| Background |
| europrospectus.com Ltd. based in East Sussex UK, was founded in 1997 by Marc ter Kuile, a former capital market professional – and funded by one of Europe's leading private capital firms HAL Investments B.V. of Amsterdam. The Company grew rapidly - offering a clause- and field-searchable data base of debt, equity, warrant and m&a prospectuses issued by firms worldwide along with software tools that allowed customers to obtain fast, easy access to the database. In late 2003, HAL and Mr. ter Kuile agreed that the best way to achieve the goals of the Company’s investors, employees and customers would be to see if there were appropriate strategic partners for Europrospectus. They engaged M&A as their exclusive strategic and financial advisor. |
| Overiew of Transaction |
- On February 17th, 2006, europrospectus was acquired by FactSet Research Systems, Inc. (NYSE: FDS) a leading provider of global financial and economic information. The purchase price was about 2.5x europrospectus's 2005 revenue. The acquisition allowed FactSet to add over 250,000 global prospectuses to FactSet’s growing database of proprietary content, and strengthened FactSet’s product line for the international legal and investment banking communities.
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| M&A Role |
- M&A was pleased with the role it played in identifying and developing multiple options for the Company and keeping the m&a process moving forward during some challenging periods - This was a process that stretched over two years. An initial deal was negotiated, agreed, and then terminated after the parties could not agree on some important terms. A second deal was negotiated agreed, and then put on “hold” when the prospective buyer itself entered into negotiations and was ultimately acquired.
- Ultimately M&A was able to help europrospectus join with a very high-quality firm, while at the same time helping the Company’s owners to receive a price that was well in excess of their expectations.
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Press Release |
