Transactional Services
Whether it’s a merger, acquisition, divestiture, restructuring, or expansion into a new geographic region, it’s essential that you get the information and unbiased advice you need to proceed with confidence.
Transactions like these are focused events. They have specific timelines, and commensurately specific deliverables. It’s not in your best interest to delegate an undertaking of this magnitude to an outside resource that is solely commission based. Before you consummate that deal, be sure you contact The ALS Group. Let us put our 25-plus years of independent expertise to work for you, helping to manage risk, contain costs, and ensure that your transaction goes through smoothly.
Mergers & Acquisitions
If you’re selling or buying, you’ll come out better with The ALS Group on your team. Why? We take an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) approach to M&A transactions. This gives you and all of your teams (from Legal and IT to HR and Operations) a macro view of the risk to be captured and managed. It’s a perspective and sophisticated capability which far transcends commission-driven insurance placement.
We provide bid support, post-deal delivery of value, sales/purchase agreements, and valuations. And when it comes to buy- and sell-side due diligence, we offer industry-leading expertise for insurance assessment and risk management.
With The ALS Group on your side, we will:
- Evaluate strategic risk-transfer alternatives, such as captives, loss portfolio transfers, and aggregate stop-loss programs.
- Proactively identify any potential deal-breaking risks to earnings, cash flow, and assets.
- Identify and quantify any undisclosed or unanticipated exposures or liabilities the acquiring firm is assuming.
- Review the effectiveness of internal risk-management controls in both organizations.
- Assist legal advisors in determining contract risk in existing and new agreements – and the organizational structures of the acquiring and acquired entities.
- Determine the Total Cost of Risk (TCoR) of costs and reserves.
- Compare insurance policies with financing terms to avoid or alleviate potential lender concerns.
- Manage the insurance placement process in order to finalize the deal.
- Recommend risk-mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of financial loss to the acquiring firm, maximizing downside protection.
Bankruptcy Support
When you seek bankruptcy protection, your company’s insurance and risk management needs shift dynamically. With The ALS Group at your side, you’ll gain the expert navigational assistance that’s required for this fast-changing landscape. As assets are liquidated and operations cease or change hands, your risk profile and insurance needs will change dramatically:
- Debtors and creditor committees have a stake in preserving the value of the estate; they’ll seek to protect it via risk mitigation and closing gaps in insurance coverage. Are you properly covered?
- Lending agreements will impose covenants and requirements that insurance policies must agree with. Will the insurance policies conform?
- Buyers will want to guard against gaps in coverage, eliminate redundancies, and capitalize on premium-reduction opportunities. Are you prepared?
Whether you’re on the creditors committee or part of company management, consider all of the risk-related issues that The ALS Group can manage on your behalf. We will:
- Vet all insurance-related claims for validity.
- Identify and quantify exposures and liabilities.
- Scrutinize existing and new contracts for unanticipated risks.
- Review insurance policies for agreement with lending and sales agreements.
- Identify risk-mitigation strategies.
- Vet and recommend new brokers, and provide binding direction to the selected broker.
- Work with current brokers and insurers on renewals and collateral requirements (or return) for secured large retention programs.
New Country Risk Analysis
Expanding into new geographies – and committing the people, property, and services required for entry – is a big step for your company. Take that step wisely, with an exclusive Project Risk Evaluation from The ALS Group.
Our proprietary Project Risk Evaluation is a detailed yet easily-digestible report custom-tailored to your company, situation, and the region you seek to enter. It includes an in-depth analysis of the political, asset, and third-party risks that confront your entry.
It provides a detailed breakdown – via a color-coded “Volatility Index” – of the top “risk influencers” you need to understand in order to move forward with confidence, including:
- Debt
- Reserves
- Inflation
- Interest
- Currency volatility
- The labor environment
- Existing infrastructure
- Shortfalls of the host country’s legal system
- The chances of civil unrest
- The possibility of corruption or terrorism
And that’s just a few of the categories. It also includes a country overview with maps, an organizational chart of the proposed deal structure, a “Risk Dashboard,” insurance costing, and more.
Enterprise Risk Management
See why the C-suite turns to ALS for Enterprise Risk Management guidance and support. Simply put, an ALS Group-driven ERM program can help you:
- Quantify risk across the entire enterprise.
- Establish loss thresholds by department and function.
- Identify critical mitigation activity for management.
When you consider the stakeholders who count on your judgment – including investors, lenders, shareholders, and regulators – you need a portfolio-level view that gives you the confidence you need to truly manage enterprise risk.
That’s the power and the beauty of a well-executed ERM program. And that’s what The ALS Group delivers. We take a methodical approach, using our proprietary process based on ISO 31000. We’ll ensure that you’ve got a handle on your risk tolerance and appetite, giving you the sleep-at-night assurance you need that you’re operating within your intended safety zone.
Working as your in-house risk manager, we hit the ground running. We’ll help you establish your Risk Management Committee (comprised of decision-making senior managers) and Risk Management Workgroup (comprised of managers from the business units and operational support functions that embody detailed day-to-day knowledge of the operations and risks of the organization). Working shoulder-to-shoulder with you, we will:
- Establish and train your staff on common, consistent assessment methodology.
- Compile your initial Risk Register.
- Calculate your enterprise- and department-level Risk Appetites and thresholds.
