Overview
Deal closed: December 2011
Oasis M&A mandate: sell-side
Sectors: Business services, Information Technology
Sub-sectors: Business Intelligence, IT Consulting, SAP
Background and motivation
Avantis Information Systems (now known as PwC Analytics Delivery), provides strategic guidance, consulting and training across multiple analytics platforms to deliver real value from your organisation’s data.
Avantis was owned by four shareholders looking to sell their business, 2 of whom wanted to exit and 2 who wanted to stay on to run the Sydney and Melbourne offices.
Challenges
At the time of this divestment, the acquirers in the technology sector were not valuing businesses highly and tended to have onerous restrictions on earn-out terms.
Approach
To seek what we believed to be the true value of the business, we approached acquirers in allied verticals outside of the technology sector including business intelligence and management consulting.
We positioned the business as an opportunity to expand on PwC’s existing premium offering with a more competitive solution to reach a broader market.