VIRTUAL DATA ROOMS IN M&A
« « Essential for significant operations, data rooms are now used for medium and small operations»»
The point of view of Fabienne Hanras, Head of Eurallia Finance Marseille and member of the board of directors of Eurallia Finance, administrator of the
professional union of merger advice acquisition CNCFA
20 février 2019
Could you please introduce Eurallia Finance?
We are a national structure specializing in mergers and acquisitions, which brings together 21 partners from 18 offices covering the whole of France. We have completed 855 operations since our inception in 2000; Since 2014, we have been number 1 in the number of Fusacq operations,
with 40 to 50 operations per year.
What kind of operations do you conduct at Eurallia Finance?
We are particularly active in medium-sized operations, with a value of between 1 and 5 million
euros, even though we have much larger mandates, and a few smaller ones. Our mandates cover
divestitures two times out of three, the others are acquisitions, or fundraising. Within the network
we are versatile, although some of us have special areas of expertise, such as agribusiness,
transportation or electricity.
What is your office?
I created and manage the Eurallia Finance office in Marseille, but I am also a member of AFITE,
our professional association for equity market and Secretary of the CNCFA, our professional union.
I am often in the network the one who tests the new tools, and that's what led me to be the first to
test MyCercle Data rooms.
What is the use of virtual data rooms today in the world of Fusacq?
It is still very limited on the small and medium operations we are talking about. It is an instrument
that keeps a heavy and expensive image, which is reserved for significant operations.
What was your experience of a MyCercle virtual Data room?
Very positive, since it led us to adopt these Data rooms in the Eurallia network. The strong points
are the confidentiality, the very professional image and the personalization that they give to the firm and which sets us apart from the confreres, with our logo, our message. I also particularly
appreciate the possibility of adding a confidentiality watermark across documents or sending
messages to all participants, the traceability of consultations ...
What use do you see of virtual data rooms in the future?
They are essential on significant transactions or those which present elements of confidentiality:
commercial information, protection of patents ... But in the end nothing prevents to use them
systematically including for small operations. For example, in the network, we test usage from the
teaser stage and consider opening up the system to the vendor and his colleagues to associate
them more directly with the process.