Joint Venture Consulting and Advisory

Seven Reporting Practices of Highly-Effective Joint Venture CEOs

BEING A JV CEO can be one of most rewarding jobs you’ll find. JV CEOs run companies built around the unique capabilities of their owners, which, when harnessed correctly, allow them to quickly pursue new products, new markets, or new or new customer segments/channels. However, few JV CEOs find their jobs to be ...

Contemplating the Inevitable: Structuring Exit Terms in JVs

DEALMAKERS LOVE using simple analogies to explain complex transactions. A favorite we hear is that joint ventures are like marriages. True, a strong marriage has shared decision- making and a common bank account (though we suspect modern marriages lack service agreements). But where this analogy falls flat is ...

Voting Rights and Delegations: Unless Otherwise Agreed...

PSST. WANNA KNOW a seemingly innocuous joint venture deal term that packs a mighty punch? Consider this clause:

Unless otherwise and expressly agreed in a provision of this Agreement, or as otherwise required by applicable law, all decisions and actions shall require Majority Approval of the Shareholders.

...

Gender Diversity on JV Boards: Where Are All the Women?

ONE HUNDRED YEARS ago this month, women received the right to vote in the U.K. – a major milestone in the fight for gender equality. In Saudi Arabia later this year, women will be allowed to drive for the first time. And on corporate boards and executive management teams, women are making slow but steady ...

Supplier Alliances: Using Contractual Terms to Increase Reliability

COMPANIES AS DIVERSE as Apple, Boeing, LyondellBasell, and Tesla depend on suppliers for inputs critical to their business (Exhibit 1). Suppliers might possess technological, locational, or infrastructural advantages that make them irreplaceable in the short-term. As such, even temporary disruptions in supply ...

Operationalizing Joint Venture Governance

JOINT VENTURE governance is fractionally defined at deal conception – and rarely recovers from this state of incompleteness. Our research and client work has consistently shown that poor governance is a major cause of JV underperformance, and that JVs with weak governance policies and practices have materially ...

Raising the Bar on Non-Operated Joint Venture Influencing

HOW DO YOU GET senior executives from five of the six largest international oil companies, a slate of mid-tier independent producers, a handful of the world’s largest chemical companies, and one of the world’s largest mining companies – representing a portfolio of over 1,000 non-controlled JVs – into a room ...

Director Assessments – Common Sense but Not Common Practice

CORPORATE governance has been in the spotlight. Boards have been busy addressing issues related to executive compensation, cyber threats, enterprise risk management, and in general, seeking to keep the raiders and activists at bay through diligent work. As they do this important work, virtually all corporate ...

Managing Competitively Sensitive Information in Joint Ventures

FEW, IF ANY, COMPANIES enter into joint ventures with the explicit purpose of infringing on anti-competition laws. But even while the parties may not intend to fix prices, divide up markets, limit production, or engage in other collusive behavior, joint ventures nonetheless present an environment rich in ...

Water Street Partners advises clients on transactions and governance. Our transaction work specializes in joint ventures and other non-M&A partnerships, both in new deal formation and restructuring. On governance, we advise clients on corporate and joint venture governance, working with corporate and joint venture boards, management teams, and individual shareholders. We support clients around the world and across industries.

Infographic of the Month:
Three major findings from our analysis of JV lifespans and terminations, each of which has important implications for dealmakers and executives charged with governing JVs.