Data Room Services provides data room for Evonik deal.
Frankfurt, 10 June 2008. It was one of the most spectacular transactions in a year marked by extreme turbulence in the financial markets. On 3 June the RAG-Stiftung and British financial investor CVC Capital Partners together signed an acquisition agreement on the purchase of a 25.01 percent share in Evonik Industries AG. The sale price amounted to 2.4 billion Euros. According to reports, considerable interest was shown by a number of potential buyers. Besides CVC, three other renowned financial investors tendered bids.
Accordingly, a sizeable number of users took advantage of the opportunity of the due diligence period to inspect the confidential company information in a virtual data room provided by the new Frankfurt enterprise Data Room Services. Its virtual Q&A platform processed more than 1000 questions and answers during the due diligence period.
Transactions, particularly ones of this magnitude, usually have a long lead-time. Potential buyers need to inspect numerous confidential documents in order to form a picture of the commercial, legal and tax situation of the object up for sale. This is usually done in physical data rooms. But today more and more companies, investment banks and financial investors are following the trend to virtual data rooms as a way of saving time and money. Another reason virtual data rooms are becoming more pop ular is the increasingly global nature of finance markets. They afford investors at home and abroad the opportunity of obtaining the requisite information quickly and within a reasonable cost frame.
Data Room Services, the Frankfurt company founded in 2001, is the only German data room provider active in foreign countries. This ambitious company has recently opened a subsidiary in Switzerland to complement the subsidiaries it already has in the USA, Italy and Holland. It is also represented in France, Spain and Portugal via cooperation partners. Numerous renowned companies in the industrial, financial and consultancy sectors appreciate the fact that Data Room Services is headed up by a finance specialist with intimate knowledge of the market. Alexandre Grellier, who has managed the company since 2004, studied law at university, and previously worked for the Commerzbank and Lehman Brothers. The company developed the DRSdigital virtual data room and a platform for questions and answers. The intuitive user interface in particular has won the approval of customers.
Bernd Brinker, Senior Vice President and head of investor relations at Evonik, was, amongst other things, responsible for implementing the electronic data room and the Q&A process. He praised the DRSq+a tool, Data Room Services' platform for processing questions and answers, as follows: "A structured and transparent process had top priority for us. This requirement was ideally met by Data Room Services' flexible tools. We were able to configure the multi-level approval process for answers to meet our specifications exactly". Brinker was also very satisfied with the quick and successful completion of the transaction. "We really appreciated the excellent service provided by the Data Room Services employees. Despite his heavy workload, our project manager was available to us nearly 24/7".
Contact for the Media
Meike Mohr
Marketing Manager
Data Room Services GmbH & Co. KG
Eschersheimer Landstr. 6
60322 Frankfurt, Germany
P: +49 (0) 69 478640 - 280
M: +49 (0) 178 255 2071
F: +49 (0) 69 478640 - 1
meike.mohr@dataroomservices.com
www.dataroomservices.com