CNBC: Goldman Sachs bankers are using flying drones to help clinch billion-dollar M&A deals

26/11/2020

CNBC reports:

Key points

– Goldman Sachs has been using drone technology to give its clients a bird’s-eye view of the companies they are bidding on, according to Stephan Feldgoise, the firm’s global co-head of mergers and acquisitions.

– The coronavirus put an end to the in-person meetings and frequent travel of the due diligence process in M&A, forcing the use of drones for virtual site visits and teleconferencing tools including Zoom, BlueJeans, Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams.

– Of the several hundred transactions that Goldman has advised on during the pandemic, more than 95% were done without any face-to-face interaction, said Feldgoise.

Drones have arrived on Wall Street.

Goldman Sachs, the world’s top mergers advisor, is among investment banks using drone technology to give its clients a bird’s-eye view of the companies they are bidding on, according to Stephan Feldgoise, the firm’s global co-head of mergers and acquisitions.

After Covid-19 made the prospect of hosting in-person visits with groups of bidders unsafe, commercial-grade drones have been used to conduct virtual tours of everything from shipping ports and railroads to chemical factories, warehouses and big-box retail locations, he said.

“We have been selling asset-based businesses all over the world using drones for site visits and fly-overs,” Feldgoise said in a phone interview.

“It gives buyers the confidence they need because when you are buying a business, you want to see, touch and feel what you are buying.”

It’s the latest example of how the pandemic has forced change onto what had been one of the most old-school, technologically-resistant corners of Wall Street. Investment banking has traditionally relied on platoons of twenty-somethings (using Excel and PowerPoint, software invented in the 1980s) to support senior bankers whose most valuable asset is their relationships, honed over boozy dinners and social events, to corporate officers and board members.

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