We worked with a private equity firm to purchase a pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for a potential carve-out acquisition. The target had had several thousand employees and two global manufacturing plants which required a complex technology roadmap if the transition was to succeed.
The AlixPartners due diligence team included industry experts from our Healthcare & Life Sciences practice, as well as functional experts in finance, HR, tech transaction advisory, cybersecurity, and quality and regulatory practices. They created a technology roadmap, including core systems selection, portfolio rationalization, and cybersecurity capabilities. They also developed the IT organization model and transition service agreement, and estimated the run rate and one-time costs for the technology roadmap.
Long-term success for the buyer depended on day 1 alignment between all stakeholders and systems, and on support for the buyer on exit plans. The day 1 close went smoothly, with clear communication and expectations management of both buyer sponsors and seller, and decision-making authority established between the buyers and the company's new leadership team.
Post close, we were engaged to provide key roles across all business functions, notably IT, to support:
- enterprise resource planning
- infrastructure and operations management
- transition service agreement management
We used a “top-down” and “bottoms-up” approach to developing standalone and one-time cost estimates. This process included working directly with potential vendors, and was tempered by AlixPartners’ experience, and practical assumptions to develop cost estimates. The result was very accurate standalone and one-time cost estimates.
