Technology has cut the time required for the due diligence process for 64 per cent of merger and acquisition (M&A) practitioners.

Due diligence now takes less than three months - from sourcing to deal completion - for a single successful transaction, according to a survey of 539 M&A professionals from Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EMEA) by Merrill Corporation.

The technology provider found that 70 per cent of respondents reported that technology has sped up the process of reviewing and analysing contract text, while 52 per cent said it made running multiple scenario analyses or financial modelling quicker and 41 per cent said visualising financial performance data was easier.

Merlin Piscitelli, head of sales for EMEA at Merrill Corporation, explained that the longer a deal process runs, the higher the risk that it goes cold and potentially unravels.

“The advance of technology and digitisation has naturally enabled practitioners to better manage information and speed up the increasingly complex operation that is due diligence,” he commented.

“The hope is that new technologies - from AI and machine learning to data analytics - can help solve some of these organizational and access challenges and potentially transform the operation entirely.”

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