SVP – Corporate Development — Commercial-Vehicle Platform

The mandate

A commercial-vehicle group has approved a plant-footprint reset while also considering technology acquisitions, joint ventures and selected disposals. Earlier transactions were assessed separately from industrial capacity, leaving duplicated assets and ambiguous ownership of integration benefits. The board has created an urgent corporate-development seat to make deal logic inseparable from the future operating footprint.

The SVP will direct inorganic choices across approximately SEK 10,800 million of revenue and programme activity, influencing 2,150 employees and partners. Scope includes acquisition, divestment, alliance, valuation, diligence, negotiation, integration thesis and portfolio review. Business leaders own operations and the board approves transactions. Corporate Development owns recommendation quality, process integrity and whether promised value has an executable owner.

Every target or disposal will be mapped to plant capability. A battery-software acquisition may require laboratories and scarce engineers but little production space; a component joint venture may depend on tooling, supplier approvals and warranty continuity. The team will identify which sites, permits, people, contracts and intellectual property move, remain shared or become stranded before valuation is presented.

The reset also creates disposal choices that cannot be treated as property sales. A plant may hold customer qualifications, service-part obligations, environmental liabilities and knowledge needed for transition. Counterparty resilience, continuing supply and workforce commitments will therefore enter deal structure. Highest headline price will not win if it transfers unacceptable continuity or reputation risk.

Why this seat is open

This urgent new role was authorised when the board combined its inorganic agenda with the footprint programme. There is no incumbent. Appointment is targeted within six to eight weeks so live opportunities can be screened before exclusivity or capital commitments narrow choices.

What you will own

• Translate portfolio and footprint strategy into acquisition, alliance and disposal priorities.
• Lead valuation, diligence, negotiation and board recommendations.
• Trace assets, people, IP, customers and liabilities through each transaction perimeter.
• Build integration or separation plans before signing, with accountable business owners.
• Govern advisers, conflicts, information barriers and transaction evidence.
• Develop corporate-development talent able to challenge sponsors and bankers.

Diligence will follow value mechanisms. If a case depends on common purchasing, engineering reuse or released floor space, the responsible executive must validate timing, cost and operational feasibility. Benefits unsupported by an owner will remain outside base valuation. Downside work will examine customer consent, volume loss, remediation, pension, cyber, product liability and transitional services rather than relying on a generic contingency.

Post-deal reviews will compare the signed thesis with actual outcomes at six and twelve months. The SVP can recommend integration pause, leadership change, further investment or exit when facts move. Lessons will change screening and contractual protections; they will not be archived as retrospective commentary.

The transaction office will maintain a single decision record from first screen through completion. It will show valuation changes, diligence exceptions, negotiated protections and the executive accepting residual exposure. Clean-team arrangements will protect competition-sensitive customer and workforce information. Financing, foreign-exchange and regulatory timetables will be integrated with operational milestones so a technically sound transaction is not stranded by liquidity or approval sequencing. Incentives for advisers and internal sponsors will not depend solely on closing.

Minority investments will receive the same discipline as controlled acquisitions. Reserved matters, information rights, follow-on funding and technology access must match the strategic purpose, with a defined route if the partner’s priorities change.

Where a transaction spans several footprint moves, the SVP will insist on a dependency sequence rather than a single completion date. Regulatory clearance, customer novation and employee transfer may each determine when physical assets can move and when value can be recognised.

The first 12 months

In 75 days, the SVP will review the active pipeline, footprint decisions and three prior transactions, then propose a deal architecture and governance calendar. Any live opportunity lacking industrial or separation evidence will be contained before further spend.

By month eight, at least one acquisition or alliance and one disposal or asset partnership should reach board-ready terms with operating plans, value owners and downside protections. Portfolio screening will have removed weakly aligned opportunities from the pipeline.

At twelve months, 90% of approved synergies or separation benefits must carry finance-validated baselines and named executives. Transaction decisions should remain within agreed diligence timetables, material surprises after signing should be zero, and prior-deal corrective actions should release a measurable 8% improvement against their original value gap.

What the board will measure

• Transactions that reinforce the chosen industrial footprint.
• Valuations grounded in executable operating benefit.
• Clean separation of assets, liabilities and continuing obligations.
• Timely withdrawal from weak opportunities.
• Independent deal leadership and succession.

The person

You are an SVP Corporate Development, transaction leader or business-development executive with 22–28 years in automotive, industrials or infrastructure. You have governed at least SEK 6,250 million and 1,500 employees. Your evidence should cover a complex acquisition, an operational carve-out and a deal you stopped after diligence contradicted sponsor enthusiasm.

The position is onsite in Gothenburg with plant, counterparty and board travel. You can interpret industrial, technical and workforce evidence as fluently as valuation.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is SEK 2.8–3.8 million plus annual incentive. Measures include portfolio fit, value realisation, separation quality, diligence integrity and leadership depth. Final terms reflect experience; a notice period up to six months is possible.

Confidentiality

The group, targets, sites, counterparties and transaction evidence are confidential. Qualified candidates receive staged information after an undertaking. Gothenburg and approximate figures are non-identifying.