Professional Spotlight: Don Manifold of Manifold Advisory Partners

Don Manifold is an expert in acquisitions, divestments, mergers, and preparing valuation statements. He has more than 30 years of professional work experience, with 25 of those years spent in corporate finance. Manifold has personally advised clients on more than 60 complex corporate finance deals with a combined value of over $3 billion, including:

• Acquisitions
• Capital Raising
• Divestments
• Initial Public Offerings (IPO)

Don Manifold has also produced independent expert reports and valuations with a combined value of more than $25 billion. He has worked with clients in a wide range of industries besides financial services, including agriculture and technology, food, and professional services. Some of Manifold’s leading transactions include:

• Acquisition of ABB Grain
• Acquisition of Adelaide Bank
• Sale of S. Kidman & Company
• Sale of Powerhealth

What is Don Manifold’s Background?

Manifold was born and raised in Mount Gambier, a small city in South Australia. He began his first professional position in Adelaide and has also worked in the cities of London, Melbourne, and Sydney and the countries of Australia, Croatia, and England.

Don Manifold earned a Bachelor of Economics from Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1991. He returned to school a dozen years later to earn a Master of Business Education (MBA) from the Australian Graduate School of Management located in Sydney. Manifold is currently a Fellow with the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

The first leadership position Don Manifold held was as a partner at Deloitte in 2004 until he moved to KPMG in 2006. He remained with KPMG from 2006 to 2012 before moving to Ernst & Young in Adelaide. Manifold served as the Office Managing Partner for the South Australia and Northern Territory of Ernst & Young from 2014 to 2018. He then left to launch his own business, Manifold Advisory Partners.

Since going out on his own, Manifold has taken on several other advisory boards and similar positions. He currently maintains professional relationships with the following organizations:

• Chair Advisory Board at ADX Depot
• Chair Advisory Board at RAM Equipment
• Chair Advisory Board at Hybrid Ag
• Chair Advisory Board at EC Carpets
• Director at Whittles Body Corporate Management
• Managing Director at Equity & Advisory

Equity & Advisory, a highly esteemed corporate advisory firm in South Australia, started serving the needs of clients with complex financial transactions back in 1997. The company relies on the expertise of business professionals with decades of service in corporate advisory roles. Equity & Advisory has successfully completed over 200 transactions worth more than $8 billion dollars since its inception.

Services Offered by Manifold Advisory Partners

With so much board advisory experience behind him, Don Manifold has the necessary expertise to assist clients with family business advisory board chair questions, strategic planning sessions, and succession and sustainability planning. He is also well-equipped to help clients with strategic reviews in the areas of exit timing and strategy and new market entry strategy.

Don Manifold and his staff have assisted clients with numerous types of mergers, acquisitions and other transactions. He takes a multi-step approach to client mergers that covers everything from the initial valuation to post-merger issues.

Clients involved in an acquisition have the assurance of knowing that Don Manifold and his staff have extensive knowledge of Australian regulations that all parties must follow. As with mergers, Don and his team aid clients throughout the entire process of acquisitions, starting with developing a strategy and continuing to offer support once the deal is complete.

Manifold Advisory Partners offers a range of core divestment services to assist clients with maximizing the value of their business. Some typical examples of how he and his staff help clients include selling underperforming portions of a business, liquidating assets to increase the company’s real-time value, and business carve-outs. He and his team assist clients from the initial business assessment through capacity evaluation, program planning and execution, and providing post-divestment services.

Offering shareholders complete and unbiased expert reports is essential to the success of any business sale. Don Manifold offers a report on a range of business transactions, such as takeover bids, capital reduction and buy-backs, and securities acquisitions. Each in-depth report covers the following:

• Overview and analysis of the proposed transaction
• Business valuation
• Summary of competitors within the industry
• Opinion and rationale explaining how the transaction benefits shareholders

The last service Manifold Advisory Partners offers is business valuations. Don and his team follow a step-by-step process that describes such factors as market potential, potential risks, competitor analysis, and benefits and drawbacks of current company management and staff. Clients receive a written business valuation report and the opportunity to sit down with Don Manifold and his staff to hear the justification of each point the report covers.