In 2012, a medium-sized regional energy provider (>2000 employees) was carved out of an energy supply group. External service providers, internal employees and M&A experts of C4 Group were involved in the carve-out with a total volume of approximately €8 million and a project duration of 18 months.
Due diligence, compliance and system consolidation for a regional energy provider
Industry
Energy
Work area
Carve-Out
Year
2012
Project duration
18 months
Employees
about 2000
Challenge
The task of our consultants was essentially to manage the project in terms of three dimensions: Due Dilligence (book value determination of inventory & real estate), IT infrastructure (network and hardware of new buildings) and system respectively application consolidation. There were 8 sites involved in the project.
As power utilities belong to critical infrastructure (CRITIS) it was essential to ensure uninterrupted 24/7 operations and maintenance of supply chains, processes & services at every stage of the project. In addition, our consultants also took responsibility for and managed legal compliance, taking into account Intellectual Property.
Solution approach
The utility company decided to cooperate with us and benefit from our expertise and excellent network due to the outstanding track record of our M&A specialists, especially in the energy sector. In addition to the outlined management consulting activities, carried out by our partner the Apsycon Management Consulting from Zug (Switzerland).
Our consultants were involved in the design of the new IT infrastructure as well as providing support for the consolidation of the systems and the reduction of license fees. It was essential to preserve all functionalities of the existing systems and structures while significantly streamlining the business processes and compressing them to essentials.
In particular, the close cooperation of external and internal participants, as well as the strong intrinsic motivation of our client for progress were the drivers of success of this consolidation project.
Results & Benefits
It was precisely this mentality and the excellent cooperation of all parties involved that contributed to the rapid and demonstrable success of the project. By consolidating applications and streamlining business processes, savings were achieved in license fees & and IT infrastructure, and redundancies were minimized.
The savings amounted to approximately 30-40% of the previous costs and are in the seven-digit range. The number of applications required was reduced by two-thirds. The project had a payback period of approximately 18 months.