Korn Consult M&A Deal: Automotive Technology Acquisition in EMEA

Akshay worked as Chief of Staff at Korn Consult Group, supporting the India head on an M&A mandate for an Indian automotive supplier. The client was looking to expand into new technology segments, specifically harness and gasket manufacturing, and needed to identify acquisition targets in EMEA that could transfer technology and IP.

He began with target sourcing, working through Korn's partner network across European geographies and conducting interviews with partners to identify financially distressed companies that were open to equity injection and technology transfer. The targets he surfaced had existing order books with major European OEMs spanning three to four years, but were constrained by labor costs and local legislation and could not fulfill growing demand from their existing customers.

Mapping the Dependency to Shape the Negotiation

Once a target was identified, Akshay moved into deal analysis. He analyzed the target's order book in detail, not just to understand revenue concentration, but to map how critical the target was to each OEM customer. By cross-referencing this with secondary research on each OEM's supplier blend, he built a picture of the dependency relationship from both sides, which shaped the tone and sequencing of the negotiation.

He classified the OEM relationships into segments and helped design a phased negotiation approach, with meeting decks prepared for each conversation. The structure was designed to secure soft loan commitments from OEM customers to inject capital into the target, reducing the acquisition cost for the client while stabilizing the target's cash flow.

Akshay prepared the negotiation briefs and meeting memos for both the client and Korn's senior leadership, and was present in the negotiation room taking notes and reading the dynamics. The deal closed as a minority stake acquisition, giving the client access to the target's vendor codes and OEM relationships it had not previously held, while providing the target with capital and new order capacity.