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UK WINNER - RICHARD HALL
DEAL: GMT Communications Partners and Veronis Suhler Stevenson invests in IT-Ernity
NAME: Richard Hall COMPANY: CloudOrigin Limited POSITION: Cheif Executive TEL: +44 (203) 642 5715 EMAIL: info@cloudorigin.com WEBSITE: www.cloudorigin.com
DEAL OVERVIEW Q
Please summarise the transaction
CloudOrigin is delighted to have provided IT and Operational Due Diligence to GMT Communications Partners and Veronis Suhler Stevenson for the growth funding of IT-Ernity the leading internet and cloud service provider in The Netherlands.
Richard Hall, Chief Executive and founder of CloudOrigin, led this engagement.
Q What was your role within the transaction
We helped GMT develop their investment thesis from an early stage, recognising IT-Ernity as a market leader using process innovation to achieve growth with strong margins.
Working to an aggressive deal schedule CloudOrigin performed IT DD hand in hand with the Commercial DD provider to fully understand market drivers and identify growth requirement for operations, including detailed review of IT-Ernity datacentre providers and analysis of high value cloud computing service opportunities.
We then briefed the banking partners early in the process and clearly explained IT-Ernity
market
position and strengths in a segment often obscured by hyperbole.
Q
How were the challenges or difficulties overcome
The clients were working through a competitive process to strict deadlines, with a number of intersecting workstreams. From a technical and operational perspective we were able to co-ordinate with legal, financial and insurance advisors to quickly come to a joint understanding. We also briefed prospective finance providers explaining the offerings and segment differences in the target cloud market, in parallel to the due diligence process to accelerate our clients ability to propose a compelling bid.
Q
What other types of clients or transactions have you been involved with
We have been delighted to work on a very broad range of transactions in our busiest year to date – spanning first and second round Venture Capital deals for high growth UK technology startups, through mid-market Private Equity growth funding for TMT firms across Europe, and major buy outs at the top end of the market.
Q
What are your thoughts and predictions for 2014 and beyond
While some generalist Private Equity firms have BIO
Richard founded CloudOrigin in 2009 to focus on the business impact of cloud computing in public and private sectors, as an independent, pragmatic source of strategy and advisory services. Currently working with blue-chip brands around the world, venture capital, private equity firms and hyper growth Software as a Service firms. Recent diligence assignments include e-conomic, IntelliFlo, invenias, IT-ernity, KnowledgeMill, Misys, P&I AG, Raet bv, Thomson Reuters/Turaz and Wall Street Systems for investors such as BC Partners, CVC, Darwin, Deutsche Private Equity, GMT, H&F, HgCapital, Inflexion, MMC Ventures, Montagu, Nauta Capital, Oxford Capital Partners, RBS and Sovereign Capital.
Formerly UK Chief Technology Officer and Marketing Director for Avanade, the global Microsoft and Accenture joint venture, he has worked on some of the world’s largest application and infrastructure solutions. An Accenture Certified QA Partner he was trained to review the largest technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) deals, led the critical review of the NHS Programme, as well as technical pre- sales winning the seven year BPO for all backoffice systems to deliver the London 2012 Olympics. Richard previously received VC backing from Intel Capital and Kennet as CTO of Monis Software, the derivative analytics specialist acquired by Sungard.
Prior to that, he established the European operations of
Algorithmics, the Toronto based provider of enterprise financial risk management solutions, acquired first by Fitch and latterly IBM.
Graduate of Computing and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Sussex in 1989 where he won a BT sponsorship in Expert Systems and wrote for the computing section of The Guardian newspaper. In 2010 he was elected a Fellow of both BCS (The Chartered Institute of IT) and the Institute of Directors. Named a Leading Advisor of the Year in 2012 and 2013 by Acquisition International magazine. CloudOrigin was voted UK IT Due Diligence Firm of the Year at the 2013 M&A Awards, and UK IT and Operational DD Firm of the Year at the 2013 Corporate Finance Awards.
had difficult times fund raising, we have seen TMT specialists succeed with new funds, and a far more confident mood across the European sector enabling more deals to reach completion. Equally green shoot technology startups, often led by very experienced teams in this sector are exploiting Software as a Service business model to accelerate growth and produce exciting investment opportunities from startup though to multi-million Euro enterprise values with dramatic growth potential as they expand into US and Asian markets. US trade players and investors were also far more active in competitive bids in 2013 and we expect this to continue into 2014.
Deal Maker of the Year Awards 2013