Investis, the London-headquartered digital communications agency, today announced it is being bought out by its management team.
The £25 mn ($40 mn) deal is backed by Gresham, a UK mid-market private equity firm, with Helen James taking over from Justin Walters as CEO.
‘We are delighted to back Helen James, CEO, and the team at Investis in the buyout,’ comments Paul Franks, a partner at Gresham, in a press release.
‘We set out about 12 months ago to find a platform digital corporate communications business with a number of key attributes including being a market leader with an international footprint and having a blue chip client base with best-in-class products; Investis absolutely met our criteria.’
The company also announced that it was acquiring Morningstar Investor Relations Services, which designs IR and corporate websites for more than 550 companies from its London and New Delhi offices.
Morningstar, a provider of independent investment research, bought Hemscott IR in 2008 in order to acquire certain of its businesses and is now divesting its non-core activities such as IR.
Investis, which has offices in the UK, Germany, Italy, Finland and India, offers websites, social media solutions, apps and mobile sites, video and webcasting, and integrated online reporting services to a client base that includes more than 50 percent of the FTSE 100.
James, who before Investis worked in equity sales at Paribas, co-founded the firm 12 years ago along with Walters, an Oxford graduate who previously had launched the online version of the Guardian. Walters served as CEO for Investis since its creation while James was a managing director.
Commenting on both the buyout and the acquisition, James says in the release: ‘The backing of Gresham will allow us to move faster than ever, and I cannot think of a better way to start a new phase of the company’s development than with the acquisition of Morningstar Investor Relations Services.’
