Corporate Project Management

“If you need someone to manage an M&A process, complex corporate project or dispute then Lee is not only as smart as they come but also possesses the unique combination of common sense with an acute eye for detail.”

— Mark Chatterji, CFO and EVP Mergers & Acquisitions

  • MA&D.

  • New Energy.

  • Due diligence.

  • Disputes.

Corporate projects are those activities that are “peaky” in nature or unanticipated, and therefore difficult to adequately resource. These include new business opportunity assessments, M&A due diligence, and disputes with commercial counterparties and authorities.

Projects of this nature typically require cross-functional participation with centralised coordination to ensure that the appropriate inputs are delivered while minimising disruption to the workforce. Independent single-point project management helps ensure objectivity of outputs and recommendations.

MCA has proven expertise in effectively managing a wide range of corporate projects. To provide just an indication of the broad nature of these, they include:

  • Countless screening assessments of new business, New Energy, and M&A opportunities.

  • Leading dozens of M&A due diligence processes, making recommendations, and executing >$3 billion in deals.

  • Participation in a world-scale Carbon Capture and Storage project, requiring consideration of future potential carbon legislation, carbon prices, treatment of Australian Carbon Credit Units, commercial structuring, and the appropriate allocation of risk between the upstream CO2 source and the downstream CO2 storage venture.

  • Settlement of a legal dispute characterised by a number of interdependent points of contract interpretation, each with different assessed chances of a favourable judgement. This complexity made it difficult to decide what settlement amount (if any) would be preferable to arbitration, on a risked basis. Legal input was able to be transposed into a transparent spreadsheet model, yielding a probabilistic assessment of outcomes and informing a clear settlement decision.

  • Settlement of >$50 million international tax dispute characterised by conflicting advice from external experts requiring astute judgement and risk assessment.

  • Agreement with federal tax authorities on the treatment of LNG under the proposed Resource Super Profit Tax.

  • Convincing a major Credit Rating Agency that their oil and gas assessment methodology was not developed in contemplation of long-life LNG projects, and was therefore not applicable to LNG companies without adjustments.