Until an investment banking M&A transaction is publicly announced, investment bankers should always use an M&A project name in place of the actual company name. It helps maintain the confidentiality of the transaction and prevents any material nonpublic information from being disclosed to members of the public before it’s properly disseminated to everyone.
It is recommended that an M&A project name be picked using a random project name generator.
Why Use M&A Project Names?
Upon undertaking any new assignment, code names should be used for:
The name of the project or transaction;
The name of the client; and
Any proposed business combination partner or counterparty
An M&A project name should be used in place of actual company names as much as possible, even during communications among members of the Investment Banking team and with members of Legal or Compliance, as well as in any expense reports and any other oral or written communications.
Different parties interested in the same potential M&A candidate may not necessarily use the same M&A project name. For example, if two investors are looking at a potential target company to acquire and are working with an investment bank, each of the investors may have a different code name for the project that they use with the bank.
Random Name Generator
Investment banking code names should be selected randomly and bear no relationship to the name of any company or industry that would permit a clever third party to see through the code name and identify the parties involved. An M&A project name should be arbitrary and exclusive.
Some companies, such as Goldman Sachs, are now using using random, software-generated code names to remove the risk of using names that hint at the name of a company. Read more about Goldman Sachs project names here -> https://www.wsj.com/code-names-for-deals.
Additional Resources
Thank you for reading this CFI guide to an investment banking M&A transaction.
To keep learning and advancing your career, these additional CFI resources will be a big help:
CFI is a global provider of financial modeling courses and of the FMVA Certification. CFI’s mission is to help all professionals improve their technical skills. If you are a student or looking for a career change, the CFI website has many free resources to help you jumpstart your Career in Finance. If you are seeking to improve your technical skills, check out some of our most popular courses. Below are some additional resources for you to further explore:
CFI is a global provider of financial modeling courses and of the FMVA Certification. CFI’s mission is to help all professionals improve their technical skills. If you are a student or looking for a career change, the CFI website has many free resources to help you jumpstart your Career in Finance. If you are seeking to improve your technical skills, check out some of our most popular courses. Below are some additional resources for you to further explore:
Below is a break down of subject weightings in the FMVA® financial analyst program. As you can see there is a heavy focus on financial modeling, finance, Excel, business valuation, budgeting/forecasting, PowerPoint presentations, accounting and business strategy.
A well rounded financial analyst possesses all of the above skills!
Additional Questions & Answers
CFI is the global institution behind the financial modeling and valuation analyst FMVA® Designation. CFI is on a mission to enable anyone to be a great financial analyst and have a great career path. In order to help you advance your career, CFI has compiled many resources to assist you along the path.
In order to become a great financial analyst, here are some more questions and answers for you to discover:
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