One in ten companies in Romania access corporate intelligence services for M&A deals

Approximately 10 per cent of Romanian companies access corporate intelligence services when they are involved in a transaction, whether it is a merger or an acquisition, according to an analysis by risk management company Corporate Intelligence Agency.

Increasingly, in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) processes, the third big step for companies, after hiring financial and legal consulting teams, is to access the services of a corporate & competitive intelligence company. Its objective is to carry out an action of “enhanced” or “in depth” due diligence, ie documenting, in the field, confronts the dry reality of figures and statistical reports with the reality in the field, analyzes business conduct, the company’s reputation in among the partners, the culture of the organization and other elements of interest for the client who turned to his services.

“The intelligence area for companies is a key component in the decision-making process by shareholders or company management. When a corporation decides to invest in new products, services or another company, it does so following studies, market analyzes, economic trends, etc. So, the decision is made on the basis of economic information. Corporate Intelligence Agency delivers to partners that type of information that adds value to the company’s day-to-day operations, regardless of when it is delivered: before new products, services or investments or post-factum, when the company suspects that it is the target of a internal or external aggressions “, says Gabriel Zgunea, CEO of Corporate Intelligence Agency.

Corporate intelligence means, above all, an invaluable help for local investors, foreigners or newcomers, who are not familiar with the market they want to develop, and who want to understand the key components that characterize a concrete market. It is a support market, dedicated exclusively to the business environment, which aims to streamline development processes and maximize risk protection.

The professionalization of the business environment stimulates the corporate intelligence market Becoming a key component for many large companies, the value of the local corporate intelligence market approached 10 million euros last year, amid growing interest in such services, in the context of professionalizing the business environment and awareness that information delivers knowledge and represents a useful and important tool in the decision-making process. In Romania, the clients that mainly use these types of services are multinational companies from the retail, investment, banking, production, pharmaceutical, IT, oil & gas, construction, logistics, insurance, telecom, etc. industries.

“Almost every month we have requests from new business sectors, which confirms the upward trend of the market and stimulates, at the same time, our professionalism and creativity in identifying solutions to support management in the decision-making process,” says Dan Rusu, Senior Partner Corporate Intelligence Agency.

For the industries that generate the most requests, the Corporate Intelligence Agency has created specialized departments within the company, with investigators and analysts who are familiar with the operating patterns of fraudsters and experts who know the elements of interest to customers, due to due diligence projects.

When companies turn to corporate intelligence services In addition to companies interested in enhanced due diligence services, in particular, companies that access corporate intelligence services do so out of a need for knowledge about situations, people or companies of interest, knowledge required in the decision-making process at the company level. Another category of customers is interested in improving risk management and compliance systems, and they face internal fraud or potential internal fraud, which risks endangering their reputation and assets. In the last 3 years, the Romanian corporate intelligence market has seen a much greater openness to foreign investors and to those companies that navigate through complex operational processes, through a multitude of collaborators and competitors.

But it remains far from the mature markets of the West or the Anglo-Saxon space. Here, corporate & competitive intelligence companies have a tradition, some with a history of 20-30 years, others are listed on the stock exchange, have offices open in major financial centers, in London, New York, Zurich, Dubai, etc. Moreover, most of the clients of the profile companies are listed entities, where the brand’s reputation is sometimes worth more than a financial loss.