CHALLENGE

A European holding company and a US investment fund were to execute the sale of a listed company for around 150 million euros. The complexity of the assignment lay not only in how to approach external communications –where the focus had to be on the acquisition rather than the divestment– but also in identifying, defining, and monitoring national and international government and business players with the capacity to obstruct the deal.

Furthermore, the acquisition required integrating more than one hundred employees from the listed company into the buyer’s structure. This carried the added risk that any complaint filed by the employees could lead to the transaction being halted or suspended.

PROPOSAL

A comprehensive audit was conducted among all stakeholders. The analysis resulted in a map of key players – public and private –with the capacity to influence the transaction either positively or negatively.

The Queen designed reputational objectives, messages associated with each audience, and a timeline of actions designed to directly or indirectly impact every stakeholder. At the same time, an institutional relations plan was launched to discreetly and privately contextualize the transaction before its execution with government representatives—two different governments—together with media and social stakeholders.

Employee profiles of the new staff who would join the new company after the transaction were analyzed. An internal communication campaign was designed and segmented by employee type, including assessment of their likelihood of accessing the press and potentially leaking information. In parallel, an external communication campaign was implemented.

RESULT

The transaction was completed with the support of government, institutional, and social stakeholders, an outcome made possible by prior contextualization efforts. In the media, the narrative activated in the public sphere focused not only on the acquisition of a listed company, which was the priority objective, but also on enhancing the visibility and reputation of the companies involved in the purchase.

Internally, a positive interpretative framework was established among new executives, with none filing official complaints and the number of information leaks was kept to zero. The parallel communication campaign carried out after the announcement of the purchase resulted in media coverage with an estimated value exceeding 80.000 euros.