Acquisition
13 August 2003 - 2:11AM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:5979O
Euromoney Institutional InvestorPLC
12 August 2003
EUROMONEY INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR PLC
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT
and PRESS RELEASE
August 12, 2003
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC acquires HedgeFund Intelligence Limited
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC ("Euromoney") has today agreed to acquire
all of the issued share capital of HedgeFund Intelligence Limited, a leading
hedge fund publisher and event organizer, for an initial consideration of #11
million.
HedgeFund Intelligence publishes the influential monthly hedge fund newsletters
EuroHedge, AsiaHedge and InvestHedge and, in April this year, launched Absolute
Return, a monthly newsletter for the US hedge fund market. HedgeFund
Intelligence has grown rapidly since it was founded by launching new
publications and expanding into databases and conferences. Future growth is
expected to come from increasing newsletter subscriptions, the continuing
development of Absolute Return, expanding the company's hedge fund databases and
launching new events such as conferences and awards dinners.
HedgeFund Intelligence was founded in 1998 by Iain and Suzie Jenkins. Iain
Jenkins was formerly investment editor of Sunday Business and European business
correspondent of the Sunday Times. He will continue to run the business from
London as managing director.
For the year to November 30, 2002, HedgeFund Intelligence made an audited
operating profit of #1.0 million on turnover of #2.4 million. For the seven
months ended June 30, 2003, HedgeFund Intelligence made an unaudited operating
profit of #775,000 on turnover of #2.1 million. The net assets at the date of
acquisition were zero.
The acquisition will be financed from Euromoney's existing multi-currency
revolving credit facility. The initial consideration is #11 million with a
further payment in February 2005 of up to #5.5 million depending on HedgeFund
Intelligence's profits for the year to November 30, 2004. The acquisition is
expected to be earnings neutral for Euromoney for the period to September 30,
2003 and earnings enhancing in 2004.
"We are delighted to have bought HedgeFund Intelligence and to be receiving the
continuing support of Iain Jenkins and his team," said Euromoney Chairman
Padraic Fallon. "This acquisition follows the rapid growth of Euromoney's own
hedge fund publishing and event activity, and positions Euromoney to become the
world's leading supplier of information about hedge funds."
"Hedge funds assets are growing at the rate of 20-35% a year across the world
and hedge fund managers have shown their value during the past few years of
falling markets. Many have bucked the market and the whole sector is now likely
to benefit from a further inflow of money," he added. "We believe that the hedge
fund market will continue to grow strongly over the next few years, which will
allow us to launch new products."
Commenting on the acquisition, Iain Jenkins, managing director of HedgeFund
Intelligence, said: "Hedge funds are a very exciting space in the publishing
world. The pace of growth of the industry is showing every sign of accelerating
with $8 billion being raised by new European funds in the first half of the
year. Yet, until now, there has been no dominant source of information. Teaming
up with Euromoney will enable us to build on our strong position as one of the
leading providers of information with our publications like EuroHedge, Absolute
Return, InvestHedge and AsiaHedge, our databases and events," he added.
Ends
Note to editors: Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC is quoted on the London
Stock Exchange and publishes around 80 business-to-business titles including
Euromoney and Institutional Investor. In addition, the company runs conferences
and training courses, databases, electronic and other print publishing
businesses in a variety of markets internationally. HedgeFund Intelligence is
Euromoney's first major acquisition since it acquired the Houston-based Gulf
Publishing Company in August 2001.
For further information, please contact:
1) Padraic Fallon, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Euromoney Institutional
Investor PLC: (#44) 207 779 8556. Email: pfallon@euromoneyplc.com.
2) Richard Ensor, Managing Director, Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC:
(#44) 207 779 8845. Email: rensor@euromoneyplc.com.
3) Colin Jones, Finance Director, Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC:
(#44) 207 779 8666. Email: cjones@insitutionalinvestor.com.
4) Christopher Fordham, Development Director, Euromoney Institutional
Investor PLC: (#44) 207 779 8057. Email: cfordham@euromoneyplc.com.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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