Q. What does the M&A Advisory Department do?
A. The M&A Advisory Department is within Investment Banking and provides advisory services to help our clients successfully execute M&A deals. We support clients in all aspects of M&A, including deal proposals, structuring for deal execution, due diligence, valuation, price and terms negotiation, public announcement, and closing.
Q. What are your specific responsibilities?
A. My section covers the consumer and healthcare sectors, including many cross-border deals. As a team, we support clients in executing deals, and as a deal manager, my role is to lead deals, including process design and strategic planning, coordination with both internal and external parties (including the client), and negotiations between the parties.
Leveraging my previous experience in cross-border M&A advisory work in Hong Kong, I also collaborate with colleagues overseas to execute successful deals.
Q. What kinds of deals are you involved in?
A. Most recently, I was the deal manager for a large sell-side M&A deal where Nomura acted as sole financial advisor. The deal required a high level of precision, speed, and skill, and I felt a great sense of accomplishment once it was successfully executed. The project attracted a lot of attention, and was featured on the front page of newspapers and on news programs.
Q. What are you particularly conscious of when it comes to negotiations between companies?
A. We approach negotiations by envisioning a variety of scenarios. By always keeping a flexible mindset and making decisions calmly and in a timely manner, I am usually able to drive negotiations forward, while revising the strategy on the go. In addition, when negotiating the terms of a deal, we contemplate the non-negotiable aspects as well as possible concession points for both sides, and seek to maximize profits for our clients.
Q. Please tell us about your goals going forward.
A. I became a section head this April, so in addition to managing individual deals as a deal manager, I am now overseeing the entire team. I am excited about leading the team in a way that allows members to both produce strong results and grow as professionals.
M&A advisory requires knowledge in a wide range of areas in order to provide quality services to our clients. Therefore, I am always striving to learn new things myself that will hopefully lead to successful deals.
