Redefining an Industry – Project Management Solutions in Entity Portfolio Management

Over the last decade, the team at Mercator have been at the forefront of modernising Entity Portfolio Management (EPM) and establishing it as a discipline in its own right.

Building on the expertise and knowledge gathered through Citco’s longstanding global subsidiary governance services, we have pioneered tools that give our clients a future-proof way to manage their portfolio of entities, reducing the inefficiencies, complexities, and difficulties that have pervaded this industry for too long. Many of these inefficiencies have only become more pronounced through the disruptive effects of the pandemic, while an increasingly fragmented, complex regulatory environment ensures that there is more need for data-driven, cutting-edge Entity Portfolio Management specialists than ever before.

The provision of market-leading tools is the cornerstone of our offering, and by continually utilizing the data and insight we generate to further adapt to our clients’ needs, we are able to create agile and lasting partnerships with our clients. A month on from the launch of Mercator, we wanted to expand on the five pillars of our service offering in a new series of articles- beginning with our specialized project management solutions.

Pillar 1: Project Management Solutions

In EPM, large-scale, multi-jurisdictional projects often present logistical challenges, generating inefficiencies and unforeseen complexities. Through offering specialized tools for planning and management, Mercator provides solutions for monitoring and reporting progress, consultation regarding project scope and requirements, co-ordinating with internal and external stakeholders, and finally, project execution.

These tools and solutions have been specifically designed and are based on our team’s experience tackling, and solving, these challenges. Having worked closely with multinationals for over a decade, we have a proven track record executing diverse projects – group-wide restructuring, post-acquisition integration, corporate governance due-diligence, and change management. Typically, we take a proactive role during the planning stage, providing tailored input, feedback, and expertise. Our research shows that projects go most smoothly and are most cost-efficient when consistently managed from inception to delivery, linking the often siloed legal, governance, and human resources departments to avoid inefficiency.

Our process begins by working with the client to clearly identify the corporate change that needs to be made. At this stage, we also discuss and communicate with the key stakeholders who should be involved in the planning- tax and finance advisors, HR, legal teams, and others. Once stakeholders have been mapped, we ensure that progress can be reported smoothly, and logistical and communicative inefficiencies are minimized.

We know this process works, including for a recent project involving the ambitious rebranding of a group comprised of over 200 companies. The timing here was crucial for managing widespread change, so we had to ensure that all entities would incorporate the new name just in time for the official announcement. When dealing with multinationals at this scale, such co-ordination is challenging. Each locality can have its own requirements, timelines, and legalities regarding renaming. In the UK, this can be as simple as a same-day registration following resolution, whereas in Mexico the process can take weeks and documents must be signed in front of a notary. And, even once approval is granted, further complications arise where certain regions require additional registrations to use the new name.

Finally, the hierarchies and ownership chains of multinationals add further complexity, as this has bearing on the order of operations for name changes. In this instance, a seemingly straightforward renaming project required extensive co-ordination of these different processes and timelines- ensuring a globally united rebranding on Day 1.

This case study illustrates a general pattern- planning time and complexity is a function of the number of entities and different countries in which the change must take place. In a heavily globalised and conglomerated business environment this means that the need for the services and expertise of dedicated EPM providers will only grow.

This is just one example amongst countless others. Each project brings its own complexities and subtleties, and the expertise gathered in their execution informs our entire service. If you are interested in learning more about how we create lasting partnerships with our clients to help them navigate this challenging environment, please reach out to our client service team.

Daiva Dudenaite
Senior Legal Team Manager, Mercator by Citco, Citco Mercator, UAB