Post Merger Integration

Clients

Board and senior management of a pan-GCC corporate & investment bank.

Issues

As part of its effort to expand its product offering and diversify its earning streams, the client acquired an investment bank located in an international financial centre.

Like any merger between a commercial and investment bank, the two institutions had differences in corporate culture, organisation structure, HR policies, technology platforms, the financial reporting and MIS structure, business processes (e.g. credit, operational) and some overlap in lines of business.

The attainment of the synergies depended upon successful post-merger-integration.

Project

Led this 12 months initiative on behalf of the CEO to integrate the two institutions and achieve targeted synergies from the merger.

Jointly led the Project Coordination Office (PCO) with a Non-Executive Director of the bank, and developed a detailed integration project road-map with appropriate processes to monitor implementation progress.

Set Working Parties made up of senior staff from both institutions to address key integration initiatives (e.g. HR and culture issues, organisation restructuring, IT & systems, financial reporting & MIS, credit process, treasury business, branding & corporate image, corporate banking & cross selling).

Provided mandate, milestones and overall direction to the leader of each Working Party and ensured that the overall vision of integration is not sacrificed. Put in place a Transition Management Committee (TMC) made up of key members of senior management teams at the two banks and led the preparation of reports for TMC meetings chaired by the Group CEO.

A structured approach resulted in integration issues being addressed in a timely and efficient manner.