Joint Venture Consulting and Advisory

Maintaining Alignment in Your Joint Venture: A Full Contact Sport

WHEN A JOINT VENTURE IS FORMED, the strategy, scope, governance, and underlying deal logic can feel overwhelmingly clear. But fast forward a few months or years, and partner differences are likely to emerge. Not necessarily irreconcilable differences about deal rationale, venture economics, or competitive ...

Getting a Grip on Your Joint Venture Committees

IN A PREVIOUS INSIGHT we outlined where Joint Venture Committees go bad. Here we will show how Joint Venture Boards and CEOs must actively manage such groups to ensure they contribute to – rather than undermine – venture performance. JV Boards have a lot to do – and actively managing non-Board committees ...

Are You Tough Enough to Manage Your Committee?

THAT QUESTION MIGHT sound ridiculous. Committees are not known to strike fear into great leaders. Nor are they known for their speed, decisiveness, or command of real power and resources.And that is precisely the problem in joint ventures. Sketch out the governance and organizational structure of a joint ...

6 Critical Elements to Getting Your Shareholders Aligned on Growth

IT’S A LESSON COWBOYS LEARNED a long time ago: If you don’t want a group of horses to escape, don’t tie them to a tree – simply tie them to each other and they’re incapable of collectively making progress in any direction. So it seems with joint ventures, especially consortia, shared utilities and other ...

Mapping a Joint Venture Value Chain Before It’s Too Late

THE DESIGN AND SUCCESS of many joint ventures is based on the ongoing flow of expertise, technology, services, market relationships, and other contributions from the parent companies. These flows may be provided under formal fee-for-service or other commercial agreements, or on a non-commercial basis as part ...

Royalty Payments in Joint Ventures – Explaining Low Rates and Unconventional Structures

IN STANDARD-FORM royalty arrangements, the intellectual property owner is typically compensated through a set percentage of gross revenue, net sales, gross sales receipts, or some other base metric. But when such licensing happens within a joint venture, with one of the shareholders licensing technology or ...

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 Your Joint Venture Exit Strategy: 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.

...

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.

Slideware of the Month:
Emerging trends and findings from our new JV employee engagement survey.