Successful financial management requires tools that maximize and measure profitability. ACG’s experienced staff has conducted portfolio valuations and brokered deals ranging from several million to several billion dollars in assets. Our valuations have proven to be extremely accurate—our intimate market knowledge and industry experience have resulted in the best possible outcomes whether our clients buy or sell portfolios. Annual benchmarking studies on financial management, and reviews of funding strategies, securitization implications and accounting policies round out this practice.

Examples of ACG Financial Strategies projects include the following:

• ACG assisted a private-equity company in determining whether or not to invest in a financial services entity and at what price. The client possessed quantitative sophistication but lacked specific-market knowledge. We participated in the due diligence process, identified risks and opportunities, provided guidance on both qualitative and quantitative valuation assumptions, and assisted in the final investment recommendation.
  
  
• ACG was engaged by the head of mergers and acquisitions for a Fortune 500 company to assist in the sale of a multibillion-dollar credit card portfolio. We worked in lockstep with the client’s own M&A team, investment bankers, and internal and external lawyers. Our role included assistance with deal strategy development, memoranda drafting, initial valuation, buyer prospect list construction, prospect response reviews, due diligence preparation and contract negotiation. The final deal exceeded the client’s expectations by a wide margin.
  
  
• Our client owned both a specialty card issuing bank and a marketing organization that supplied customers to the bank. Regulators questioned the fees being paid between the entities. ACG reviewed the economics of each, as well as the competitive framework and the fairness of the deal negotiated between the business units. We ultimately helped convince regulators that the arrangements were fair, which alleviated auditor pressure on the bank.
  
  
• The UK division of a leading multinational card issuer had been unsuccessful in bidding on several asset acquisitions. Our assignment was to review and improve the issuer’s internal valuation models. ACG began by running a live valuation exercise through both ACG’s and the client’s models. We identified gaps in the client’s tool as well as its assumption development process. As a result of the improvement to its model, the client was invited to the short list for an attractive acquisition opportunity.
  
  
• ACG was engaged by a mid-sized retailer that wanted to contest its new auditing firm’s accounting approach to a particular issue. The client sought a fair market value assessment of its co-branded credit card program to persuade the auditor against its recommendation, which would have had a strong negative effect on reported earnings. ACG drafted a favorable position paper, defending the client’s fair market value, and describing the similarities between the retailer’s program and other credit card programs. Our client appreciated the speed and depth of the output document, delivered prior to its quarterly closing.