1. Embrace technology.
The M&A process has traditionally involved mountains of paperwork, a lot of travel and lengthy face-to-face meetings. But the pandemic has disrupted the status quo, forcing dealmakers to shift activities to virtual environments. Broadridge’s deep expertise in capital markets and next-generation technologies has enabled us to pivot easily, to support our customers in challenging times.
While virtual data rooms have been around for years, we understand that data breaches and privacy are primary concerns when teams are reviewing confidential materials. That’s why we partnered with the world’s leading virtual data room, Intralinks, to bring you unsurpassed security that matches our commitment to privacy. With Intralinks your teams don’t need to compromise on security, because your VDR is part of a package price.
Shareholder meetings have become an unprecedented challenge during COVID. This fact has accelerated adoption of virtual meeting technology that offers benefits far beyond social distancing. When it’s time for shareholders to vote, hosting a virtual meeting online can increase engagement, simplify logistics, reduce costs and even reduce your carbon footprint. Our industry-leading platform is flexible, fully compliant with state laws and provides a convenient experience that shareholders appreciate.
Going virtual may seem as easy as a Zoom meeting, but the devil is in the details. How do you facilitate a vote? How do you provide access to your shareholder list without exposing PII? At Broadridge, we do all the heavy lifting. Our multi-disciplinary team combines technology expertise with deep experience in all aspects of the virtual meeting. It’s their mission to assist you across every stage of the process, from initial planning to completion.
2. Streamline operational workflows.
In today’s highly competitive environment, it’s more important than ever to get to market fast. During the document composition phase, Broadridge digitizes and streamlines disclosure management from initial typesetting and revision cycles to SEC filing and investor distribution—so you can be ready to file documents accurately and on time.
Our proprietary technology automates time consuming, error-prone manual processes to enable greater accuracy and faster turnarounds. Instead of waiting the standard 12-hour turnaround time, you get documents back when you need them, with no rush charges. Routine tasks are completed in seconds with the click of a mouse. Superior blacklining capabilities, automatic repagination and instant table of contents updates create faster, more efficient editing cycles. Reviewers only receive the pages that have been changed, trimming time from the review cycle. Finished documents can be printed or output digitally for filing with the SEC and distribution to shareholders. Our EDGAR teams are experienced in helping with your inline XBRL tagging so that your filings will be accepted the first time.
In addition to speed and convenience, our advanced technology also makes it possible to dramatically reduce your costs. Because we’ve automated so much of the document composition process, we’re able to pass the savings on to you. It’s not unusual for clients to see their expenses cut by as much as 50 percent.
Printing and postage costs offer more opportunities to capture significant savings. Because we print and mail your document, we can optimize your books to dramatically reduce postage expense– sometimes saving hundreds of thousands. Our teams are experienced in working with our on-site USPS to maximize your postage savings. And because we work closely with brokers to handle distribution to beneficial shareholders, we can more accurately estimate print quantities, eliminating costly overruns and reprints.
3. Simplify supply chain management.
Dealing with multiple vendors can be a hassle and increase opportunities for error. Coordinating timelines, scheduling meetings and tracking deliverables takes up a lot of time and attention. Problems or delays with one vendor can create difficulties further down the line.
That all changes when everyone is on the same team. Working with Broadridge gives you the advantage of a single, reliable source for all of your needs. Our holistic, end-to-end approach maximizes your productivity and ensures peace of mind. Should you ever have questions or need help with an unexpected development, our experts are just a phone call away.
4. Lighten your workload — so you can focus on the deal.
It’s our job to make your job easier, so we give you the option of working with familiar tools that let you work the way you want. Why struggle editing PDF documents – or worse, marking up printed pages and scanning them – when you could be making changes effortlessly in Microsoft Word? Our proprietary technology outputs your SEC disclosures into a Word document at the end of every revision cycle so you can stay in control of the drafting process for as long as you like. Our technology ingests your changes back into our publishing systems to provide you peace of mind that all of your changes have been accurately captured and tracked.
When you work with Broadridge you are free to choose the level of service that best fits your needs. With our flexible service model, you can outsource portions of the work, let us handle everything from start to finish, or choose a self-service option. No matter which option you choose, you have a single point of contact to answer all questions and resolve any issues. Your dedicated account representative is available 24/7.
At the end of a project, you need to focus on moving the deal forward. You shouldn’t have to waste time reconciling invoices. That’s why we keep our billing simple and transparent. We don’t charge extra for routine tasks like blacklining or email distribution. And even with tight deadlines, you’ll never see a rush charge.
Partner with a leader.
Once your deal is completed, Broadridge is ready to support your continued success with technology and services that span the entire corporate lifecycle, including transfer agent services, quarterly/annual filings, proxy, virtual shareholder meetings, shareholder communications, ESG reporting and more. As a global Fintech leader with over $4.5 billion in revenues, we offer solutions that make it easier to enrich shareholder engagement, navigate risk, optimize efficiency and generate revenue growth.
1 Deal Watch: Global M&A Hits $1.3 Trillion in Q1, Making the Biggest Opening Quarter Ever
https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2021/04/05/deal-watch-global-ma-hits-1-3-trillion-in-q1-making-the-biggest-opening-quarter-ever/