Buying or selling, our specialized expertise and client-centric approach positions you to maximize value and minimize risk at every stage of the deal.
Where Expertise Meets Measurable Results.
Our Integration & Separation Advisory supports clients across the full deal life cycle. We help prepare for and execute complex separations, deliver integration programs that capture synergies, and support initiatives that sustain performance. By focusing on rigorous planning and execution, we protect value, accelerate growth, and realize the full potential of transactions. For more on our related services, explore our Buy-Side and Sell-Side offerings.
Pre-Deal Advisory
- Carve-Out Diligence: We assess transaction perimeters and entanglements across people, processes, technology, contracts, and assets. We:
– Identify standalone requirements,
– Estimate go-forward standalone costs including one-time and recurring costs, and
– Develop or validate transition service agreements (TSAs).
- Synergy Assessment & Diligence: We conduct a rigorous review of current operations and existing synergy assessments to establish a fact-based baseline of cost and revenue synergies. The baseline is then adjusted through the identification and quantification of additional synergy opportunities, ensuring no potential value is left unexplored. Assumptions are rigorously tested with management input, benchmarks, and external data, giving you confidence in both the magnitude of synergies and the achievability of results.
- Human Resource (HR) Diligence: We assess the target’s workforce, labor relations, compensation and incentives, benefits and retirement programs, executive arrangements, and HR function to identify people-related costs, obligations and risks that may affect transaction economics and post-close execution. We also assess leadership capability and fit with the investment thesis, evaluate succession readiness and key talent flight risk, and design targeted retention programs to protect continuity through the transaction and transition.
- Transition / Master Service Agreement (TSA / MSA) Development & Validation:
– On the sell-side, we work with you to design and build the TSA / MSA including the scope of services, the service levels, duration and pricing mechanisms including cost allocation methodologies and any markup considerations.
– On the buy-side, we validate and recommend adjustments to the seller’s proposed TSA / MSA to ensure completeness of services, and that costs, service levels, durations, and governance structures are reasonable, executable and aligned with the Day 1/Day 100 operating model and integration roadmap.
Post-Deal Advisory
- Integration Blueprint & Strategy: We partner with the C-suite to define the integration thesis that is aligned with deal rationale and value drivers. Together, we establish clear guiding principles, non-negotiables, short- and long-term priorities and associated key timelines. These guiding principles are then socialized with functional teams to drive and shape Day 1 priorities and areas of focus.
- Integration / Separation Management Office (IMO/SMO): We establish the IMO/SMO and implement governance, cadence, and reporting mechanisms needed to manage the transaction effectively. We partner with functional teams to design workstream charters and Day 1/Day 100 workplans, consolidating them into a single master plan with clear KPIs and tracking. Our team ensures Day 1 readiness by managing dependencies, monitoring the critical path, and mitigating risks and issues early. We facilitate fast, effective decision-making across leadership and functions to accelerate execution and drive successful post-merger integration (PMI) or separation.
- Target Operating Model Design & Organizational Design: We partner with you to define both the interim Day 1 and future-state operating models, ensuring clarity and alignment from the outset. Our team maps people, processes, technology, contracts, and assets across standalone and integrated scenarios, as required, and designs the supporting organization structure, roles, and reporting lines. We then design a high-level implementation roadmap with defined milestones, resourcing plans, and accountability to drive execution and value realization.
- Change Management & Communications: We help leaders prepare employees and other stakeholders for the changes resulting from a transaction. We assess stakeholders, change impacts and cultural considerations, and develop targeted change and communication plans for announcement, Day 1 and beyond. We equip leaders with consistent messaging, talking points and FAQs, and establish feedback and engagement mechanisms to support workforce readiness, retain critical talent and drive adoption of the new organization.
Deal and PortCo Strategy
- Roll-Up Strategy: We work with private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies to develop and execute buy-and-build strategies that support long-term value creation. We help define the strategic vision for the combined platform, determine the optimal level of integration across acquisitions, and identify opportunities to unlock operational and commercial synergies. Together, we establish scalable integration frameworks, operating models, and governance structures that enable portfolio companies to efficiently absorb acquisitions while maintaining business performance and accelerating growth.
- PortCo Onboarding: Our Portfolio Company Onboarding offering helps private equity sponsors and management teams establish a strong foundation for the hold period, from Day 1 readiness through the first 100 days. We help stabilize operations and protect value, establish governance and performance visibility, and translate the investment thesis into actionable value creation priorities.
- Due Diligence Assessment & Playbooks: We assess past diligence processes to uncover strengths, gaps, and missed value opportunities, with an emphasis on engaging integration teams early. By benchmarking against best practices and capturing lessons learned, we help clients build a diligence capability that is efficient, repeatable, and value focused.
- M&A Assessment & Playbooks: We assess past integrations and separations to evaluate processes, templates, roles, and governance models, highlighting what worked well and where gaps remain. Our team benchmarks these practices against industry standards and best-in-class approaches to identify improvement opportunities. We then design standardized frameworks, tools, and checklists for integrations and separations, and embed lessons learned to help teams institutionalize repeatable, efficient M&A execution.
- Finance Operations & Process Improvement: We help portfolio companies stabilize and strengthen finance operations through acquisitions and periods of change. Our team supports finance cutover planning, post-close stabilization and the transition of accounting, month-end close, treasury and payment activities to clear owners. We map and assess accounting processes, clarify roles and controls, and develop practical improvement roadmaps to improve efficiency, strengthen working capital management and support scalable growth.
- Cost Allocation Support & Benchmarking: We help management teams assess cost allocations through benchmarking and financial analysis. Our team reviews shared costs and allocation assumptions against relevant peer and industry benchmarks, supports the preparation of cost allocation manuals, and documents the analysis underpinning allocation decisions. This helps improve cost transparency and consistency and supports more informed budgeting, reporting and financial decision-making.
“Our experience on both buy-side and sell-side transactions gives us a unique vantage point into integration, separation, and carve-outs best practices for minimizing execution risk and maximizing deal value.”
Our Integrated Approach: End-to-End Advisory, Seamlessly Delivered
- Holistic View: From initial investment to exit, we provide consistent, tailored advice, ensuring continuity and alignment with your long-term strategic goals.
- Commercial Focus: Our expertise translates into practical, results-oriented advice that directly impacts your investment outcome.
- Collaborative Client Partnership: We build successful, long-term partnerships, deeply understanding your business and the priorities of your investors and customers.
“Our goal is to make complex transitions seamless for our clients so they can focus on growth and strategic priorities rather than operational disruption.”
Choose Leo Berwick for unmatched expertise and a proven record of maximizing value throughout the transaction lifecycle.
Connect With Our Team
Colin Schmidt
Partner, Head of Financial Advisory
Saranya Chopparupu
Partner, Head of Integration & Separation Advisory