Sporting Index

“Managing the due diligence process becomes a minefield of scheduling, reorganization of filing and secrecy—but all of that is removed with the virtual dataroom.” 

– Chris Ward, Group Financial Controller, Sporting Index

The Situation

Unheard of 15 years ago, Sporting Index has created and grown its own market. When the management team conducted their first management buyout in 2002, they managed a paper-based dataroom. When it came to their secondary buyout in 2005, the team did not want to relive the time-consuming experience.

The Problem

With several buyer groups interested—both trade and financial—organizing sequential visits to a paper dataroom could quickly become an administrative nightmare. Rescheduling one visit to allow another group more time to finish their due diligence would send all the wrong signals to potential buyers.

The Implications

As a result of the importance and sensitivity of the process, the responsibility typically fell on senior team members who were already busy keeping on top of ‘business as usual’.

The Solution

Sporting Index reviewed Intralinks and several other providers. It was essential that sensitive corporate information be protected while making the process easier and more efficient for the management team. Intralinks became the front runner, offering the company the functionality, security, reliability and service it was looking for.

The Result

Once Intralinks Virtual Data Rooms was in place, the buyout took five months to complete. In November 2005, Sporting Index was acquired by Hg Capital for £75.8 million. And, with the on-demand solution, the new owners could find documents easily and manage their workload. 

The Benefit

Time is of the essence when completing a buyout. Delays in waiting for access to information or difficulty in locating documentation can make the transaction riskier. Sporting Index worked closely with its dedicated Intralinks project manager to make sure its document index followed best practices for online datarooms. The company was able to organize, populate and give access to the different parties quickly, improving the transaction timeline and ensuring the deal’s success.