h3. London (UK), Silicon Valley (US) — 26 August 2008 — Kennet Partners Ltd (“Kennet”), a leading international growth equity firm focused on the technology sector, today announced that its portfolio company FRSGlobal has reached agreement to acquire Iris integrated risk management AG (“IRIS”), a provider of risk management solutions.
The acquisition enables FRSGlobal to introduce the first combined risk and regulatory reporting solution for financial services – addressing the need to create a single, reliable data framework to best manage risk and meet increasing global regulatory demands.
The deal is supported by Kennet Partners and The Carlyle Group, the private equity investors in FRSGlobal, and is subject to EU approval. Upon completion, FRSGlobal will become the largest independent software and services supplier providing multi-country risk and regulatory reporting solutions.
David Carratt, Managing Director, Kennet Partners, said:
“FRSGlobal’s acquisition of IRIS creates a powerful platform for the integration of risk measurement, economic performance metrics and regulatory reporting. Kennet is committed to supporting FRSGlobal with our expertise in development of international market opportunities by acquisition as well as through organic growth. Kennet and Carlyle will contribute additional equity financing to enable FRSGlobal to complete this transaction.”
Steve Husk, CEO, FRSGlobal, commented:
“Risk and regulatory solutions have always been vital to the smooth operation of the financial industry and their true value is being highlighted in today’s tough economic climate. Risk and regulatory software have traditionally developed separately – we see this as the ideal time to pursue a strategic acquisition and bring the two together.”
The heightened urgency of Basel II implementation, following the subprime crisis, stresses that risk information presented to regulators, senior management and to the markets must be consistent. FRSGlobal’s acquisition of IRIS means that the market will be able to benefit from an integrated solution on a single platform.
IRIS is a privately-held, self-funded Swiss company, founded in 1992 by Dr. Jurg Winter and Dr Willi Brammertz. IRIS’ investment in research and development remains amongst the highest of its peers, with over half of employees working in R&D.
IRIS’ riskpro™ is a worldwide leading solution for financial analysis – used by more than 230 financial institutions in over 20 countries – and covers all functionalities related to risk, ALM, IFRS, capital requirements and capital planning within a single integrated solution.
Dr. Jurg B Winter, CEO and founder, IRIS, added:
“We welcome the acquisition by FRSGlobal and expect clients to benefit from a powerful combination of market-leading technologies, enabling them to take full advantage of this integrated solution. It is very much a natural fit for our business, significantly increasing the global reach of our solutions, and we look forward to working with FRSGlobal.”
h2. About Kennet Partners
Kennet Partners is a leading international private equity firm that invests in growth companies providing information technology products and business services that leverage technology. Kennet offers expansion capital to businesses that want to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value in partnership with an experienced investor. Kennet Partners acts as an advisor to Kennet I, a Jersey-based fund and to Kennet II and Kennet III, both Guernsey-based funds. Kennet Partners is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. For more information: www.kennet.com
h2. About FRSGlobal
FRSGlobal is the only provider of global risk and regulatory compliance reporting solutions with coverage for 30+ countries. The firm is dedicated to risk and regulatory reporting and supplies over 1500 financial organisations worldwide with an independent and cost-effective multi-country regulatory reporting platform. Subscribing clients benefit from the FRSGlobal Guarantee – “to keep the reports up-to-date with regulators’ requirements”.
FRSGlobal is headquartered in Brussels and has 19 other offices in North America (Boston, New York and Toronto), Europe (Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Zurich, Lausanne, Warsaw and Cluj-Napoca (Romania)), Dubai and Asia Pacific and Japan (Hong Kong, Pune and Singapore).
h2. About IRIS
Information about IRIS is available at www.irisunified.com
For further information please contact:
Su Johnston
Kennet Partners
+44 (0) 20 7839 8020
sjohnston@kennet.com
Rebecca Bond
FRSGlobal
+44 (0) 20 7539 6548
rebecca.bond@frsglobal.com
Theresa Maloney
Accelent Marketing for Kennet US
+1 (925) 287-1509
theresa@accelentmarketing.com