A multi-national cement company wanted to acquire an Indian cement manufacturing plant located in Madhya Pradesh, Central India. The global corporation was already conducting its own commercial, financial and legal due diligence exercise. They had some visibility on the promoter’s background, but wanted to cross-check whether OUR TEAM could add anything to their due diligence process to arrive at a fair valuation price for the plant.
We felt that the case merited a discreet site inspection, in order to gather local intelligence on the Indian company’s operations. Preliminary local inquiries indicated that this part of Madhya Pradesh is a Naxal stronghold. The Naxalites are far-left Maoist insurgents, who are known to extort protection money from businesses in the region. Those who are unwilling to pay run a high risk of having their business disrupted.
Our investigator travelled to the site of the cement unit in Madhya Pradesh. He interacted with villagers in and around the factory. He hung around at the factory gate and made small talk with factory workers who were milling around the area. This gave him a first-hand sense of the workplace and social dynamics. At a higher level, he interacted with state level environment and pollution control board officers, journalists, and labour activists to see if there were any lingering issues that would need to be addressed once the buyout took place.
The ground reality was that the Indian company had recently installed a railway line connecting it to the main Indian Railways network, to streamline the movement of cement out of the plant. This piece of railway infrastructure had been highlighted as a key element of the Indian company’s valuation at the time.
However, our investigation revealed that the railway connection would not be able to operate until the Naxalites were paid their protection money. This critical fact had been hidden from the buyer by the proposed seller. It only came to light after our team had conducted an independent investigation in the field.
Armed with this piece of knowledge, the buyer was able to make an informed decision by negotiating a finer price for the cement plant, thus resulting in a saving of a few million dollars.
How our team’s in-the-field investigation uncovered critical information that turned a company’s valuation on its head.
How our team conducted a granular profiling and outreach effort to eradicate members of the local mafia who had infiltrated the client’s workforce and used the leadership’s network to galvanize the local authorities to successfully clamp down on the miscreants.
How our investigator found proof of a front being operated by a client’s unethical business partner
How our team’s investigation ascertained where the gaps in the supply chain were, and suggested robust systems that were put in place to pre-empt unethical business practices in the future.
How our team’s mystery shoppers uncovered a money laundering scam
How our team’s profiling exercise uncovered the culprit and triggered a confession
How our team not only discovered the truth of the matter but also got a global news channel to publicly apologize to our client.
How our team mapped the assets and leads of a loan defaulter using his passport details
How our team’s on-the-ground investigation proved that two disparate entities were linked to one another.
How our investigators discovered a conflict of interest arising out of a connection between the employees of a global financial institution and their subcontractors in Pakistan.