Mergers & Acquisition

SafeGuard Securities, Inc. helps companies improve their odds of successful M&A through an integrated, battle-tested approach that links acquisition strategy, diligence and merger integration.

Acquisition strategy: Invest with a thesis
Successful deal making requires a well-defined strategy and experience. The question behind every deal should be: "How will buying this asset make my existing business more valuable, and how will I bring value to the asset I am buying?" The answers are rooted in strategy—and strategy is Davis and Johnson Financial Group's heritage. With more than 40 years of experience helping companies develop time-tested strategies, we understand the types of deals that create value and those that don't. Successful deals have an investment thesis that is founded on a firm's portfolio needs and clearly tied to growth strategy.

Diligence: Ask and answer the big questions
Sellers have a reason for selling. You need to know what you are buying and how you will make the business more valuable. Strategic due diligence is a forward-looking process that helps you understand how you can create value through an acquisition. The best acquirers investigate targets with a nose for what's really important, identifying the key sources of ongoing value and sniffing out any "perfumed pigs" buffed up for sale. Our proprietary approach relies on conducting primary research. We talk to the key players in the target’s orbit and build insights gleaned from tearing apart thousands of "selling stories."

Merger integration: Integrate where it matters
To make a deal pay off, you have to nail a short list of critical actions. But merging two companies also requires rigorous follow-through on a long list of integration tasks, large and small. Doing both is hard. Part of the answer lies in a few, powerful guiding principles: tailor the integration thesis to the deal thesis; integrate where it matters; and act with deliberate speed. Deals undertaken to grow a company’s scale usually require a lot of integration while deals that expand the scope of the business often need a lighter touch.