Growth is difficult, especially in a slowing economy, and sometimes M&A can offer a solution. Although few M&A deals wind up creating value, CEOs with a proven ability to transform an organization and improve performance in difficult conditions can create massive value by picking up a troubled business or brand—often at a discount. It’s a bold idea: buying distressed assets, turning them around, and integrating them to produce a company that is much stronger than the sum of its parts.

BCG recently analyzed 1,400 M&A-based turnarounds between 2005 and 2018 and found that the TSR of winning deals was 25 percentage points higher than that of unsuccessful deals. And we identified five factors that can increase the ability of bold CEOs to succeed with such turnarounds.