We focus on supportingmaterial joint ventures – and, selectively, complex non-equity alliances and minority operating positions – of large global companies (see Exhibit 2). These ventures come in a wide variety of forms based on specific deal terms and industry context, and include large cross-border JVs, shared utilities and other consortia, large production and refining joint ventures in the energy and basic material industries, etc.
We are especially focused on ventures involving significant operational and decision making interdependencies between the venture and the corporate parents.
In our deal structuring work, we tend to serve CEOs, CFOs, Business Unit Presidents and Heads of Corporate Development and M & A.
In our JV governance and management work, we generally serve the Boards and CEOs of large joint ventures. In some cases, we have served one parent company, but generally serve the venture as a whole, with either the JV CEO or the parents (as a group) as our client
Prior to starting Water Street Partners, our founders were involved in more than 400 joint venture and alliance structuring and restructuring situations over the previous 20-plus years at McKinsey & Company. We have personally served 7 of the 15 largest JVs in the world. Summary of our experience across key industries include:
Energy and basic materials
- Served 3 of the largest 4 integrated oil companies on structuring and restructuring their upstream and downstream ventures
- Served 4 of the largest national oil companies, including work on building corporate-wide deal-making and management capabilities and improving skills transfer through joint ventures
- Served multiple utilities, including some of the largest US utilities
Other industrial
- Served 23 of the top 50 US industrial companies, and 10 of the top 25 largest European companies
Consumer goods
- Experience on 20+ transactions with some of the largest food & beverage, health & beauty and retailing companies, especially with ventures in key emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia
Transportation and travel
- Served several multipartner alliances and joint ventures in passenger airlines, cargo, rail and package delivery
Financial Services
- Served on several cross-border asset management JVs, and financial service shared utilities and consortia in payments and securities clearing / settlement, both in US and Europe
Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare
- Served 10+ top US, Japanese and European companies on structuring novel research and marketing transactions / investments, as well as improving performance of large co-promotes
- Served 3 major US pharma companies on building alliance management and/or business development capabilities
Family-Owned Businesses
- Served large family-owned companies in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, India and Korea on individual transactions and governance across their JV and alliance portfolio
Examples of recent Water Street Partners individual clients include:
- Financial services: Transaction structuring support for merger of two shared utilities, creating a multi-tiered ownership and affiliation entity among 100+ banks
- High tech: Transaction support and facilitation of negotiations for multi-billion-dollar three-way cross-border consolidation joint venture
- Basic Materials: Health and Performance Audit of a multi-billion dollar joint venture on behalf of the shareholders and JV management team
Examples of individual client situations of our founders prior to starting Water Street Partners include:
- Deal Structuring
- Structuring a new joint venture between two global energy companies to commercialize a radical alternative fuels technology
- Assessing the synergies and structuring the governance and operating model in a10-partner financial service industry alliance – a venture that combined different local/national players to reduce costs and improve customer penetration via greater cross-selling, shared back-office, etc.
- Supporting a major US retailer develop a China deal strategy, assess potential partners, different deal structure configurations (including legal arrangements, what to put in the venture versus retain in the parent)
- Governance and Deal Management
- Restructuring the governance
- including commercial agreements, board processes and structures, management incentives, and organizational structure – of a multi-billion dollar oil and gas industry joint venture
- Helping an international partner exit a multi-billion dollar joint venture in the US, including evaluating options to buy-out /carve-off parts of the business with the other partner
- Restructuring the governance of a multipartner global transportation industry venture to increase operating efficiency, and enable the partners to capture a greater share of available synergies
- Corporate-level Capabilities
- Designing the business development and licensing organization at a global high-tech firm to address an anticipated 5-fold increase in deal flow
