Any experience with Financial DD interviews?

Merger and acquisition (M&A) cases are fairly common in consulting case interviews, especially for candidates targeting consulting firms with a focus on strategy, corporate finance, or mergers and acquisitions. While they may not make up the majority of cases, they are frequently included to assess your ability to think strategically, analyze financial data, and understand the implications of complex business decisions.M&A cases are particularly relevant for consulting roles that involve advising clients on growth strategies, restructuring, or corporate development. Overall, while not every case interview will feature an M&A scenario,we recommend you to be prepared to tackle them effectively as part of your case interview preparation. What Are M&A Cases?In an M&A case you are typically tasked with assessing the feasibility and implications of potential mergers, acquisitions, or divestitures for a client or company. This often involves analyzing market dynamics, financial statements, competitive landscapes, and strategic synergies to provide recommendations on whether to proceed with a deal and how to optimize its value. Success in M&A cases requires a holistic understanding of business strategy, financial analysis, and industry trends, coupled with strong communication and problem-solving skills.Moreover, many growth strategy case studies eventually lead to M&A questions. For instance, companies with excess funds, searching for ways to grow quickly might be interested in acquiring upstream or downstream suppliers (vertical integration), direct competitors (horizontal integration), complementary businesses, or even unrelated businesses to diversify their portfolio. The most important requirement for an M&A is that it must increase the shareholders' value, and it must have a cultural fit even when the decision financially makes sense.An example prompt for a typical M&A case would be the following:"Your client is a mid-sized retail chain considering acquiring a smaller competitor in the same market. They believe this acquisition could expand their market reach and increase profitability. Your task is to evaluate the strategic rationale behind the acquisition, assess the financial implications, and provide recommendations on whether the client should proceed with the deal. What factors would you consider in making your recommendation?" How Can You Approach an M&A Case – Key Areas to AnalyzeFirst of all, there is no standard approach or pre-thought out framework you can use for all M&A cases (or cases in general). It is absolutely crucial that you understand the unique situation of your client and develop a customized solution for the task you were assigned.To help you with your preparation, we have summarized key areas to analyze in an M&A case. However, it is very unlikely that you will be asked to cover all of them. It is simply too much for a 30-40 minute case interview, so usually the interviewer will put the focus on one or two aspects of the analysis and guide you to dive deeper.It is also possible that your M&A case does not resolve the question if a deal should be aimed for or not, but rather focuses on issues in the post merger integration process. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial that you listen carefully during the case prompt, reassure yourself that you understand the problem and objective of the client correctly and adjust your approach accordingly.

As private equity has exploded over the last 40 years, so has commercial due diligence. Commercial due diligence (CDD) has been a growing area of strategy consulting for some time, although the level of focus on this type of work varies heavily by the firm. Bain & Co for example has a much larger presence when it comes to working with the largest private equity firms compared to rival BCG.