Foros Announces Record 2016
January 6, 2017: Foros Announces Record 2016, Expanded Team and New Website
At Foros, deep analysis and intellectual integrity shape our work. Our firm challenges conventional wisdom, which helps us develop customized recommendations for our clients. We work with select clients, fostering true, long-term partnerships. We develop analytical frameworks to identify and evaluate strategic alternatives to grow shareholder value. We then advise clients every step of the way to implement plans. Sometimes this means executing deals, but we also aren’t afraid to advise against a transaction if it is not right.
Our unique approach to strategic financial and M&A advisory has propelled Foros to our most successful year to date. You can read more on our new website www.forosgroup.com.
Record Results for 2016
In 2016 we continued to work with returning clients who value our differentiated approach. We also measure our success by the number of new clients that embrace this partnership. In both respects, 2016 was a record year. Although we are less focused on the number of announced transactions in any year because we view that number as an output that fluctuates based on client needs, we also successfully guided our clients to a record number of transactions.
Foros advised on 10 announced transactions in 2016 with a total deal volume in excess of $7 billion, ranging in size from $3.2 billion to less than $50 million, including three public company mergers each in excess of $1 billion. Public company M&A, divestitures and cross-border transactions continue to be important aspects of our business.
In 2016 we were lead advisor to EarthLink on its $1.1 billion merger with Windstream; CA Technologies on its €600 million cross-border acquisition of Austrian-based Automic and its divestiture of ERwin to Parallax Capital Partners; Kodak on its issuance of $200 million of convertible preferred stock to Southeastern Asset Management; Nielsen on its divestiture of Claritas to Carlyle; Harte Hanks on its $112 million divestiture of Trillium Software to Syncsort; and Consolidated Communications on the sale of its IT Services Equipment Business to ePlus. We were also co-advisor to Consolidated Communications on its $1.5 billion acquisition of FairPoint Communications; strategic advisor to Intersil on its $3.2 billion cross-border sale to Renesas of Japan; and co-advisor to Clearlake Capital on its acquisition of Vision Solutions.
We also conducted important strategic assessment work in 2016 for several clients that did not result in announcements. We take as much pride in those engagements as we do in announced transactions.
Additions to the Team
We added six senior team members in 2016, and are now 30 strong. George Foussianes, an industry veteran from Goldman, JPMorgan and HSBC, joined as a Senior Advisor and strengthened our overall advisory capability. Over the course of his three decade career, George has built and run several investment banking businesses, including leading JP Morgan’s Mid-Cap Investment Banking Business, its Consumer/Retail Investment Banking Coverage Group and its Financial Sponsor Coverage Group and serving as Head of Global Banking and Chairman, Americas at HSBC.
Stellar Tucker, a former Global Co-Head of Business Services at Goldman, joined us as a Managing Director and partnered with Roy Krause, the former CEO of SFN Group, a commercial and specialty staffing company and our first strategic assessment client, who joined us as Senior Advisor. Stellar and Roy are bringing a differentiated strategic M&A advisory capability to the business services and temporary staffing industry.
Lonne Jaffe joined us as an Advisory Director to add a fresh industry perspective to our strong presence in the software industry. Lonne is the former CEO of Syncsort and was a senior M&A and strategy executive at CA Technologies and previously IBM. Khaled Ashour, a seasoned M&A banker with experience in TMT and Energy and Wilkie Catron, with M&A and restructuring experience across many industries, both joined Foros as Senior Vice Presidents from Credit Suisse. We also continue to add to the team at the analyst level with Caroline White joining from University of Pennsylvania and Devon Breton-Pakozdi and XinXin Xu joining from Yale.
Foros Perspectives
In 2016 we began publishing Foros Perspectives, an analytical publication that dissects, explains, and critiques the nuts and bolts of mergers and acquisitions and corporate strategic planning. We developed this platform to share our analyses and insights more broadly. Since the launch, we have published seven Perspectives on a wide range of M&A topics. Our goal is to shed light and to provoke thought and discussion in an industry that can often seem opaque, and we have begun to gain a following of executives, policymakers, and fellow advisors.
New Website for 2017
We are launching our new website for 2017, updated to reflect the firm’s growth and highlight our approach to strategic financial and M&A advisory. We invite you to visit our new site and read more about our firm values, client successes, team members and Foros Perspectives on www.forosgroup.com.