Van Eyk sale to Mercer stalled

The dealbetween van Eyk Research and William M Mercer has stalled, creating immediate concerns for the stability of van Eyk Research after industry competitors attempted to poach some of its staff.

Negotiations to complete the deal between the two research groups, which would result in van Eyk being sold to Mercer, came to a standstill a few weeks ago, almost nine months after initial discussions began.

At the time of going to print, van Eyk Research managing director Stephen van Eyk confirmed both groups were still actively seeking to finalise the deal.

However, van Eyk says with some of his staff being approached by outside parties, he is keen to close or abandon the deal as quickly as possible.

“The current deal isn’t going to cut it. We still don’t think the deal is in shape, but it is gradually moving in the right direction,” he says.

Van Eyk says because of the length of the negotiations, other organisations have wrongly assumed van Eyk Research is unstable, prompting them to attempt to poach some of the group’s staff.

The delay in finalising the deal has also played on van Eyk’s mind as to whether selling to Mercer is the right option. He says during the negotiation process, figures were released to Mercer which revealed van Eyk Research was performing higher than Mercer first expected, prompting van Eyk to think twice on whether to sell.

Another issue that has caused concern for van Eyk is the news that Mercer head of consulting Tony Cole had been appointed head of Mercer Investment Consulting’s global operations for 10 weeks.

However, despite his new appointment, Cole is adamant he will remain central to the negotiations with van Eyk.

Cole says the deal has been delayed by negotiations on money and the role of key staff within the merged research group, but says Mercer does not consider it unusual for negotiations to take this long to complete.