In an ideal world, every merger or acquisition ideally, strategically aligned, driving hundreds of millions of dollars (or more) of sales over the years, transforming the market or product category into the benefits of the merged entity. CFOs can dream.
In reality, creating value from M&A trading is a challenging effort in the best of times. It becomes even more difficult in a very unpredictable business environment.
Alex Shahidi, senior managing director and transaction services leader at Rivern, a Dallas-based business advisory firm, offered to get a glimpse into what the acquirer needs to redo a successful transaction and manage risks with months of planning, concentration and investment potential.
Shahidi draws on over 20 years of experience in complex trading to explain why the CFO and their trading team must be explained in detail with diligence, but always look a few steps ahead.
What was one strategic change you saw in how companies approach the transaction lifecycle in 2025? And how do you help clients adapt to those changes?
One more important change we will see in 2025 is that businesses are often preparing for shutdown activities faster and more comprehensively at their hardworking stages. In today's markets where the macroeconomic environment is uncertain and high risk of execution, buyers cannot afford to wait until the ink has dried up until they start thinking about consolidation, synergy, or preparing for the day. They recognize that a successful transaction is constantly asking, “What will happen next?”
On a practical level, what does it take?
Company leaders, including advisors, and their contract teams, should think ahead by incorporating integration planning and operational preparation into the early stages of the transaction lifecycle. This means adjusting stakeholders around future state visions, prepaying potential obstacles, and developing a detailed execution roadmap before the transaction closes. This aggressive approach not only risks transitions, but also accelerates value creation after closure.
What separates successful and failed transactions? Also, what can finance leaders do early to set up transactions for long-term success?
It often comes down to what happens right after the end. Although prior hard work is important, we found that conducting intensive diagnostics to identify opportunities for value creation and process improvement before the transaction is finished, truly setting the tone of long-term success.
This pre-closed diagnosis sets a stage for a rapid post-closure assessment of identified opportunities, allowing financial leaders to quickly assess the health and preparation of core processes, including everything from reports and close cycles to systems and internal controls. It is based on the early preparations made during hard work, the difference is now [the team has] Full access to people, data and operations in your organization. That visibility is essential to identify operational gaps, prioritizing integration tasks, and surface opportunities for rapid victory.
Rather than waiting for the problem to come up, this approach allows teams to act with accuracy and speed. Finance is a catalyst for value creation by ensuring that the business is equipped to deliver on or after the first day.
With increasing regulatory scrutiny and increasing financial complexity, what best practices do you recommend to ensure strong financial due diligence?
As the financial and geopolitical environments become more and more complex, due diligence needs to extend beyond standard checklists. One of the most important best practices is to actively assess how external pressures such as tariffs and currency fluctuations will affect the financial stability of a company and future performance.
This starts by modeling tariff scenarios to assess where a company is selling from and to understand its potential impact on margins, pricing power, and revenue forecasts. It is important to assess whether a business can pass rising costs or whether those pressures will undermine profitability.
It is also recommended to closely analyze net working capital trends, especially in sectors affected by supply chain disruptions. Are major suppliers stable? The company needs to carry excess inventory, how does that affect liquidity? These insights are directly linked to contract compliance and broader cash flow forecasts.
Finally, scenario planning for exchange rate movements is essential. Even small variations can have a big impact, and stress-testing those assumptions can help buyers build confidence in their trading model and avoid surprises.
What advice would you give to expert financial experts who play a strategic role in M&A transactions in this current cycle?
He also emphasized the importance of adaptability, in addition to the need to strongly understand operations and ask the “why” behind numbers. Today's trading and business environment is moving more complex and faster than ever. A thriving CFO is someone with curiosity, embracing ambiguity and not afraid to go outside of their comfort zone to solve problems in a comprehensive way. Effective strategic finance leaders also have the decision to ask the right questions and the clarity that guides others through change.
