Euromoney to acquire Hedgefund Intelligence

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Tuesday 12 August 2003

(London - 12 August, 2003) Euromoney Institutional Investor has today agreed to acquire all of the issued share capital of HedgeFund Intelligence Limited, a leading hedge fund publisher and event organizer, for an initial consideration of £11 million.

HedgeFund Intelligence publishes the influential monthly hedge fund newsletters EuroHedge, AsiaHedge and InvestHedge and, in April this year, launched Absolute Return, a monthly newsletter for the US hedge fund market.

HedgeFund Intelligence has grown rapidly since it was founded by launching new publications and expanding into databases and conferences.

Future growth is expected to come from increasing newsletter subscriptions, the continuing development of Absolute Return, expanding the company's hedge fund databases and launching new events such as conferences and awards dinners.

HedgeFund Intelligence was founded in 1998 by Iain and Suzie Jenkins. Iain Jenkins was formerly investment editor of Sunday Business and European business correspondent of the Sunday Times. He will continue to run the business from London as managing director.

For the year to November 30, 2002, HedgeFund Intelligence made an audited operating profit of £1 million on turnover of £2.4 million. For the seven months ended June 30, 2003, HedgeFund Intelligence made an unaudited operating profit of £775,000 on turnover of £2.1 million. The net assets at the date of acquisition were zero.

The acquisition will be financed from Euromoney's existing multi-currency revolving credit facility. The initial consideration is £11 million with a further payment in February 2005 of up to £5.5 million depending on HedgeFund Intelligence's profits for the year to November 30, 2004. The acquisition is expected to be earnings neutral for Euromoney for the period to September 30, 2003 and earnings enhancing in 2004.

"We are delighted to have bought HedgeFund Intelligence and to be receiving the continuing support of Iain Jenkins and his team," said Euromoney Chairman Padraic Fallon. "This acquisition follows the rapid growth of Euromoney's own hedge fund publishing and event activity, and positions Euromoney to become the world's leading supplier of information about hedge funds."

"Hedge funds assets are growing at the rate of 20-35% a year across the world and hedge fund managers have shown their value during the past few years of falling markets. Many have bucked the market and the whole sector is now likely to benefit from a further inflow of money," he added. "We believe that the hedge fund market will continue to grow strongly over the next few years, which will allow us to launch new products."

Commenting on the acquisition, Iain Jenkins, managing director of HedgeFund Intelligence, said: "Hedge funds are a very exciting space in the publishing world. The pace of growth of the industry is showing every sign of accelerating with $8 billion being raised by new European funds in the first half of the year. Yet, until now, there has been no dominant source of information. Teaming up with Euromoney will enable us to build on our strong position."