Cross-border acquisitions: what starts after the deal team leaves

This blog is written in collaboration with Branka Dessens from Atlantic M&A – she works with buyers on the business side of integration, and I work with the target’s finance team on the reporting side. We wrote an article together on where those two workstreams meet.

The deal closes. The transaction team moves on. And the people running the business are left with the real question:

Now what?

This is where many cross-border acquisitions become harder than expected. The buyer has acquired the business. But the business still has to become part of the group. Processes need to change. Systems need to connect. Decisions need new owners. And finance has to do the same thing with the numbers.

The target may have been built around local GAAP, local statutory reporting and annual deadlines. Suddenly, it needs to report monthly to a US parent, under US GAAP and group accounting policies.

The deal is done. The integration has just begun. Making the business work

The first 100 days are critical. Not because everything needs to change immediately, but because someone needs to establish what changes, who owns it and in what order. During diligence, integration plans often sound straightforward:

Align processes.
Connect systems.
Establish reporting.
Bring the teams together.

The difficult questions come afterwards:

Who makes the decisions?
What stays local?
What moves to the parent?
What has to happen first?
And who has the capacity to do it?

This becomes even more important in a cross-border acquisition. A US buyer acquiring a European business may encounter different regulatory requirements, management structures, working practices and expectations around local autonomy. None of these is necessarily a problem. But they need to be understood before they become problems. And there is one constraint that is easy to underestimate:

The people who know the target best are usually already busy running it. They are now expected to operate the business and integrate it at the same time.

Then finance gets its first deadline. Finance faces the same capacity problem, often immediately. Before the acquisition, the target finance team may have been doing exactly what it was designed to do: local statutory reporting, local GAAP and local management reporting. After closing, the requirements can change overnight.

Now the team may need to deliver:

monthly group reporting
US GAAP adjustments
group accounting policies
a new chart of accounts
an accelerated close
audit support
an opening balance sheet

This is not simply a matter of mapping one set of accounts to another. The finance function has to change how it operates. And acquisition accounting cannot simply be left until later. Opening balances, purchase accounting and accounting policy decisions can affect the numbers the parent needs from the very first reporting cycle. So reporting conversion is not a one-off spreadsheet exercise. It is a new reporting process.

The hidden issue: capacity

This is where integration and reporting come together. The same people who understand the target’s systems, processes and history are often needed for both. The integration team needs them. Group finance needs them. The auditors need them. And they still have a day job. That is why post-close work can quickly fall behind — even when everyone understands what needs to be done. The problem isn’t always complexity. Sometimes it is simply too much work, too few people and unclear priorities.

Four questions to ask before signing. You don’t need every answer before the deal closes. But you should know enough to understand what Day 1 will demand.

1. Who owns integration after the deal team leaves?

2. What decisions need to be made in the first 100 days?

3. What does the target need to change to meet the parent’s reporting requirements?

4. Do we have the people and capacity to do both?

Because closing the deal is a milestone. It is not the finish line.

The best time to understand the work after closing is before signing.