Specialist Due Diligence Provider of the Year

WA Communications

WA’s specialist political risk advisory team provides political and regulatory due diligence to UK and international investors, helping them navigate the political dynamics impacting their commercial environment. We draw on the exceptional depth and breadth of our political networks, with proprietary insights from key decision-makers in Westminster, Whitehall and beyond, helping us deliver best-in-class advice even in sectors which are highly opaque. Investors report that WA has formed a “key” part of their investment decision-making process, given them “confidence” in executing their transitions and enhanced their ability to guide their portfolio companies through highly complex regulatory landscapes. 

Over the last 12 months, WA has grown the number of deals it has supported with regulatory and political due diligence by 38% on the previous year, and the combined value of deals which the team has advised on stands at over £2 billion. 

This growth is thanks to WA’s revised and expanded service offer. Alongside our industry leading due-diligence analysis, the team supports investors to protect and enhance the value of their assets over the lifetime of their investment through origination, policy engagement and reputation management services.

Aon

Aon’s M&A and Transaction Solutions team is less focused on the boilerplate, cookie cutter due diligence available from the market but on specific areas that can lead to an upside in valuation, or value protection. The breadth of its proposition covers five key areas: risk and insurance; people solutions; cyber; intellectual property (IP); and credit. 

Having acted on over 450 deals in the last 12 months from the UK – its deal volume eclipses other specialist due diligence advisors – with a total value of c. US$61bn, Aon helps buyers and sellers make better decisions with a data-led approach built on proprietary tools and algorithms. 

But it’s not just the advisory element that sets the team apart, it’s also the ability to implement the recommendations from its advice. That could mean, for example, placing the life insurance, or medical benefits recommended following a people strategy review for a target business; or placing IP protection insurance following an IP review to protect future value. In addition, the 85-strong team uses findings such as cyber due diligence output to help the client understand how that affects the insurance placement. 

It’s a specialist approach to due diligence that protects and enhances value in the deal.

A&M

A&M is a market leading provider of Operational (ODD) and IT Due Diligence (ITDD). A&M’s Private Equity Performance Improvement team (PEPI) have been involved in 180+ transactions over the period including the majority of large cap deals across Europe. 

A&M offers a fully integrated Due Diligence offering working alongside Financial (FDD) and Tax Due Diligence as well as Commercial Due Diligence / Commercial Ops and Regulatory. Our integrated service offering allows for a more efficient process and enables us to identify the key questions at hand more quickly, especially when the questions are cross-functional. More than half of our ODD engagements include IT and over a third include FDD. 

Some of the notable transactions A&M has been involved with in the UK include: 

• £9.6bn acquisition of National Grid’s gas transmission and metering business by Macquarie 
• £2.8bn sale of Chubb Fire and Security to APi / Blackstone 
• £1.9bn sale of Informa’s Pharma Intelligence unit to Warburg Pincus 
• The acquisition of HKA by PAI 
• The acquisitions of IFGL / RL360 and Tue Potential by Cinven

Voting is now closed

 To find out who won book a table at the British Private Equity Awards on 04 October 2022 by contacting Chris Coe.