M&A SUPPORT

Project: Teamed up to Increase M&A Transaction Value for Category Killer Retailer

Situation
-A $6+ billion publicly-traded retailer engaged us to advise them during the sale of the company to private equity investors. The company had national store footprint and growing online presence. The goal was to help management increase its selling price and reward shareholders.

Approach
– Working with the CFO, we reviewed the investor presentations and guided on the suitor meetings and discussion. We reviewed and helped construct the appropriate financial and business presentation, and examined their impact on top-line sales and EBITDA and cash flow.

Result
-The company was successfully sold to private equity at a 35% premium to initial market price.
-This was one of the largest retail M&A transactions of the year.

Project: Prepared US Investor Strategy for Executive Team of a Public Company

Situation
-A $25+ billion dollar publicly-traded company, one of the top two globally in its sector, wanted to improve its investor profile, increase liquidity, and improve shareholder value.
-The company has international operations in 15 countries. SafeRock was invited to advise the executive team.

Approach
-We entered into a confidential engagement advising the CEO and CFO to lay out a strategy and plan of work. As a member of the extended executive team, we improved the capital markets discussion and developed the investor community message. We discussed investor, mutual fund, hedge fund, and institutional opportunities.

Result
-The results were greater investor engagement and a higher market capitalization.
-SafeRock advised the CEO and CFO.

Project: Advised Executive Team of a Public Company in Stock Listing

Situation
-A $30+ billion dollar publicly-traded company, one of the top ten globally in its sector, wanted to improve its US investor profile and engagement with shareholders, as well as increase market liquidity and value. The company has international operations in 30 countries.

Approach
-Under a confidential engagement, we advised the CEO and the investor team and laid out a strategy including a detailed plan of work. We provided direct, confidential briefings to the CEO, arranged key press interviews, and reviewed investment presentations.

Result
-The results were evident in greater investor engagement and higher market valuation.
-SafeRock advised the CEO and executive team.
-We improved the message for investors and increased valuation.

Project: Provided Valuations to a Private Equity Firm for Tech Portfolio Targets

Situation
-A private equity firm with an $8 billion portfolio wanted valuations on tech companies for acquisition. The target companies were in social media, online marketing, and web infrastructure.

Approach
-We discussed investment strategy, risk appetite, and desired exit strategy with the PE firm. This helped identify what companies would add the greatest value.
-We reviewed the business strategy, market position, sales and revenue, traction, and management of target companies.
-We separated winners from the others, and formed a valuation basis and investment outlook for the targets.

Result
-We briefed the portfolio manager on the strengths and opportunities for each of the target companies. and gave specific M&A recommendations, including price range and management strategy for the new portfolio entities.

Project: Advised Corporate VC on Start-up Investments

Situation
-A global consumer products company wanted guidance for its corporate venture fund and engaged SafeRock to engage with new technology and retailers.

Approach
-The first goal was to understand the risk tolerance that the company board could take on, and do comparative analysis on competitors’ corporate VC investments. With this in hand, we discussed the core strengths of the client and developed how to operate the CVC. This included an advisory board, process for running the fund, and filtering initial investments.

Result
-The company launched a Silicon Valley research center. Following our guidance, they developed outreach for industry executives, technology, and partnerships.

Project: Improved Customer Journey and Top-line Sales

Situation
-A $500 million chain of 40 regional supercenters had ineffective ad performance. They needed to improve lagging ad sales and store traffic, and reduce out-of-stocks. In addition, vendor funds were not efficiently managed, with millions of dollars being lost each year.

Approach
-Our approach was to work in a team across merchandising, advertising, and vendor fund management groups. We measured ad lift by item, volume and profit; and estimated square-inch returns. This created an analytics-based process for item selection.

Result
-Identified ‘cherry-pickers’ and capitalized on this to draw shoppers to stores.
-Optimized ad space allocation.
-Recovered millions in ‘leaky’ vendor funds.
-Successfully delivered analytics-driven ad item selection for top items.
-We increased vendor fund use by over 10% for over $20 million. The new system automates the image management, ad pricing, and multichannel marketing.

Project: Guided Executive Team of a Public Company to Higher Performance

Situation
-The Executive Team of a $2 billion company engaged SafeRock to help in developing high-performance and alignment for the top officers including the CEO, COO, and CFO. Executive management wanted to improve meetings, performance, accountability, and team responsiveness.

Approach
-In a highly confidential setting, we brought the team together and went through the team-building process. This involved individual and group surveys, 360 evaluation, Lencioni model, comparison with high-performance teams. Guidelines were developed for continued improvement and action.

Result
-The team developed greater unity and alignment, and this was reflected in the Executive Team going forward.

Project: Conducted P&L Review, Reduced Costs, and Improved Profits

Situation
-A specialty manufacturer needed to get a better handle on internal marketing costs, improve production efficiency, and repurpose existing content to develop new products with greater margins.

Approach
-We conducted a P&L review with the President, CFO and VP of Marketing.
-We then delivered a detailed ROI analysis of product development, marketing, and production.

Result
-Our proposed strategy was accepted. Upon approval, we engaged in a three-year transformation project that had zero project overruns and delivered a total cost reduction of 20%.

Project: Implemented ‘Last Minute Pricing’ and Versioning to Grow Market Share

Situation
-A billion dollar chain of superstores needed to manage the extreme demands of hundreds of markets and stores where customers wanted the best value offer possible each week.

Approach
-Our approach was to implement a database solution for Ad Management, promotion pricing and versioning. The automated versioning would help them reach the goal of ‘extreme last minute pricing’ on Saturday for insertion in Sunday ROP ads.

Result
-This “Last Minute Pricing” solution delivers prices at the very last minute possible before the ad is sent for printing. Our client took this to the extreme, practicing one of the most advanced methods. They versioned ROP ads for over 500 markets and delivered to newspapers on Saturday for insertion in the Sunday newspaper.

Project: Improved Customer Segmentation and Reduced Marketing Costs

Situation
-A specialty toy retailer needed a system to streamline version management and last minute pricing. They needed to revise the department’s workflow procedures, streamline the versioning process, cut out as many manual steps as possible, and reduce time to market.

Approach
-Our approach was to install a database linked to the client’s mainframe system for Event Information. The company was able to open two new divisions and incorporate a billion-dollar acquisition with the same marketing headcount.

Result
-Advertising was now able to successfully deliver prices to Production the same day ads are released to the printer for print runs of up to 20 million copies. As a result, the production cycle was cut in half.
-Automated versioning eliminated pricing and product information errors. 100% ROI was achieved within six months.

Project: Improved Inventory Levels and Reduced Out of Stock for Giant Retailer

Situation
-An international retailer with presence in North America and Europe wanted greater streamlining, reduced out-of-stock, better inventory forecasts, and promotional efficiency.

Approach
-Our approach was to provide the supply chain with promotional information in a timely and accurate basis, including all change management and promotional sales forecasts.

Result
-Our system successfully decreased out-of-stock at this multi-billion dollar retailer, by 6% with EBITDA impact.