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Due diligence services Advisory & training services Dispute-related services Emerging market services

Integrity due diligence is at the core of FP's expertise. As trained and experienced researchers and analysts, we can identify and explain the risk of corruption, bribery and fraud amongst business partners in context. We understand the challenges of conducting due diligence in the highest risk jurisdictions where information is inaccessible and unreliable - and yet this is exactly where regulations such as FCPA and UK Bribery Act require businesses to take a proactive approach.

We adapt our due diligence offering to the needs of our clients, who are often caught between regulatory requirements and tight budgets. We do not believe in tick-the-box or one-size-fits-all solutions, since businesses should focus resources on their highest risks. Even lower-cost reports can be designed intelligently and address core concerns.

However, lower-cost solutions also have their limitations. In situations where we recognise a high risk, we advise our clients against pursuing lower-cost solutions as a first step measure. False positives and false negatives could backfire or shed insufficient light on the real issues. A deeper dive before the partnership could save costs and nerves later, and shows regulators that the company takes compliance seriously.

When risks and issues of concern we identify prove particularly challenging, we do not leave our clients hanging. Unlike many other risk consulting or intelligence firms, we are not afraid to offer our clients practical recommendations on how to manage and mitigate these risks. We understand that businesses operate in difficult environments and need assistance once a partnership has been agreed.

Corporates are facing increasing pressure from local and international regulators, including United Nations initiatives such as the Global Compact and the Principles of Responsible Investment, to address compliance and ESG risks emanating from its third parties. This is driving the momentum for smart and efficient solutions to deal with the vast number of existing counterparties - be they agents, suppliers or customers.

Working closely with compliance and legal teams, FP develops approaches that turn its corporate clients into leaders of smart compliance: instead of one-size-fits-all, which falls short of addressing high-risk third parties, we help develop risk-based tools to formulate pragmatic, custom-made solutions. Although strengthening the internal risk assessment framework provides a first line of defence for future regulatory scrutiny, FP's solutions strengthen our clients' third party risk management not just on paper.

FP also assists its contacts in Compliance and Legal to secure corporate buy-in, assisting in presentations to stakeholders and providing realistic solutions to frontline business units handling third parties.

Our firsthand research and intelligence-gathering skills also give us an advantage in building internal due diligence structures for our corporate clients that are pragmatic, efficient and ensure best practice.

We prefer to help our clients avoid disputes by supporting them with reputational information and risk-mitigation advice about their partners prior to a deal.

Yet sometimes disputes arise even if you have done your due diligence on partners and acquisitions, outside of your own making, from competitors, customers - or your own employees.

FP assists its clients throughout the dispute cycle, from investigating potential damages or conflicts of interests by business partners and employees, to assisting you and your legal advisors during the litigation process by providing supporting material via research and information gathering.

Emerging markets present a unique combination of opportunities and risks. While we leave it to our clients to assess their commercial opportunities, FP ensures the most accurate understanding of their risks.

Obtaining correct information on business partners, projects and customers is crucial to evaluate whether opportunities outweigh risks. We have seen clients decline projects based on bad intelligence - relying on basic information sources like Google or corporate data vendors with poor coverage of emerging markets is not the right formula for operating in complex markets. We have also seen companies take much higher risks than they were aware of, for example entering into a public tender via a local agent without understanding the ties between the agent and the ultimate customer.

In emerging markets, the core elements for companies to reach the right conclusions is through (a) access to well-placed human sources and experts, (b) access to high-level contextual analysis and (c) understanding what steps can be taken to mitigate identified risks.

This is where you need FP, and where we excel.

Integrity
due
diligence ESG and human rights due diligence Post-acquisition compliance audit Risk mitigation and monitoring

Compliance and ESG risk mapping Risk categorisation, internal structure and tools Due diligence research training Global risk assessment programme

Litigation support Asset tracing Investigations

Market entry analysis Political risk analysis and monitoring Stakeholder mapping and strategic intelligence

When entering into a new commercial relationship, be it with a company, individual or other organisation, businesses need to assess the integrity and reputation of their potential partners.

FP uses specialist information-gathering techniques including research and analysis of the public record and discreet enquiries with human sources. Our integrity due diligence provides reliable and well-sourced information that enables our clients to identify potential risks and red flags, minimize uncertainty and make more informed business decisions.

In the risk consulting world, there is an artificial separation between compliance due diligence on the one hand - with an emphasis on issues such as corruption, bribery, sanctions and fraud - and ESG due diligence, focusing on labour conditions, human rights and environmental concerns.

In FP's view, the one does not work without the other and we are pioneering ways to harmonise the two. As the UN Global Compact approaches two decades in force, sustainability in all its facets is irreversibly on the agenda

Evaluating whether a key supplier in an emerging market ensures adequate labour conditions for its employees cannot be done properly without using investigative techniques. You may send an audit team in for two weeks, but how will you know what happens when they leave?

Similarly, if the due diligence screening of your new customer looks exclusively at corruption and bribery risks, you may miss the integrity and reputational risks stemming from the threats of human rights violations or environmental pollution.

In high-stakes corporate M&A situations, we don't just conduct integrity due diligence on the target's management. Rather, we examine the target's customers, countries of operations and third parties, evaluate corruption risks, scan for human rights concerns, and dig into poor labour conditions at suppliers.

FP brings together all these elements in our due diligence investigations, whether relating to our clients' supply chains, investment targets or their sales-related third parties.

Although it is always advisable to conduct full integrity due diligence on an M&A target, the evaluation should not end once the acquisition is finalised. A client has not just acquired new commercial opportunities - but also new risks and legal and commercial liabilities.

While you aim to identify any significant issues of concern during the pre-acquisition due diligence process, you will not have access to the bulk of the target's internal information until after the deal is done.

Once this access is granted, however, evaluating the mountain of new information can be overwhelming. This is where FP can assist as a right hand to the compliance and M&A team in charge: conducting an internal compliance audit of the acquired company, identifying vulnerabilities and creating a roadmap to address these, and improve the acquisition's overall framework.

Companies operating in difficult jurisdictions will nearly always face a degree of risk stemming from its business partners or customers. An integrity due diligence report can highlight risks deriving from a third party, but it will not help navigate these if the partnership goes ahead.

FP believes that compliance should not stand in the way of business. That is why we guide our clients so as to minimise the associated risk. If compliance risks have been identified but the company decides to still pursue the partnership, it is all the more crucial to implement mitigatory measures to avoid the risks from materialising. FP advises on steps that can be taken pre-engagement or post-engagement.

One of the first steps in establishing a pragmatic ethics and compliance structure is to take an objective and critical look at your own operations. Are you asking the right questions to identify corruption risks stemming from your suppliers, as well as environmental and labour concerns? What risks does the sector face in general, and what risks do the jurisdictions in which you operate present?

FP brings extensive experience in understanding and identifying the risks and challenges facing global companies; and providing an independent, external assessment. We don't just leave you with an overview of the various risks: we create a roadmap that allows you to address these step-by-step.

With thousands of business partners worldwide - whether new or existing - it is crucial in the era of FCPA and the UK Bribery Act for corporates to pinpoint the correct risk factors for its particular business. FP assists its corporate clients in finding the right formula to calculate compliance and ESG risks essential to a risk-based approach.

Many corporates have thousands of third parties on their books, which requires a due diligence response that must be both reasonable and adequate: different categories of risk require a correspondingly diversified approach to due diligence. With a well-formulated risk categorisation and assessment process, the number of third parties should decrease as the level of risk increases. This aligns with a risk-based approach that focuses resources on the highest risk counterparties.

We review the corporate client's initiatives on third parties, drawing on existing strengths while addressing weaknesses. We then speak to corporate stakeholders right down to the frontline. In combination with FP's expertise in third-party risk management, this analysis ensures that the proposed risk assessment framework is customised to fit the client's operations and vision.

The findings are used to customise a risk categorisation tool, with which the client can evaluate third parties and obtain a risk score for each. The software-based tool is simple to use yet sophisticated in its approach to determining actual third-party risks. FP also designs pragmatic risk assessment and mitigation responses to the various categories of risk with a tailor-made internal due diligence structure for the client, including questionnaires, templates, training and other tools.

Given the vast number of third parties most corporates are exposed to and the limited resources available, it is imperative to have an internal due diligence process in place that can identify and address associated risks proactively. Many one-stop solutions in the market are expensive and not transparent in their limitations, leaving clients vulnerable with a false sense of security. FP encourages more efficient use of resources, greater visibility and control over basic risk assessments that can be conducted at a high standard in-house - by those who know your business best.

An effective basic screening of third parties requires employees trained in research methodology and the art of assessing reputational and integrity risks efficiently.

FP provides customised due diligence research training for its clients, who benefit from implementing industry-level best practice, both to mitigate third party risks and to keep a record for regulators, while invaluably changing corporate culture and increasing risk awareness.

FP advises corporates to handle the majority of due diligence on its third parties internally. Yet a segment of third parties will be deemed critical in nature and therefore require a more sophisticated response than what can be achieved in-house.

Such third parties are typically characterised by high compliance risk together with significant commercial potential, thus raising both the levels of risk and opportunity for the client.

This situation justifies, both from a business and a regulatory perspective, allocating resources for due diligence to be conducted by a specialist provider like FP. For example, a regulator is unlikely to accept that a due diligence limited to English-language checks is enough when sealing a deal with a state-owned company in Russia via a local sales agent.

FP assists its clients with the design, management and execution of global due diligence programmes. Typically, this also involves multiple levels of due diligence, so as to focus the client's budget on the most critical third parties according to the highest risk factors.

Legal disputes are a reality in today's global business world. As international disputes have taken on increasingly complex forms, FP is hired by corporate clients and law firms to seek reliable and actionable evidence in both civil and criminal litigation proceedings.

Finding and understanding relevant information - be it identifying the ultimate beneficiary in a complex corporate structure or uncovering hitherto unknown evidence or witnesses - can make the difference between winning or losing a legal dispute.

Our analysis and data-gathering has helped clients find the right strategy to build a stronger case, for example when preparing damage claims or trying to fend off a legal dispute.

Clients turn to us when they are trying to locate an individual's or a corporation's assets. This could be as part of a fraud investigation, in order to recover lost or stolen assets, or following a corporate or individual's bankruptcy. We regularly conduct asset searches as part of litigation proceedings, for example, prior to preparing a damage claim.

Physical or financial assets are often hidden in multiple jurisdictions, yet our researchers know where to look for what information and, most importantly, how to retrieve it.

Our team of investigators support clients when they are trying to clear up fraud or other allegations of wrongdoing that have taken place in a corporate environment. In close cooperation with the client's in-house and external legal counsel, FP assists in fact-finding in order to identify potential misconduct. In cases when such support is required, FP enlists the services of forensic-accounting and data-retrieval experts.

FP's investigators are also experienced in more discreet internal investigation at the very site of the client's operations - whether it be in a city or rural area. This includes interviews, independent investigations internally in the organisation, and with local authorities and communities using FP's regional experts and trusted sources on the ground.

As growth forecasts of developed economies decrease, companies are increasingly looking farther afield for new opportunities, through investment or acquisition. More often than not, these opportunities involve a trade-off: higher growth potential goes hand-in-hand with increased levels of actual or perceived corruption and other associated risks.

Whether multinational companies are investing in emerging markets, or regional companies are looking to invest in Europe, FP works with clients to understand the intricacies of a new market, identify potential risks, and put in place a mitigation plan should a potential risk turn into reality.

Whether planning an investment or pitching for a contract, companies active in the global marketplace often encounter difficulties in navigating the political landscape on a national or regional level. Equally, a company's existing operations can be adversely affected by a changing or unstable administration.

Identifying key political shifts – within political leadership, policy decisions, industry regulations or contractual reviews – before they are publicly announced months later can facilitate planning for disruptions, securing tenure, lobbying stakeholders and addressing systemic risks as part of an ongoing strategy for businesses.

This type of information cannot be obtained through governments' local trade offices or industry peers. As a specialist provider, FP can conduct monitoring or interval reporting on such issues based on both analysis of locally available information as well as political and market intelligence in order for a business to pre-empt, plan and benefit from being one step ahead of the competition.

In an increasingly competitive global market, reliable intelligence can be used by clients from all industries to be one step ahead of their competition. FP's approach of conducting enquiries at the highest levels through its well-developed networks on the ground is tailored to this end.

This invaluable analysis can relate to a state's political or economic decisions, policy, or problem-solving for clients facing a difficult situation in an emerging market such as in Africa or the Middle East.

Likewise, we have advised clients hailing from emerging markets to help understand the political and corporate fabric of established European economies.

An informed and insightful business strategy based on FP's intelligence and analysis can mean the difference between successful, ethical open-market competition, and substantial losses of investment in a fraudulent and corrupt negotiation or bidding system. In most cases, understanding who the real decision makers are, is the key to sustainable business decisions. This can be achieved through FP's stakeholder mapping which in itself is based on reliable, strategic intelligence.

This is where you need FP, and where we excel.