Corporate Secretary’s ‘Corporate transactions and the board: Governance across M&A’ report presents the findings from exclusive research that provide important insights into, among other things, which elements of the board oversee M&A strategy, discussions with investors, boards’ thinking on risk, the time devoted to due diligence, ESG considerations in target selection and the briefings boards receive. The findings in this report are based on an online survey conducted among governance professionals such as general counsel, corporate secretaries and their teams between December 2022 and March 2023.
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Key findings include:
- More than three quarters (77 percent) of all respondents say their main board has primary oversight of M&A strategy
- Forty-four percent of respondents in Europe report investors asking questions about a company’s M&A strategy frequently or always, compared with 21 percent of those in North America
- Overall, 21 percent of respondents say their board has become slightly or much more risk-averse over the past 12 months, while 15 percent say their board has become slightly or much less risk-averse
- Half of respondents say their board considers ESG factors as part of its M&A strategy and target selection, while around a third (34 percent) say their board does not
- A quarter of respondents say the length of time spent on due diligence for M&A deals their company has been involved in has increased over the past 12 months.
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