A ₤130 million French company specialized in agro-food processing equipment. The company had growth through acquisitions in Europe and was looking to make its first U.S. acquisition, a Kansas City-based contracting company. The French company had no previous experience in the United States. Their investment banker referred them to RSM's France practice leader, Remi Forgeas, for due diligence and other transaction services advice.
RSM maintains multiple foreign practices and desks to assist companies from both the U.S. and abroad meet their global growth goals. The desks are staffed by professionals who speak the local language and have experience working in the international environment to provide real-time answers and host-country perspectives on regulatory, tax, business, and other issues on both inbound and outbound projects.
Company goals
Because the client had no previous experience in the United States, understanding the U.S. business environment, ensuring effective due diligence of the target, and gaining comfort on deal structuring and other issues was vital.
RSM US was engaged to provide assistance on financial and tax due diligence matters, and other assistance the client needed to successfully complete the transaction.
RSM's role
When dealing with international companies entering the U.S. traditional financial and tax due diligence must be tailored to eliminate client concerns about myriad cultural, tax, and regulatory differences of working in a new market so that they can focus on the strategic aspects of the deal. Because RSM assembled a bilingual team with deep experience working in both the United States and France, we were able to bridge the language and cultural gaps and tailor the scope of work to the client's needs. At the end of fieldwork, and during a 10-hours meeting in RSM's New York office, our internationally-focused team delivered complete due diligence findings and also discussed tax and deal structuring issues to help the client achieve the desired results.
Client benefits
The client was able to overcome the challenges of making their first deal in the U.S. Coordination by the RSM France practice allowed them to focus on their international growth strategy and to close the deal with better terms than they had originally negotiated thus establishing their desired foothold in the U.S. Because of the responsive and effective services provided by RSM and its country practice, the client retained RSM to conduct the audit of its new U.S. operations.
