11/6/17
RWS Completes Its $320 Million Acquisition of Moravia, a Clarion Capital Partners Portfolio Company RWS Completes Its $320 Million Acquisition of Moravia, a Clarion Capital Partners Portfolio Company
New York, November 7, 2017 – Clarion Capital Partners, LLC (“Clarion”) is pleased to announce the completion of its $320 million sale of Moravia US Holding Company, Inc. and Moravia Lux Holding Company, S.A.R.L. (“Moravia”) to RWS US Holding Co and RWS (Overseas) Limited (“RWS”). The transaction was initially announced on October 18, 2017, subject to antitrust approval.
Moravia will operate as an autonomous division of RWS, continuing to focus on providing specialized globalization services, digital marketing and technology outsourcing services to the world’s blue-chip, high-growth companies. Moravia has built a unique reputation in the market for providing highly customized solutions and has become the first-ever company in the language services market to surpass $150 million in revenues based solely on organic growth. Clarion invested in Moravia with a view that large corporations and emerging technology companies are focused on global expansion with localization being a significant challenge.
“We’re excited to become part of the RWS Group and to be able to provide a wider range of talents and services to our clients,” commented Tomas Kratochvil, Moravia’s CEO. “Our business activities, vertical market focus, geographies and client bases are uniquely complementary. It has been a pleasure partnering with Clarion. The firm brought a number of resources that helped Moravia improve its sales and enhance its internal processes.”
“We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to invest behind this management team and we wish them success in their new roles. The team did a tremendous job driving growth and optimizing operations while building one of the largest companies in the language services and globalization industry,” said Jonathan Haas, Managing Director at Clarion.
Moravia received investment banking advice from William Blair & Co. LLC, legal advice from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP, and Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC, and accounting and tax advice from Deloitte.
RWS received investment banking advice from Gleacher Shacklock LLP, legal advice from Davis & Gilbert, LLP, and Ashurst, LLP, accounting advice from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and tax advice from Deloitte. Equity and debt financing were arranged and provided by Numis Securities Ltd and Barclays PLC.
About Moravia
Moravia is a leading globalization solution provider, enabling companies in the technology and life sciences industries and global brands to enter international markets with high quality multilingual products. Moravia maintains global headquarters in the Czech Republic and North American headquarters in California, with local offices and production centers in Japan, China, Latin America, Ireland, USA and throughout Europe. To learn more, please visit www.moravia.com.
About RWS
RWS is the world’s leading provider of patent translations and one of the leading players in the provision of intellectual property support services and a market leader in life sciences translations and linguistic validation as well as a high-level specialist language service provider in other technical areas, providing for the diverse needs of a blue-chip multinational client base from Europe, North America and Asia. RWS is based in the UK, with offices in Europe, the USA (New York, Hartford, Broomfield, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago), China, Japan and Australia, and is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L). For further information, please visit: www.rws.com.
About Clarion
Founded in 1999, Clarion is a New York-based investment manager operating two primary business segments: Private Equity (launched in 1999) and Structured Credit (launched in 2018). Clarion’s private equity business seeks to make primarily control investments in a diversified portfolio of lower middle-market companies generating $7.5-30.0 million of EBITDA. Clarion focuses on growth companies in industries such as: Media, Entertainment & Technology; Financial Technology & Services; Business & Healthcare Services; and Consumer & Consumer Services. Clarion’s structured credit business focuses mostly on CLO equity and mezzanine investments, sourced both in the primary and secondary markets. The structured credit team manages traditional private funds and an insurance-dedicated fund. Additional information on Clarion can be found at www.clarion-capital.com.