Compliance Risk Management: A Game-changing Strategy in Mergers & Acquisitions

Isabelle Rust, Head of Third Party Compliance Management, Airbus Defence and Space, Airbus, Germany

In a context where companies are facing increasingly complex regulatory requirements, more stringent legal enforcement restrictions and NGO activism (including ethical and environmental), the compliance part of the M&A due diligence is entering into the spotlight. Compliance has turned from a regular risk, more or less scrutinized before deal signature, into a game-changing parameter that can cause a deal breaker or substantively shrink its efficiencies in the post-merger integration (PMI) phase. Over the last 3 years, several enforcement agencies have issued ’soft law