Case study How can documents be shared with an advisory team on another continent?

Nowadays, more and more companies operate on a global scale, which often requires collaboration with business partners from different parts of the world. In transactional processes such as mergers and acquisitions, cooperation with an advisory team, often located on another continent, is also essential. How can documents be effectively shared with these business partners while maintaining data security and confidentiality?

OUR CLIENT

NOVAGO sp. z o.o. – one of the largest municipal waste processing companies in Poland

TRANSACTION TYPE

Acquisition of 100% of the Company’s shares.
“The Novago transaction is the largest Chinese investment in Poland and the largest acquisition in the environmental protection sector in Central and Eastern Europe.”

SELL-SIDE

Abris Capital Partners – a leading independent private equity fund focused on mid-sized companies in the Central and Eastern European region.

BUY-SIDE

China Everbright International Limited – a leading and one of the largest environmental protection companies in China, operating in four main segments: green energy, water treatment, greentech, and environmental technology.

SELL-SIDE ADVISORS

Pekao Investment Banking (M&A), Norton Rose Fulbright (legal), Deloitte (financial, tax, commercial), Ramboll Environ (environmental).

More than 120 experts from several advisory teams representing both the selling and the buying side were involved in the transaction. Each of them was responsible for conducting due diligence in their respective area (tax, legal, financial, environmental). To support this process, Novago had to share several thousand documents with the advisors, appropriately differentiate file access permissions so that everyone could work independently on their relevant set of information, and ensure comfortable access from their local offices in Europe and Asia.

Pekao Investment Banking, acting as the transaction advisor, recommended FORDATA. The data room enabled the organization of access to a large volume of information by creating a clear folder structure and assigning selective access to files. Users were able to analyze documents online 24/7, comfortably from their own offices.

In case of technical questions, users could rely on immediate support from the FORDATA team, with a guaranteed response time of 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To avoid information overload, each user could only see the files necessary for completing their tasks. When new documents were uploaded, everyone was automatically notified.

During the nearly six-month-long process, the seller’s advisor was able to continuously monitor user activity, allowing them to anticipate and prepare for upcoming questions from the investor. Most documents were protected from being saved or printed, and they were watermarked, which gave the seller assurance that no confidential information would fall into the wrong hands.

“We value the high quality of service provided by FORDATA throughout the project. On multiple occasions, the FORDATA Customer Support team responded promptly, with great diligence, and within timeframes that exceeded our expectations.”

Piotr Rudzki, Director in the Financial Advisory Department at Pekao Investment Banking S.A.

“FORDATA provides a system that ensured the level of data security we expected, allowing the Due Diligence process to be conducted electronically, in line with industry standards expected by international investors.”

Bartosz Szałek, Vice President, CFO at Novago sp. z o.o.

The case study was developed in collaboration with Novago and Pekao Investment Banking.