire said the Japanese drugmaker had finally landed on a proposal worth recommending to shareholders. It's a cash-and-stock bid now worth $64 billion or so, about $4 billion more than its first offer.
The deal still has to be approved by both boards and is subject to due diligence. The U.K.'s takeover board, which has strict rules for the timing and disclosure of bids, extended a deadline to give Takeda and Shire until May 8 to wrap it up.
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In per-share terms, Takeda would fork over 0.839 new Takeda shares and $30.33 in cash for each Shire share. Based on Takeda's share price at Monday's close, that's £49 per share, Shire said in a statement—and £5 per share more than its first bid.
That share price is a moving target, though; Takeda's stock plummeted by 7% on the news Wednesday morning.
Structured this way, the deal “seems to be much more of a merger,” Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal pointed out in a note to clients. Shire shareholders will receive 50% of the value of the combined company, and the companies will do reciprocal due diligence before any deal closes.
At least one analyst isn’t so sure Shire shareholders will be interested.
“Are SHPG shareholders willing to accept an offer that is in effect 44% cash and 56% equity?” Jefferies' David Steinberg wrote in a note to clients. While the latest bid is much more heavily weighted toward cash than Takeda's third bid—just 38% cash—“we still wonder if it is enough to satisfy SHPG shareholders, who would still bear some not insignificant risk going forward as ~50% owners of NewCo,” he wrote.
Gal, on the other hand, figures the deal will go through.
“The risk to the deal is unlikely in our view to come from Shire shareholders or anti-trust authorities,” he wrote, noting that its Takeda’s shareholders, not Shire’s., that have sent the stock downward throughout the bidding process. Still, he pegged the probability of the deal going through at between 80% and 90%.
“Short of Takeda stock price imploding a deal is likely,” he added.
Both analysts agree on one thing, though: Another bidder, which some industry watchers previously expected, probably won’t come out of the woodwork at this point.
“We expect Shire bankers to have left no stone unturned looking for other bidders,” Gal wrote, with Steinberg adding that “we continue to think any potential group of buyers to be very limited … it’s arguably less than a 50% chance that another suitor emerges.”
Sourced from FiercePharma
Baringa Partners has expanded its global presence with the opening of a new office in Sydney, Australia, aiming to replicate the success of its UK business which is currently rated the number one management consultancy in energy, utilities and the environment by the Financial Times. The Australian office, headed up by Peter Sherry and Brett Clark, will build on Baringa’s international experience and its position as the largest dedicated energy consulting practice in Europe, and will bring its full advisory capability to the Australian market.
Big-four accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, is sticking with its view that a hard Brexit is the most likely outcome with less than one year to go until the UK formally leaves the European Union
Oliver Wyman and Mercer have been selected to serve as expert advisors on a project examining climate-related risks and opportunities for financial institutions.
The cyclical upswing underway since mid-2016 has continued to strengthen. Some 120 economies, accounting for three quarters of world GDP, have seen a pickup in growth in year-on-year terms in 2017, the broadest synchronized global growth upsurge since 2010. Among advanced economies, growth in the third quarter of 2017 was higher than projected in the fall, notably in Germany, Japan, Korea, and the United States. Key emerging market and developing economies, including Brazil, China, and South Africa, also posted third-quarter growth stronger than the fall forecasts. High-frequency hard data and sentiment indicators point to a continuation of strong momentum in the fourth quarter.
L.E.K. Consulting, a global management consulting firm that advises and supports large global companies, is expanding its offerings to the global education industry and welcoming three new partners to the firm’s education practice. Together these partners have worked in over 90 countries on more than 600 education sector engagements. They are joined by a team of 40 dedicated education sector consultants and sector specialists.
The government has kicked off the bidding process for the £2.3bn Management Consultancy Framework Two (MCF2) agreement.
The contract will contain four lots covering, respectively: business consultancy services; procurement, supply chain, and commercial consultancy services; complex and transformation consultancy services; and strategic consultancy services.
Finalists for PA Consulting Group’s annual Raspberry Pi programming competition have been selected. The nine teams of school children will present their inventions to nine expert judges in London.
One of my favorite Martin Luther King Jr. quotes is: “There is nothing more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” And I am just going to come out and say it: Most diversity and inclusion initiatives fall into the former category: sincere ignorance. They look and sound great. They are usually well-meaning too. But a vast number of these initiatives prove ineffective or fail within a year or two. Why? Sincere ignorance: Start talking to the people who put them together, and more often than not you realize that the details and depth of strategic thinking behind them is as thin as the paper they are printed on.
Homebase has flown in the help of specialist consultancy firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as its owner edges closer to abandoning its troubled foray into the UK.
After experiencing low growth of 3.6 per cent in 2016, the Benelux consulting market saw stronger growth of 5.4 per cent in 2017 to reach a value of €2.1million.
Luxembourg—the smallest market—fared the best, thanks to a large financial services sector full of clients looking to respond to disruption caused by fintechs and high levels of regulation. While the growth rate was slower in the Netherlands and Belgium, consultants saw increased opportunities in these markets as well.
McKinsey & Company has become the latest member of the management consulting market to report its UK gender pay gap. In line with the professional services industry as a whole, the firm highlighted a 23.8% mean gender pay gap for fixed hourly pay.
This month saw the release of leading WeChat marketing agency Walkthechat’s China Luxury Report, aggregating data from sources including McKinsey’s The Age of Digital Darwinism, L2’s China Beauty Report, Deloitte/Secoo’s China Luxury E-Commerce White Book, and Bain’s China Luxury Report.
Accounting Giants and Financial Consultant firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) are developing a blockchain analytics tool that will track digital tokens. The company announced on Monday that the new tool will help businesses control what their tokens are used for.
KPMG
Business advisory firm KPMG has appointed Matt Malone as head of regulatory-led transformation. Matt will bring KPMG’s business consulting and technology capabilities together to help corporate clients face the rising tide of regulatory disruption and optimise mandatory change to align with the strategy and enhance business performance. Prior to joining KPMG, Matt spent four years at HSBC where he led its customer and conduct transformation programme across the investment, commercial, retail and private banking arms. Matt has successfully led a number of major customer, regulation and culture transformations in the financial services industry and was previously the director of financial services for KPMG Boxwood.
Panmure Gordon
Panmure Gordon has appointed Robert Naylor as head of corporate finance – investment funds. Robert will co-lead the investment fund division alongside Phil Hopkins, who is head of secondary – investment funds. Robert has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance, including 12 years specialising in investment funds, advising on numerous transactions, including primary and secondary equity fundraisings. He re-joins Panmure Gordon following two years at JP Morgan Asset Management’s investment trust business. Robert previously worked in the Panmure Gordon investment funds division from 2012 to 2016. Before that, Robert held senior corporate finance roles at Matrix Corporate Capital and Teather & Greenwood. Robert qualified as a chartered accountant at Ernst & Young in 1999. Robert replaces Paul Fincham, who, following an orderly handover, will in due course leave Panmure Gordon to focus on his classical music career.
McArthurGlen
The McArthurGlen Group, Europe’s leading designer outlet company, has announced the appointment of Shaeren McKenzie, currently group marketing director, as its first chief brand officer. In this newly-created role, Shaeren will focus on developing McArthurGlen’s consumer proposition, working in close cooperation with the company’s luxury and fashion brand partners, and developing and amplifying McArthurGlen’s global brand narrative to all consumer and business-to-business audiences. Prior to joining McArthurGlen, she held a number of leadership positions in the fashion, retail and advertising industries including marketing director at Sara Lee Corporation, which included global responsibility for brands such as Gossard, Berlei and Shock Absorber; managing director of the heritage British lingerie brand, Charnos; and marketing director at BHS where she worked directly for Sir Philip Green.
Sourced from CITYAM
HSS Engineers Bhd’s associate, HSS Integrated Sdn Bhd (HSSI) has won a contract worth RM289.9 million to be the independent consultant engineer for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit Line 3 (MRT3) Circle Line project.
The new contract would raise HSS’ unbilled order book to RM962.5 million, according to The Star.
Getting the best people into the most important roles does not happen by chance; it requires a disciplined look at where the organization really creates value and how top talent contributes.
Voice-controlled shopping is set to explode in popularity over the next four years, according to a new report. While the nascent technology currently has relatively low market penetration and sales, voice shopping is expected to be the “next big thing”, like mobile and apps before it.
