CG Results is delighted to have acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Phrasee and its shareholders on the acquisition of a majority stake in Phrasee by capital D, the next generation private equity fund manager investing in disruptive mid-market businesses across Europe. In addition, investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, together with a group formed by Keyhaven Capital Partners and family offices invested alongside capital D. The capital D consortium have acquired a 64% stake in Phrasee with the founders and management holding the remainder.
This transaction represents another impressive outcome that CG Results has delivered for fast growth software companies.
Founded in 2015, London-based Phrasee is an AI-powered SaaS platform that revolutionises customer communication through brand language optimisation. Phrasee is disrupting the traditional role of the human copywriter/marketeer using data science and a powerful proprietary natural language generation engine to generate, automate and optimise marketing language in real-time with superior performance.
Phrasee’s platform optimises e-mail, SMS, web and social media campaigns, by providing AI-generated optimised and brand safe language to clients, driving higher open rates, clicks-through and sales. Phrasee’s clients are typically large, well-known enterprises across multiple business sectors in the United States of America and Europe.
As a result of the transaction, the consortium led by capital D will partner with Phrasee’s founders Parry Malm, Vic Peppiatt and Neil Yager to support the Company on the next phase of its impressive growth journey. The capital D consortium plan to support further development of Phrasee’s products across a wider range of customer-journey touch-points and media channels, as well as to enhance its commercial organisation both in direct enterprise sales and customer success, and through establishing software vendor partnerships. This investment will also support Phrasee’s further expansion in the USA, a market already responsible for more than 60% of the Company’s sales.
Parry Malm, CEO, Phrasee, said: “We are empowering brands with the most advanced AI-generated brand language to optimize marketing performance and unify a brand’s customer experience. Our technology delivers millions in incremental revenue, and we are proud to call some of the world’s most recognised brands Phrasee customers. The capital D team brings incredible sector knowledge across AI and machine learning as well as an outstanding commercial network, which we’ve already seen in action during our short time working together. We plan to continue disrupting the way companies communicate with, and market to, customers across all their digital channels and it’s awesome to have partnered with capital D on the next stage of our journey.”
>>>> Read the press release here
CG Results is delighted to announce that it has advised Lumi, the leading global provider of Annual General Meeting (AGM) technology, on its recapitalisation by Vespa Capital.
Lumi, headquartered in the UK, previously received investment from Vespa Capital in 2017 and is the global market leader in the provision of mission critical software and real-time audience engagement technology to facilitate AGMs for companies, associations, and partnerships.
Lumi’s technology enables shareholders and members to participate in meetings virtually and its rapid adoption has resulted in significant environmental and governance benefits globally. The business saw a significant increase in demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in 2021 alone, Lumi serviced over 4,000 meetings worldwide, in 40 markets, supporting the world’s largest corporations and associations to manage the shift to virtual and hybrid meetings.
Vespa Capital’s continued commitment to Lumi highlights their ongoing confidence in the senior management team to further develop Lumi’s market leading technology, provide excellent service delivery, and support their clients’ virtual, hybrid, and in-room meeting requirements.
This deal emphasises our strong track record in the Enterprise Software space and further strengthens our relationship with the private equity community.
>>>> Read the press release here
CG Results International, the leading corporate finance adviser to the marketing services, technology and healthcare sectors is excited to announce its role advising Cheil Worldwide (“Cheil”) on its acquisition of a significant initial investment in Iris, the global creative innovation network.
This deal further reinforces our unrivalled role as the leading corporate finance advisor to the marketing services industry on a global scale, able to unlock partnership opportunities from every corner of the globe.
Cheil is a leading marketing solutions agency with 5,000 employees operating from 48 offices and 8 affiliates in 41 countries globally. The company has strong growth ambitions and appointed CG Results to help find a disruptive and innovative partner bringing creative synergy and best-in-class capabilities to deliver ‘Ideas That Move’ for clients.
We have had a close relationship with the management team of iris for many years, and were confident that the chemistry we identified between them and Cheil would result in an extremely successful partnership. iris is a 1,000-strong global organisation with 17 offices around the world and this deal will extend and deepen their global capabilities in creativity, strategy, retail, digital, data, analytics, B2B and CRM.
Financial terms for the deal have not been disclosed, although Cheil’s investment will potentially rise to 100% over the next 5 years.
This is our 10th completed transaction in 2014, in addition to the sale of Profero to IPG, the sale of DC Storm to Rakuten and the sale of We Are Social to Bluefocus, for which we received the award for ‘M&A Cross Border Deal of the Year’.
This transaction also represents our 3rd cross-border deal in 12 months involving an Asia-headquartered buyer emphasising our unparalleled access to this continent as its key players grow in strength and international ambition.
CG Results International is delighted to have advised Avecto, the leading endpoint security software firm on its minority investment from JMI Equity, a US-based growth equity investor focused on backing leading software and services companies.
SITUATION
Avecto is a market leader in the large and fast-growing $3 billion endpoint security sector. Headquartered in Manchester, UK, with offices in Boston, USA, Melbourne, Australia and Frankfurt, Germany, Avecto was founded by entrepreneurs Mark Austin and Paul Kenyon in 2008. Since that time, the company has demonstrated significant growth, serving a roster of over 600 enterprise clients and adding over 100 new customers per year for the past five years. Avecto has grown revenue over 50% on a compounded annual basis since 2012, and has grown profitably every year since inception.
OPPORTUNITY
After several years of rapid growth and following the launch of the innovative DefendPoint suite, Avecto’s founders decided that the timing was right to seek an investment partner to enable the company to best capture the very large, global market available to it.
This led to CG Results International being appointed to support the company in evaluating its investment options, preparing for a highly competitive process, seeking out the most appropriate partners on a global basis, and executing a transaction.
OUTCOME
CG Results leveraged its relationships with top tier global growth equity investors to identify a number of the best strategic partners for Avecto. These firms had exemplary track records backing high growth technology companies and shared the shareholders’ excitement about Avecto’s positioning in the fast-growth cyber security market. CG Results also managed a fast and highly competitive process, negotiating excellent terms for the shareholders.
The Total Healthcare Group – founded in 1996 by Dr Robert Hollamby – is a specialist global value research consultancy comprising Total Healthcare Solutions and Total Healthcare Media. The pricing and reimbursement capabilities of the group are underpinned by an unrivalled network of payer contacts covering over 40 markets, along with a track record of more than 800 consultancy projects and 90 Global Value Dossiers across all major therapy areas.
OPPORTUNITY
THG is one of only a handful of truly international Pricing and Reimbursement and Payer Research Consultancies in the world. It was essential to find an acquirer to help THG develop a more substantial footprint in the US, and provide the resources and infrastructure to support THG’s growth plan, whilst remaining sympathetic to THG’s DNA and staff aspirations.
OUTCOME
CG Results International were selected as Corporate Finance advisor to THG after a 6 way selection process. Results International ran a competitive process securing offers from an impressive group of international healthcare consultancies, research and private equity businesses.
DR. ROBERT HOLLAMBY, FOUNDER OF THG, COMMENTED:
Q: Why did you choose CG Results International?
A previous attempt to sell the business did not succeed, in part due to the advisor’s unimpressive performance; as such we were well informed about what was required this time. CG Results International clearly had a good grasp of our sector and the specific issues of a professional services business. They demonstrated a genuine interest in our business and it was clear there was depth in their team with further reassurance that our project would include senior level input at all times.
Q: Did CG Results International live up to your expectations throughout the transaction?
Yes definitely. They remained totally committed throughout a difficult and protracted process with no sense of being distracted by other projects or, more importantly, going for the quick win opportunity.
Q: Where did CG Results International add value in the sale process?
At all stages. They identified good partners, conducted a very professional process, remained patient and negotiated well, were persistent at all times and on all material points, provided support in the due diligence process, were good counsel, kept me sane and gained not only our trust but also I believe the respect of UBC.
Q: Would you use CG Results International again?
Most definitely – though hopefully won’t have to! Having had an advisor who is only good at selling themselves, it’s great to have one that can actually sell someone else’s business. It’s all in the name!
CG Results International is delighted to have been the exclusive financial advisers to STEM Marketing, the global provider of marketing and medical audits to pharmaceutical companies, in its sale to UDG Healthcare plc, the publicly-listed clinical, commercial, communication and packaging services provider to the healthcare industry.
SITUATION
Established in 2007, STEM has developed into a global business spanning 35 countries worldwide, working for 18 of the top 20 largest pharmaceutical companies. Offering a unique ‘audit’ service which can be applied to a pharmaceutical company’s marketing, medical, market access or account management functions, STEM has fast become an essential and vital tool enabling operational insight. In 2016 STEM was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.
In terms of commercial performance, STEM has grown from first year sales of £250K to predicted sales in year 10 of over 100 times greater. During this time, the company’s strategy has been fourfold: repeat business, geography penetration, portfolio penetration and service extension. The UK business is testament to this with consistent growth of more than 30% year on year.
OPPORTUNITY
Having experienced prodigious growth since inception, including expanding globally throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas, the opportunity presented itself to seek a partner to amplify STEM’s growth plans, whilst augmenting its global reach.
Following a thorough search for an adviser with the requisite market knowledge and global reach, CG Results International was appointed in to bring in a partner that could allow STEM to achieve its lofty ambitions.
OUTCOME
Following a comprehensive sweep of potential acquirers from a multitude of verticals, CG Results identified a select number of suitable parties and engendered fierce competition throughout the process, resulting in an exceptional and highly satisfactory deal for the shareholders.
CG Results International is delighted to have advised Accel-KKR and its portfolio company, ESG, on the acquisition of Utiligroup.
Energy Services Group, LLC (ESG), the retail energy industry’s leading provider of SaaS solutions including transaction management (EDI), billing and CIS, wholesale energy services, and sales and pricing, announced today it has acquired UK-based Utiligroup.
The combination brings together two market leaders in their respective geographies and will enable local and global energy resellers across North America, the UK and Japan to offer business and residential consumers greater energy choice and more control of their energy consumption. The combined company enables energy suppliers with global ambitions the ability to partner with a single provider.
“ESG continues to build on our strategy of providing best-in-class technology solutions and services to energy resellers and empowering energy choice around the world,” said CEO Phil Galati. “We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to grow our market presence and strengthen our product offerings through the partnership with Utiligroup.”
According to Matthew Hirst, CEO at Utiligroup, “We have built a leadership position in the UK market by consistently innovating, using our deep industry expertise to help our customers grow and evolve with the market. We look forward to this next chapter, bringing the best of ESG and Utiligroup to our customers across the globe.”
The UK entity will continue operations as Utiligroup, and CEO Matthew Hirst will remain at the helm of the UK business, reporting to Phil Galati, ESG CEO. Matthew will also join the board of directors of ESG. Utiligroup and ESG will continue to maintain and support their respective solutions and will look for opportunities to leverage the best of each platform to expand their respective offerings.
Supported by private equity firm Accel-KKR, the acquisition of Utiligroup by ESG follows the successful acquisition of Latitude Technologies in November 2016.
This transaction demonstrates CG Results International’s expertise in vertical market SaaS and our strong transatlantic strategic and private equity relationships.
CG Results International is delighted to announce that it has acted as exclusive financial advisor to the shareholders of MWR InfoSecurity, a cybersecurity company operating globally from its main offices in the UK, the US, South Africa and Singapore, on its sale to F-Secure.
This deal further cements CG Results International’s position as the leading advisor in the European cybersecurity sector and evidences our strong capabilities in delivering high value transactions for disruptive and fast-growth technology services companies.
With close to 400 employees, MWR InfoSecurity is among the largest cybersecurity service providers serving enterprises globally. MWR InfoSecurity has highly skilled experts in offensive techniques who understand the attacker mindset and is well-known in the industry for its technical expertise and research. Its threat hunting platform Countercept provides extensive proactive attack detection and complements F-Secure’s existing strengths. Additionally, F-Secure’s portfolio will be enhanced by MWR InfoSecurity’s suite of managed phishing protection services (phishd).
The acquisition is a significant milestone in the execution of F-Secure’s growth strategy, and makes it the largest European single source of cybersecurity services and detection and response solutions.
The combined company will have hundreds of the world’s best cybersecurity consultants, making F-Secure one of the few truly global technical security advisors positioned to help organizations fight today’s most sophisticated threats.
CG Results Healthcare is pleased to announce it was the exclusive corporate finance advisor to UCB, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on neurology and immunology, on its divestment of the rights to a portfolio of Alprostadil products in 10 European Union countries, as well as the United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine and Brazil, to Advanz Pharma.
This transaction is testament to CG Results Healthcare’s expertise in advising companies in the healthcare and life sciences sector, which follows Duke Street’s recent acquisition of Kent Pharmaceuticals.
The alprostadil product portfolio consists of two established, niche, injectable Prostaglandin E1 formulations for the treatment of erectile disfunction and peripheral arterial occlusive disease. Alprostadil is marketed under the brand names of Prostavasin®, Viridal®, Vasaprostan® and Edex®.