M&A Strategy Bootcamp

DAY 1 – STRATEGY, VALUE & DEAL SET-UP

Session 1 – Why M&A Exists and Why It Fails

• Participants are grounded in M&A as a strategic tool rather than an event, focusing on corporate objectives, agency risk, and shareholder misalignment
• The eight dimensions of value creation are introduced and contrasted with empirical failure rates
• Real examples illustrate why EPS accretion and strategic logic often diverge
• Dedicated app exercise is a mapping where participants classify value drivers and agency risks in a live deal
• Participants must decide whether a transaction is mission-aligned or value-destructive
• Output is a downloadable short board-level investment thesis generated inside the app. 

Session 2 – AI-Driven Deal Origination & Stakeholder Mapping

• Participants explore internal vs external deal sourcing and conflicts of interest across stakeholders
• An AI agent generates alternative deal rationales based on incomplete management input
• Participants interrogate the agent to surface hidden assumptions and bias (low-latency LLM)
• The app exercise requires re-scoping a deal perimeter (buyout vs carve-out vs spin-off) suggested by AI
• Participants learn how agentic tools can augment but not replace judgement
• Outputs are scored on strategic coherence and risk visibility.

Session 3 – Valuation Logic Before Modelling

• The session focuses on valuation thinking before spreadsheets: what truly drives price
• Intrinsic vs extrinsic value is linked to deal context and buyer type
• Participants analyse precedent transactions to identify illusionary synergies
• The app exercise asks participants to reject or accept valuation ranges without building a model
• Emphasis is placed on discipline under management pressure
• Results highlight valuation dispersion and cognitive anchoring.

Session 4 – AI-Assisted CIM & Teaser Deconstruction

• Participants learn to see through CIMs as marketing documents rather than objective truth
• An AI agent performs first-pass CIM analysis and flags inconsistencies
• Participants challenge the AI output using financial and strategic reasoning
• The app exercise requires rewriting the investment risks section of the CIM
• Focus is on pre-due-diligence judgement under time pressure
• Teams receive feedback on realism and scepticism.

DAY 2 – EXECUTION, STRUCTURING & NEGOTIATION

Session 5 – Letters of Intent & Deal Control

• Participants examine LOIs as control instruments rather than legal formalities
• Time, exclusivity, and internal governance trade-offs are analysed
• Real cases show how weak LOIs destroy negotiating leverage
• The app exercise requires drafting a deal timetable with internal constraints
• Participants must manage ExCo pressure versus deal fundamentals
• Outputs are benchmarked against best-practice timelines.

Session 6 – AI-Driven SPA Risk Identification

• The SPA is broken down into economic and risk-allocation components
• An AI legal agent highlights rep & warranty risks, covenants, and CPs
• Participants must decide which risks are priceable and which are deal-breakers
• The app exercise involves red-flagging clauses under regulatory and litigation stress
• Emphasis is placed on post-closing dispute economics
• Teams score points for prioritisation accuracy.

Session 7 – Equity Bridge & Negotiation Rounds

• Participants construct the equity bridge from EV to equity value step by step
• Locked-box vs completion mechanisms are analysed through negotiation incentives
• Multiple negotiation rounds simulate buyer-seller tension on debt, WC, and provisions
• The app runs a live equity bridge negotiation where numbers change dynamically
• Participants must defend positions under adversarial questioning
• Outcomes demonstrate how small mechanics shift millions in value.

Session 8 – AI-Moderated Funding & Yield Curve Shock

• Participants explore funding structures and market dependency of deals
• An AI agent simulates shifting credit markets and repricing of debt
• Participants must re-negotiate equity value following funding shocks
• The app exercise forces a go/no-go decision under deteriorating conditions
• Conflicts of interest with banks are surfaced
• Teams are evaluated on capital discipline.

DAY 3 – SEPARATION, INTEGRATION & FULL SIMULATION

Session 9 – Acquisition Structuring Decisions

• Participants compare asset deals, share deals, mergers, and triangular structures
• Legal, tax, regulatory, and operational consequences are analysed
• Real failures illustrate mis-sold structures
• The app exercise requires choosing between reverse triangular merger, asset purchase, or share deal
• Participants must justify structure to both board and regulator
• Scoring reflects structural robustness.

Session 10 – AI-Driven Divestment & Separation Strategy

• Spin-offs, carve-outs, split-ups, and JVs are compared across objectives
• An AI agent proposes separation paths with valuation implications
• Participants stress-test the AI’s logic against operational reality
• The app exercise involves designing Newco / Remainco structures
• HR, IT, and TSA complexity is explicitly costed
• Teams are ranked on feasibility and value preservation.

Session 11 – Integration, Culture & Execution Risk

• Participants learn why integration timing destroys value more than price
• Cultural models and cross-border frictions are analysed
• Communication trade-offs across stakeholders are simulated
• The app exercise requires sequencing integration milestones under disruption
• Crisis scenarios test leadership judgement
• Outputs reveal execution blind spots.

Session 12 – Capstone Simulation: Humans vs AI Acquirer

• Participants enter a full end-to-end acquisition simulation against an AI buyer
• Teams must source, value, structure, negotiate, and close a deal
• The AI dynamically adapts strategy, pricing, and tactics
• All prior tools including valuation, SPA, equity bridge and structure are activated
• Success depends on consistency, discipline, and adaptability
• Final scoring combines value creation, risk control, and credibility.

• Redcliffe's M&A Strategy Bootcamp is delivered by an independent consultant providing online finance, Higher Ed, and Executive Education (Corporate Finance, Accounting, Private Equity).
• He is a Financial Services Executive with over 25 years of experience in investment banking, wholesale and retail banking, specialising in capital markets, risk oversight, compliance and regulation.
• Former Deputy Chief Financial Officer in a US$>200bn international financial institution.
• Former Executive in the UK’s sixth-largest retail bank.
• Former Equity Research Analyst at Citigroup, covering for 7 years, institutional investors globally in a top-rated team.
• Former Senior representative with financial regulators (ECB, PRA, FCA, FED) and the IMF. Senior representative at the World Bank/IIF annual meetings.
• Experienced advisor in M&A and capital markets programmes; has led deals with top private equity firms and real estate investors, including IPOs, buyouts, P2Ps, spin-offs and carve-outs.
• Introduction to M&A is delivered by a specialist who, alongside his career, has presented over 7,500 hours of financial and capital markets content to a broad range of financial stakeholders worldwide.
• Since 2014, he has been a contributor to world-leading universities and business schools, including IE Business School, LSE, The University of Chicago, UNAV (IESE)and ESADE in undergraduate, MBA and professional education programmes.
• Experienced face-to-face and online instructor (experienced in multiple LMS). Currently under contract with US and Singapore-based OPMs.
• The trainer makes financially complex concepts simple and accessible by adapting the jargon to the audience’s background.
• An experienced international professional (speaks 5 languages and has dual nationality), he is accustomed to rich, cultural and diverse environments. On an ongoing basis, he has students and professionals from more than 15 different countries, including EMEA, APAC and the Americas.

• Understand the end-to-end M&A process and the critical drivers that determine sustainable value creation.
• Develop a rigorous and structured framework for analysing mergers and acquisitions across strategic, financial, and execution dimensions.
• Master the core tools, models, and methodologies used by corporates, investment banks, and professional investors in real transactions.
• Identify, assess, and prioritise the key risks embedded in a transaction, and determine when a deal should be pursued, restructured, or abandoned.
• Differentiate clearly between genuine value creation and accounting-driven outcomes that fail to deliver long-term returns.
• Confidently present, challenge, and defend an M&A investment case in discussions with senior management and boards of directors.

• Delivered by a professional with extensive hands-on experience in international M&A including carve-outs, spin-offs, P2Ps and IPOs in Europe and the US.
• AI simulations which replicate life-like situations allow participants to immerse themselves in the subject matter realistically
• Easy step-by-step approach to modelling, combining theoretical and practical aspects of M&A.
• Analysis of real life cases, identifying best and worst practices in value creation.
• End-to-end M&A process review, including documentation, valuation, modelling and presentation.
• Powered by a dedicated app with extended access after the course and latest L&D technology (agentic AI, low-latency inference).

You should attend this course if:

• You are involved in M&A decisions that go beyond theory, and need to understand how value is genuinely created or destroyed across the full deal lifecycle, not just at signing.
• You are expected to challenge strategic rationales, valuation logic, or management narratives, including CIMs, synergy claims, and EPS-driven arguments that may mask weak fundamentals.
• You work with or against investment banks, advisors, lawyers, or AI tools, and want to distinguish between useful input, biased incentives, and flawed assumptions.
• You need to exercise judgement under pressure, making accept / reject / restructure decisions on deals before full information or detailed models are available.
• You are exposed to execution risk—LOIs, SPA terms, equity bridges, funding conditions, or negotiation mechanics—and want to understand how small structural details can materially shift value.
• You are involved in complex deal structures such as carve-outs, spin-offs, asset deals, or mergers, and must justify those structures to senior management, boards, or regulators.
• You are accountable for post-deal outcomes, including separation, integration, cultural risk, and operational disruption, not just getting the deal approved.
• You want to build credibility at senior level, confidently presenting, defending, or walking away from an M&A investment case using a structured, end-to-end framework rather than intuition or spreadsheets alone.

The M&A 3-day course covers the end-to-end process of M&A activity in a dynamic and entertaining way. It makes extensive use of AI practical tools and simulations to understand how deals are structured and executed and provides the knowledge to assess merger transactions based on their value creation merit. There is intensive use of Excel spreadsheets and case studies. The course which is run face to face makes use of multiple engagement and interaction tools to ensure a thorough understanding of this interesting subject and includes feedback on soft skills necessary to deliver successful, value-creating deals.

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