In this video I explain what the Corporate Finance department at the Big 4 accounting firms does. Happy to answer any questions below!

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📝Brief script:
To begin with let's look at the team I work in, the M&A Advisory team within the corporate finance division. The team is also called deal advisory or lead advisory in some of the firms. M&A stands for mergers and acquisitions and there are various sub teams within this team, based on specific Services provided, particular sectors and different geographies. The main sub team in M&A Advisory is the M&A team itself. The team acts as advisors on M&A transactions and helps in the preparation, planning and execution of the transactions. So the team can work on both the buy side and the sell side, which means that they can advise a company when it is hoping to Acquire another company, or a division of a company, which is the buy side. And the sell-side is where the team advises a company, technically the shareholders of that company, when they are trying to to sell their shareholding. M&A stands for mergers and acquisitions and there are various sub teams within this team, based on specific Services provided, particular sectors and different geographies. The main sub team in M&A Advisory is the M&A team itself. The team acts as advisors on M&A transactions and helps in the preparation, planning and execution of the transactions. So the team can work on both the buy side and the sell side, which means that they can advise a company when it is hoping to Acquire another company, or a division of a company, which is the buy side. And the sell-side is where the team advises a company, technically the shareholders of that company, when they are trying to to sell their shareholding.

The M&A teams at the big four provide advice on mid market sized transactions. The definition of mid market does vary slightly but You're looking at transactions between £30m and £150m, on average.

Another difference between the Big 4 M&A teams and the big investment banks is their capability in raising capital for clients in the public markets. Services include reviewing and advice on suitability for listing, preparing the business for listing, identifying suitable brokers and providing guidance on all the regulatory aspects of the process.

Moving onto what is generally the largest team in the Corp Fin division in terms of the employees and usually revenue as well, the transaction services team, which provides due diligence services. Again this team has a different label at each of the firms. This is the Big 4s bread and butter when it comes to transactions and the Big 4 dominate when it comes to providing due diligence services in the market.

So what does the team do exactly? Due diligence provides a potential buyer of a company with independent assurance in relation to a company they are looking to buy, and is a detailed investigation into the Target i.e the business being sold. The DD team will interview the management and employees of the target, analyse the information that they provide and utilise other market information for the purposes of benchmarking i.e. comparing the targets performance against its competitors.

Moving onto the Valuations Advisory team at the Big 4. As the name suggests the valuations team provides Advice on existing and potential assets and/or liabilities. They can provide independent reports on valuation during a transaction to both buyers and sellers. They also perform compliance related work such as Purchase Price Allocation and work alongside audit teams whenever they need technical guidance on valuation in relation to financial reporting.

The final important team in Corporate Finance is the Restructuring services team. This team provides various services to companies that are facing financial difficulties.

The most high profile engagements that this team performs is the insolvency engagements. Insolvency occurs when a company does not have enough assets to cover its debts or it can not meet its debt obligations as they fall due.

🤔 The video provides answers to the following questions:
What does the Corporate Finance team at the Big 4 accounting firms do?
What is Big 4 Corporate Finance?
What are the different teams in Corporate Finance at the Big 4?
What do Corporate Finance teams do?
What does the M&A team do?

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