Vikram Srinivas of KPMG Delivers Lecture on Mergers & Acquisitions at IFMR, Chennai

Vikram Srinivas of KPMG Delivers Lecture on Mergers & Acquisitions at IFMR, Chennai

Management students are used to keeping a track on Mergers & Acquisitions going on in the world, and to add on it, they learn concepts in the class to understand the theoretical side of things. But at IFMR, it does not stop there, students also get regular opportunities

to know the real picture of what's happening in the business world by interacting with industry experts.

On September 25, 2008, the students at IFMR got an opportunity to interact with Mr. Vikram Srinivas, Manager - Transactional Services, KPMG, on the all-time-hot topic of 'Mergers & Acquisitions'. It was not just another guest lecture at IFMR, but a special one since The Hindu - BL Club (Business Line Club) had organized the same. BL Club organizes a guest lecture every week at different institutes through out the country, and this was the 6th consecutive year when the BL Club guest lecture was organized at IFMR.

Mr. Srinivas started with the nitty-gritty about M&As and insisted on spending some time on the basic fundas of M&A, specially because students usually get to know about M&As from either the executives of companies involved in either side of the transaction or from the faculty. But this time, it was a different occasion where students got an opportunity to know about issues from an advisor's point of view, as in many cases the deal is mainly dependent on the advisors and their analysis.

Mr. Srinivas, after highlighting the basic issues of an M&A, spoke about the Process Dynamics of an M&A which, he said, started from one of the company with understanding its requirements followed by various other steps including identifying targets, approaching the target, key features analysis, pricing analysis, deal structuring, negotiations, purchase / sale agreement, and finally, if all the steps are passed by successfully, then it materializes into a Merger or an Acquisition, followed by other post-merger consolidation activities involving HR, operating and accounting issues.

He also mentioned about the role of an advisor and how critical it was in determining the conversion of a prospective deal into a deal and the issues involved therein. He gave students pointers of what, as an advisor, he looks for while analyzing a deal (company), he insisted that there's lot more to analyzing a deal than it appears, as the advisors have to be completely aware of the industry and other factors with respect to the deal (company's). He then shared a few pointers on what are the strategies behind a company to go for a Merger / Acquisition, which could range from synergy to market share and economies of scale to entering new markets among other reasons.

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* Contributed by -
R. Yogesh Kumar Chordia (Campus Associate),
2nd Year Student,
Institute for Financial Management & Research (IFMR), Chennai.

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