HAL Investments case study
Secure & efficient document repository for private equity firms
HAL Investments is one of a growing number of private equity firms using Imprima iRooms for portfolio management and company exits. Based in Rotterdam, HAL Investments has a range of approximately 20 different companies in its portfolio, including optical retailers, shipping companies and technology businesses. It is the European investment subsidiary of HAL Holding N.V., an international investment company based in Curaçao. All shares of HAL Holding are held by HAL Trust and form the Trust's entire assets. HAL Trust's shares are quoted on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
HAL Investments' role is to look for new companies in which to invest but also to find opportunities for portfolio companies to grow through mergers and acquisitions. It has worked with Imprima iRooms for more than two years and uses the platform to house separate, permanent data rooms for its portfolio companies.
Wouter Wolffenbuttel, Investment Manager at HAL Investments, says that iRooms brings a number of specific benefits to private equity firms. One of the most important of these is having all documentation relating to portfolio companies in a single location.
"We use permanent data rooms for several of our companies and ensure that information such as annual reports and material contracts are always up to date. Being a long term investment company, we use iRooms mainly for managing our portfolio over the longer-term, but we can see that it would also be suitable for the typical PE firm that is more interested in moving quickly towards exits for portfolio companies. In those cases, they don't need to gather information from lots of different sources: it is already compiled."
"In either case, this must begin with the set-up of a virtual data room, which can be a timeconsuming and complex process in itself," adds Femke de Vries, Associate at HAL Investments. "It's not always straightforward to set a data room up from scratch, but Imprima provides 24/7 support and a dedicated project manager to help guide you through. "
The iRooms solution - helping private equity firms manage portfolio companies
As well as using iRooms to ensure that company data is always up to date, HAL Investments relies on its permanent data rooms to retain information that may be required by auditors or regulators.
"Another benefit of using iRooms is that private equity firms can monitor who is looking at what", Wouter Wolffenbuttel adds. "In particular the ability to track potential buyers or investors to see what they are accessing, and how often."
"As with any investment company firm we need to act quickly, fairly and decisively when managing our portfolio companies. iRooms ensures that all of the information required for that process is held securely in one place."
Having a secure iRooms repository also means that the time spent by advisors such as lawyers or accountants having to travel to a firm to draft or look at documents is considerably reduced. This can lead to significant cost savings for the private equity firm that would normally have to foot the bill for the hours spent travelling.
Wouter Wolffenbuttel concludes: "iRooms helps us tick all of the boxes in terms of regulatory compliance, transparency and risk management. The 24/7 customer support provided by Imprima is crucial: there's nothing more frustrating than working on a deal and being unable to access a particular document. We know that we can always get in touch with Imprima, no matter what time of day it is."
"HAL Investments will continue using iRooms to house permanent data rooms for its portfolio companies", says Wouter, "but has also used it to support communication between team members around new acquisitions. This ensures that everyone is working on the same versions of documents as we move through the process."
"iRooms provides us with a disciplined environment and ensures that there is a level playing field for everyone who might want to look at a particular company's information."
