Risk, Reward, and Responsibility in Mergers & Acquisitions

Today on the podcast, you’ll hear from EHS experts in Asia, Europe, North America and New Zealand discuss financial markets and mergers and acquisitions. We hear from Matt Bell, M&A Practice Lead at Antea Group USA, Eeda Wallbank, Sector Leader at ESC Singapore and Graham Duffield, Practice Director - Transactions Support at Antea Group UK. The group discusses the importance and impact of EHS and ESG considerations in business deals. You’ll also hear comments from Lean Phuah, Discipline Director Environmental at Tonkin + Taylor New Zealand, who is Inogen Alliance’s Mergers and Acquisitions Working Group Lead.

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Guest Quotes

"How is environmental and social risk identified and managed? How is pollution control managed? Labor rights for staff working on the sites? And then, looking at the larger area, biodiversity, cultural heritage, indigenous peoples? So, for me, it's a two step screening process, local regulatory environment, and then the global standards that we're comparing to for this particular investment or acquisition, and that can change depending on who the stakeholders are.” - Eeda

“It absolutely requires the full spectrum of due diligence items that aren't driven by the regulators here in the US, they're driven by customer demands, right? So that's one of them. What we're seeing here in the US is they're only doing what they need to meet anticipated regulations coming down the road, like the SEC rulings and that sort of thing.” - Matt

“The emergence of ESG, through regulation, et cetera, has become a much bigger part of our M&A approach. I think the complexity is at the minute or the challenge really, is that the legislation and the interpretation of that is very complex and also that the legislation is changing. So the challenge is for not only us as advisors to keep on top of those changes, but for our clients to do the same as well.” - Graham

“Every M&A transaction in the corporate finance and investment world comes with some potential risks. It not only encompasses business-related or financial risks, but areas like environmental and health and safety. As M&A environmental practitioners, we have seen the focus shifted considerably towards a multidisciplinary approach involving topics such as social human rights, and governance. More and more companies are recognizing the value of doing the right thing and being responsible, good corporate citizens, not only complying with regulations.” - Lean

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Time Stamps

(00:00) EHS Implications in solar projects

(04:09) Drivers of current trends in financial deals

(10:07) Key challenges in environmental due diligence

(31:56) Potential impacts of upcoming elections

(40:56) The future of EHS

(44:08) Key takeaways from Lean

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Sponsor copy

Rethinking EHS is brought to you by the Inogen Alliance. Inogen Alliance is a global network of environment, health, safety, sustainability and ESG consulting companies working together to provide one point of contact to guide multinational organizations to meet their global commitments locally. Visit http://www.inogenalliance.com/ to learn more.

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Links

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