Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions

Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions

You just closed a good deal, acquired a company or some real estate... Are you sure you can really sleep peacefully? not sure! Often, the advisability of a transaction may turn out to be much lower than the face estimate, if you forgot to check what activities occurred on the piece of ground before you that may have caused potential contamination or pollution of the land or the groundwater. If that actually happened and you might have "fallen asleep in watch" - and neglected the examination of the environmental performance of that company, you may be in for a nasty surprise. 

But examining the ground pollution history is not enough. Buying a functional and earning company is no guarantee that the company did meet all the requirements of environmental law. Without prior inspection of the gaps (gap analysis) between the environmental performance of the company and the legal requirements, you may find a list of detailed instructions administered to the already purchased company, requiring it to install high-cost equipment to reduce emissions or treat pollutions (such as installing air filters for the prevention of air pollution, compliance with strict sewage treatment, etc.). Quickly closing a deal, without checking the hidden liabilities of the enterprise, can turn a successful deal into a real problem. 

We have the knowledge and experience to assist you to ask the right questions and perform due legal diligence (full disclosure) and define the scope of environmental liability you may expect. In this matter, the expertise and the professionalism are essential issues - without recognition in depth of environmental and safety law subtleties, it is very difficult and next to impossible to quantify in advance the costs of major acquisition deals in view of environment sustainability. Furthermore, we can help you manage the sensitive negotiations by suggesting possible mechanisms for the division of environmental responsibility, dealing with changes in the scope of liability following the new discoveries and in resolving disputes.