Andrew Pitt a Director of Moore Stephens Cape Town Inc. wrote a simple email to George Stylianou of Moore Stephens Nicosia on the 3rd October 2016 introducing himself and asking whether MS Nicosia would be interested in taking part in a due diligence project for an acquisition which would potentially take place in Cyprus. Within minutes of receipt George responded positively and an hour later NDA was sent by Andrew to establish confidentiality in place.
After a brief review of the NDA it was signed and scanned back to Andrew in South Africa, who in turn contacted the client to release relevant information, based on which MS Nicosia could form an initial idea of what the target was and some scope as to the approach to the Due Diligence project.
Andrew was also kind enough to send a sample type of the sort of engagement they had with the client, giving MS Nicosia an even better idea on how to approach the particular client. Subsequently, this sharing of previous work done for the client by MS Cape Town with MS Nicosia, helped MS Nicosia give the perception of familiarity with the client, even though MS Nicosia was dealing with them for the first time. All this happened on day one.
Day 4 MS Nicosia was having their first conference call with the client where approach was discussed and introductions with the client were made. It was critical that Andrew Pitt was involved in this call to add the feel of familiarity and for MS Nicosia to understand in more detail the terms of reference.
Having established the requirements, MS Nicosia brought together a specialized team with the relevant experience and highlighted areas of weakness and addressed them with Andrew Pitt of MS Cape Town, who was more than happy to provide his solutions to what was initially thought to be a problem. FCPA report (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) was one example where Andrew’s input was crucial and having gone through the exercise before, Andrew was able to provide guidance and an approach to the issue, which made it very easy to adopt by MS Nicosia.
The project went silent for a period of 6 months or so, after which in April 2017, the client explained the delay was due to discussions with the Sellers and gave instructions to review new terms, based on which the due diligence would commence.
By that time, MS Nicosia had an action plan in place and the reaction times were very short indeed. The client’s team was based all over the world and synchronization was essential, but executed quite successfully.
At this point MS Cape Town offered assistance in procedural matters such as professional indemnity, questions we had raised with them and then stepped back, offering advice if and when needed,
The project was completed successfully, on time and Moore Stephens Nicosia received a very appreciative email by the Client’s team leader:
“Thanks a lot, Marios (Manager in Charge)! Very good work, much appreciated! We have never closed a deal so quickly and your team’s professionalism was a key part of that. (Although I should not speak too early about the closing, it will happen only next week.)” T.S.
Result of this collaboration
- It took trust for MS Cape Town to refer this work to another MS office. The result in itself would support their decision, as their client (with whom they have an on-going relationship) is very happy with the result and now knows what to expect from a Moore Stephens Network firm.
- The MS Cape Town client was treated as a priority for MS Nicosia. The fast reaction time to a request brought favourable results to both MS Nicosia and MS Cape Town.
- MS Nicosia is now morally indebted to MS Cape Town to refer any client interested in doing business in South Africa firstly to them before any other MS firm in the region.
- MS Nicosia trusts the competence of MS Cape Town because they (MS CT) had shared their methodology with MS Nicosia, therefore MS Nicosia had a chance to review, learn and have a positive opinion on the high degree of professionalism in the workings and deliverables of the MS Cape Town work.
- MS Nicosia created more Consultancy fees from this project in line with its strategy to invest in developing its Advisory Services, and has an additional high profile case study to back up its credentials through this project.
Conclusion
It is worth giving the network priority over the local business, simply because the scale of global versus local is not comparable. There are more fees to be made. The opportunity to develop new International client relationships serves not only the Local firm but the Global Brand Internationally.
Sharing work brings the network of all the talented people closer together and thus makes us stronger as a whole, in terms of knowledge and marketability. Internally, collaboration develops trust, enthusiasm, and even more support and pride for the Brand.
In closing, I would like to acknowledge the help and support of Mr. Andrew Pitt without whom, we would not have been able to secure this project, ergo this short success story.
George Stylianou, Managing Partner, Moore Stephens Nicosia in Cyprus