GAMECHANGERS MAGAZINE TWELVE / SIXTEEN

Gamechangers

TWELVE / SIXTEEN TM

MAGAZINE

Working Towards a Better Financial Future CEO Sammedia,

Mik Cons SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTHCARe: A closer look into the healthcare, pharmaceutical and biotech industries

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Can the medicines company change medicine?

How Apple is different now, 5 years after Steve Jobs death?

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CONTENTS cover

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WORKING TOWARDS A BETTER FINANCIAL FUTURE

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Expanding a lending business in 2016: learning from experience

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BANKING VETERAN TAKES UP ROLE WITH iNFINITY GameChangers™ welcomes news and views from its readers. Correspondence should be sent to gamechangers@acq5.com For more information about GameChangers™ visit www.acq5.com/posts/ gamechangers/ GameChangers™ Copyright © 2016 GameChangers™ No part of this magazine may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without permission.

SAFE HARBOR The interviews in this publication may contain certain forward looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations of the businesses profiled. These statements and forecasts involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a number of factors which could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward looking statements and forecasts. The statements may have been made with reference to forecast price changes, economic conditions and the current regulatory environment. Nothing in these announcements should be construed as a profit forecast.

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49 5 minutes with Craig James, CEO of Neopay

How the internet economy killed inflation

HEALTHCARe: A closer look into the healthcare, pharmaceutical and biotech industries

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Fortune's 40 Under 40 List launched

How Apple is different now, 5 years after Steve Jobs death?

TEAM David Rogan - President & Editor-In-Chief Jon Van Dyke - Editorial Director James Wiltshire - Publisher EDITORIAL J Robson - Editor-At-Large L. B. Kooler - Deputy Editor P Ramone - Senior Editor J LaRusso - Copy Chief M-C Fisher - Editorial Assistant B Sancheze - Senior Staff Writer ADVERTISING A Bott - Digital Advertising Director J Downey - Advertising Director Z Wolfel - Business Development Director C Thomas - Account Executive H Smith - Account Executive ADMINISTRATION A Kessler - Finance & Admin Director T Dolby - Technology Manager P Hughes - Operations Coordinator T. A. Black - Office Manager

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ALLIED MINDS AND GE VENTURES FORM STRATEGIC ALLIANCE TO COMMERCIALISE LEADING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES Collaboration intends to invest in new and existing companies based on leading technologies from GE and Allied Minds’ combined portfolio and pipeline Allied Minds plc (LSE: ALM) (“Allied Minds”) and GE Ventures (NYSE: GE) (“GE”), announced the launch of a strategic alliance to jointly identify and commercialise next-generation technologies. Under the terms of the agreement, Allied Minds and GE Ventures agree to invest in new and existing technologies sourced from both Allied Minds and GE’s innovation pipelines.

The strategic alliance expands Allied Minds’ deep network of research and development partners to include GE’s leading early stage technologies in healthcare, transportation, energy, and big data. Allied Minds receives an exclusive right of first refusal to license certain technologies, chosen

by GE, which are of strategic interest to the companies. GE will also have the opportunity to invest in select innovations sourced from Allied Minds’ network of over 160 university and federal research partners.

Each year, Allied Minds reviews thousands of intellectual property (“IP”) opportunities from some of the nation’s best universities and federal labs to identify innovations with the potential to have a significant impact on commercial markets. If an emerging technology passes its due diligence, Allied Minds forms, funds, manages, GE Ventures accelerates innovation

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and growth for its partners by providing access to GE’s cutting-edge technologies and an extensive IP portfolio through licensing, technology transfer, joint development, and other strategic business models. By bringing together Allied Minds’ commercialisation process and GE Ventures’ innovation expertise, the strategic alliance can leverage the combined technology, marketing, fundraising, start-up development, and management capabilities of the two entities.

“What drives Allied Minds is disruption of the status quo in cooperation with our research partners,” said Chris Silva, CEO of Allied Minds. “Our new partnership with GE, a globally-renowned leader in innovation, allows us to begin tapping into the vast potential of IP being developed within the laboratories of leading commercial companies. Allied Minds is delighted to work with GE and to gain direct access to its technologies while providing GE with exposure to Allied Minds’ portfolio and pipeline of innovations sourced from its network of partners.”

“GE is excited to have Allied Minds as a channel partner for venture creation,” said Pat Patnode, President of Licensing at GE Ventures. “Allied Minds’ capabilities and experience in early stage technology development complement GE’s diverse IP portfolio.

We look forward to building opportunities with our combined expertise.”

AMUNDI CREATES DEDICATED PLATFORM FOR REAL AND ALTERNATIVE ASSETS Amundi is launching a single platform bringing together its capabilities in real and alternative assets (AI) in order to become one of the leading alternative asset managers in Europe.

Real estate, private debt, private equity, infrastructure and alternative multi-management are now all part of an integrated business, bringing

together 200 investment professionals in origination, structuring and management, responsible for EUR 34bn in assets (as at 30th June 2016).

Amundi aims to double its funds under management in real and alternative assets by 2020.

Amundi’s track record in alternative assets includes 40 years’ experience in real estate, a leading position in credit management and a pioneering approach in infrastructure, where it has partnered with EDF. The new business grouping will help Amundi develop these areas of expertise to serve investors’ needs for performance and diversification. With low correlation to traditional assets, AI strategies have an illiquidity premium, which is attractive as we face long-term low interest rates, and sustained equity volatility.

38% of institutional investors envisage reallocating part of their portfolio to private debt, 44% to infrastructure, and 51% to private equity.Amundi is already recognised in these asset classes based on its own expertise and through its partnerships. The company has exclusive access to several large scale European real estate transactions.

It also actively contributes to the financing of the real economy through private debt, private equity and infrastructure.

Pedro Antonio Arias, Amundi’s Global Head of Real and Alternative Assets, said: “We have been meticulously building our capabilities over recent years by attracting skilled teams from diverse backgrounds. Our aim is to further develop our capabilities based on the EUR 34bn we already manage in this area, and to be a leading European player in real and alternative assets.”

Through this new platform, Amundi will offer institutional and individual investors the opportunity to invest directly in real assets with dedicated solutions or via collective solutions with co-investment or multi-management funds.

Eric Wohleber, Amundi’s Head of Real & Alternative Assets Sales, added: “Amundi’s power, infrastructure and financial strength are all major advantages allowing us to give European and Asian investors transparent, institutional-quality investment solutions in real and alternative assets.”

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BRITISH BUSINESS BANK INVESTMENTS LTD COMMITS £18M TO NORTHWEST-BASED ASSET FINANCE PROVIDER, ENABLING A £36M BOOST TO SMALLER BUSINESS GROWTH British Business Bank Investments Ltd, the commercial arm of the British Business Bank, announced an £18m investment in Blackburn and Manchester-based Praetura Asset Finance.

The investment, comprising £15m of matched funding and an additional £3m of expansion capital, will support at least £36m of smaller business finance. This is the first British Business Bank Investments Ltd transaction to combine matched and unmatched funding in this way.

Praetura Asset Finance provides asset-based finance, hire purchase, finance leasing and refinancing facilities of between £10k and £2m to businesses across a variety of sectors, including construction and plant, engineering, printing, transport, waste and recycling, and agriculture.

Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO of British Business Bank Investments Ltd, said: “British Business Bank’s recent Small Business Finance Markets Report indicated strong growth in asset finance volumes over the last two years, and we see asset finance as an important option for smaller businesses looking to realise their growth potential.

“We are keen to support the growing demand for this type of finance and are pleased to be making this investment in Praetura Asset Finance. By supporting relative newcomers to the market – Praetura was established in 2014 – we are actively increasing lending choices for smaller businesses across the UK.” Mike Hartley, Managing Director of Praetura Asset Finance Ltd, said: “We are delighted at Praetura to be partnering with British Business Bank Investments Ltd. The syndication of our senior debt, alongside the expansion capital facility, provides us with real stability to support our continued growth.

“Like our other institutional funders, British Business Bank Investments Ltd shares our aim of providing suitable and targeted finance solutions for SMEs. These facilities will help

meet the objectives of both parties, and to secure Praetura’s market position in the coming years.”Simon Goldie, Head of Asset Finance at the Finance and Leasing Association, added: “This latest announcement shows the increasing prominence of asset finance in small business funding. We welcome this new investment, which will enable another FLA member firm, Praetura Asset Finance, to help even more firms grow and prosper in the UK economy.”

British Business Bank Investments Ltd makes loans to or investments in finance providers to smaller businesses. It acts as a catalyst to increase both supply and diversity of finance for smaller businesses, while earning an attractive, commercial return for the UK taxpayer.

Asset Finance is becoming an increasingly popular choice for smaller businesses, with FLA figures showing growth in asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) of 11% in 2015 to £28.1bn (excluding high value deals). This is the market’s second consecutive year of double-digit growth.

DROOMS PRESENTS A NEW GENERATION OF DATA ROOMS: DROOMS NXG Drooms introduces the first self-learning software into due diligence processes with its new virtual data room “Drooms NXG” Drooms, Europe’s leading provider of virtual data rooms, is presenting its new virtual data room Drooms NXG. The new platform introduces intuitiveness to transactions in addition to increased automation of due diligence processes, for example within the framework of mergers and acquisitions, real estate transactions and IPOs. As digitisation rises so too does the potential for individual users to benefit from underlying working processes. The new virtual data room facilitates real-time document translation directly in the data room in addition to carrying out an automatic red flag analysis.

Automated data analysis to minimise risks A key objective of due diligence is identifying major risks.

These are known as “red flags”. With the initial release of an auto red flag feature, Drooms NXG’s algorithms are able to independently analyse the content of a data room and filter out the relevant information to enable userbased assessment. An overview of the results, known as “findings”, facilitates a rapid evaluation of potential risks and opportunities and further processing of information. This feature introduces self-learning software into due diligence processes for the first time.

Digitisation supports user-centric processes In order to benefit from digitisation in terms of saving time and increasing profitability, it is vital that further technical developments place users and their workflow at the heart of

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processes. Drooms, an owner-operated company, can boast a market experience of 15 years. Drooms called upon this experience in addition to client-based feedback during the two-year development phase of the new platform. The focus of features included in Drooms NXG is on the user, ensuring efficient workflows and a high degree of user-friendliness.

International transaction business On account of the increasingly international nature of transactions, it is often the case that transaction parties speak different languages. Translating documents into different languages takes up a lot of time and costs for language specialists are high, even for less relevant documentation. Drooms NXG facilitates a direct machine-based translation of documents uploaded to the data room. In order to find the most important information contained in the data flow, a comprehensive search function is indispensable. By entering the desired search term, an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) search of all index descriptions and document content is carried out in the data room for this key word, any synonyms and similar search terms. Any hits are then flagged up to users.

More than 25,000 companies around the world count on the support of Drooms’ secure platform during complex transactions, for example mergers and acquisitions, commercial real estate transactions, fund-raising initiatives and IPOs. Drooms is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and maintains a presence in Frankfurt, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Madrid and Milan.

EXTREME WEATHER LOSSES INCREASE GLOBAL SOLAR CLAIMS SEVERITY The solar PV industry will need to invest time and resources in order to increase its tolerance to risk, particularly for losses resulting from extreme weather conditions. This is according to research undertaken by GCube Underwriting Ltd. (GCube), the leading underwriter for renewable energy, in a new report entitled Cell, Interrupted.

Annual growth in the solar market consistently exceeds 25%, with falling technology costs and sufficient scale and innovation driving development in new markets. In the last five years, for instance, the cost of solar panels has fallen from $4 million per MW to $1.3 million.

RESEARCH REVEALS PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS ARE OPTIMISIC ABOUT RAISING FUNDS New research from FIRST, a leading global events agency, and reveals that over the next three years, 63% of private equity professionals think the level of funds raised by the industry will increase when compared to the previous three years.

Only one in five (20%) expect it to fall.

Some 69% of those anticipating it to become easier to raise funds say it is because investors are increasingly looking to diversify their portfolios, and they will therefore increase their exposure to private equity. Some 27% believe it is because returns from private equity will become more attractive.

Separate research with pension professionals reveals that over the next three years 51% expect schemes to increase their allocation to private equity, and just 13% anticipate pension funds to reduce their exposure here.

When it comes to which geographical regions private equity professionals believe offers the industry the best investment opportunities, 55% cite Europe, followed by 43% who said North America. One in three (33%) think Asia is an attractive market for private equity, followed by 18% who said this about Africa.

The research from FIRST reveals that with many private equity professionals feeling optimistic about the future prospects of the industry, 29% plan to attend more industry events and conferences over the next 12 months than they did in the previous year, compared to 7% who think they will be going to fewer. 83% of those planning to attend more say it’s because they need to increase their level of networking for fund raising purposes, and also to help finance attractive investment opportunities.

However, if the industry is to continue to develop at this rate – particularly in an age of declining subsidies – it will need to more adequately prepare for sudden and unforeseen risks, particularly as the market increasingly moves into areas prone to natural catastrophe and extreme weather conditions.

Failure to do so will be to the detriment of investors and project stakeholders.

Mark Riches, MD FIRST - UK said: “These are exciting times for the private equity sector, and our research shows the level of networking is increasing. Many private equity firms are expanding their reach into new sectors and geographies, and the importance of meeting investment prospects, investors and business partners has never been greater.

GCube’s Cell, Interrupted, a report produced exclusively for the firm’s international community of insured clients and supporting brokers, identifies the challenges faced by solar PV developers and owners around the world, the causes and cost of solar PV claims, and discusses how they can best be mitigated.

“Live events are a valuable tool to increase communications, build ideas and foster innovation. At FIRST we use our breadth of global expertise to help our clients deliver their important key messages in insightful and memorable ways.

We look forward to partnering with our private equity clients to design and deliver an increasing number of live event activities.”

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TECH FUND ETERNITY CAPITAL RELOCATES TO GUERNSEY European technology fund Eternity Capital has selected Guernsey as the territory of choice for its new enterprises, underlining Guernsey’s position as a centre for financial services and entrepreneurial tech businesses.

Fund manager and founder Nick Magliocchetti launched Eternity Capital in February 2016 as a spin-out of his successful London-based tech fund Whitespace. Together with fellow founder David Raskino (ex-Microsoft), Magliocchetti will use Eternity Capital’s Guernsey base to focus on investing in world-class technology teams.

Magliocchetti will also be bringing his expertise to Guernsey’s burgeoning technology sector. Alongside the fund structure, he will be launching a small advisory arm called Eternity Special Projects (ESP). This will be a vehicle for his new Guernsey-based tech ventures, as well as for a small advisory business which will help Guernsey based companies and the government to capitalize on global tech trends.

ESP will be working with a pipeline of investee companies, many of which are globally significant Silicon Valley ventures. It will boast a local board of advisors headed up by Guernsey-based Darren Vogel.

Nick Magliocchetti, comments: “We firmly believe that there are technologies out there with the potential to change the way we live and work.

We want to bring those technologies to Guernsey, not only as investment opportunities but also to provide Guernsey’s public and private sector with world-class technology solutions.

“The clear opportunities presented by Guernsey, on both a personal and corporate level, made this move an easy decision. The regulatory environment and the excellent professional services community in Guernsey are an unmatched combination.”

Richard Le Tocq, Head of Locate Guernsey, an organisation that facilitates the relocation of businesses and individuals to Guernsey, comments: “Nick is exceptionally well-connected in sectors that are exciting and growing and we are confident that more and more world-class entrepreneurial teams and companies will be moving to Guernsey in the years to come.”

“Indeed, interest in relocation continues to be assisted by the existence of Guernsey’s Digital Greenhouse which helps enable innovation to thrive in the Island.”

ULTIMATE FINANCE’S FUNDING SUPPORT LEADS TO ROYAL RECOGNITION FOR MALE GROOMING PRODUCTS FIRM A father and son partnership, which started a brand of men’s grooming products from scratch, has recognised the important role Ultimate Finance played in helping them receive an award from the Queen in recognition of their export success.

Mark and Ben Snowdon started Lock Stock and Barrel in Birmingham ten years ago with limited funds and everything outsourced. Today they have their own manufacturing plant, employ eight people and export to 16 countries, with further new markets penned in over the next 12 months.

Earlier this year, Ben and his colleague Caroline McGuire were invited to Buckingham Palace to accept the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade from the Queen herself.

However, achieving the award has not been easy. In 2006, as a small start-up and with no track record or accounts, they found it impossible to secure the bank funding they needed to grow. They approached Ultimate Finance who recognised the potential of the company and its products. It quickly provided Lock Stock and Barrel with an invoice factoring facility enabling them to receive the money from customer invoices straight away, rather than having to wait 30 days or more, so they could reinvest it back into the business.

As the business grew they made a significant investment by bringing manufacturing in-house just as the financial crash hit in 2008.

Despite the lean times caused by the credit crunch, domestic turnover continued to grow enabling them to establish a lucrative export market.

Ben Snowdon believes this would have been impossible without the funding facility provided by Ultimate Finance.

“Invoice factoring enabled us to really harness our UK turnover and stabilise cashflow at a time when credit terms were steep and traditional financing non-existent,” he said.

“It allowed us to build our business organically, without the need for loans and overdrafts, and enabled our limited staff to concentrate their efforts on what they did best, while the team at Ultimate Finance managed our UK ledger, chased overdue invoices and provided a friendly point of contact to our customers.

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“Today our UK turnover accounts for just over 20 percent of our total sales and while the need to finance our invoices has decreased over time, we still see this as a valuable service ten years on.

“We are proud to have built a business that hasn’t relied on bank finance and feel very fortunate today to not have to rely on bank overdrafts and loans.

“I have always found Lesley Mouncher and the team at Ultimate to be conscientious in dealing with our valued customers, many of whom have been with us from the start.

I believe that is the reason we have yet to experience a single incident of non-payment of an invoice. For me, they play a vital role in our domestic market and one which I’m sure will endure for many years to come.

“There is no doubt that without Ultimate’s faith in the company at the beginning, we would not have had the success we have had and the honour of being recognised by the Queen for our achievements.”

BRIGHTER WORLD ENERGY RAISES £500,000 IN SEED CAPITAL TO PROVIDE SOLAR ENERGY TO AFRICA Brighter World Energy, a new socially conscious energy company launching in the United Kingdom, announced that it has completed a £500,000 seed capital round with the help of ClearlySo, Europe’s leading impact investment bank.

Brighter World Energy plans to use the funding to ensure consumer power tackles the global energy crisis.

Brighter World Energy’s dual mission is to offer UK customers access to energy at competitive tariffs and high-quality online support, which will contribute directly to help build solar-powered micro-grids in Africa.

For every 2,000 customers signed up with Brighter World Energy, a solar powered micro-grid is installed in Africa.

Brighter World Energy’s model shows that it will offer the average household up to £200 per annum in savings when compared to the average standard variable tariff of the Big Six energy providers. Their mission to deliver renewable energy in Africa positions the company to align their business with UK customer values, build sustainable stakeholder engagement and thus strengthen their position in the domestic energy market for the long-term.

Not-for-Profit supplier Robin Hood Energy does the regulatory, energy trading, meter reading and meter management activities.

Cheryl Latham, Brighter World Energy’s founder and chief executive officer, said: “We’re here for those conscious

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consumers who want a good deal, but also want to use the power of their purchase to do some fundamental good in the world.

“With more than a billion unconnected people around the world, making a simple switch here at home will turn on the lights for villages in Africa for the very first time. Everyone should have the same right to access energy, no matter where they are born.

“Our investors’ have belief in the Brighter World mission, putting positively life-changing power in the hands of UK consumers, and addressing global challenges with a fair and transparent business model, is the right way to do business.”

Further commenting, Hayley Collen, investment director at ClearlySo: “There is a clear correlation between access to energy and inequality. Brighter World Energy is helping solve this problem by leveraging the power and consciousness of the British consumer to provide access to clean energy for those who need it most whilst getting a competitive price for their own fuel. We are delighted that ClearlySo’s extensive investor network was able to help give them the capital they need to launch this very important endeavor.”

The legal advisor on the transaction was Pannone Corporate LLP. Corporate partner Tom Hall who led the team said: “Brighter World Energy will not only enable socially conscious consumers to save money on their household energy bills but will make a real difference to the lives of people in Africa.

“Growing numbers of UK consumers are keen to source energy from companies operating in the sustainable and not for profit sectors. We are delighted to advise Brighter World Energy on securing the seed capital which will help fulfil its ambitions of becoming a leading provider in the UK energy market.”

LATIMER GROUP RAISES OVER £1 MILLION WITH HELP FROM CLEARLYSO ClearlySo, Europe’s leading impact investment bank, announced the completion of a £1.1 million equity investment into Latimer Group, a youth co-creation agency, from a mix of institutional and individual investors. Latimer is using the capital to accelerate the growth of their market-leading agency business, bring in senior hires and build out their technology platform, Bulbshare.

Latimer specializes in building communities that help drive rapid innovation for brands and partner organizations. In the last 5 years, the Latimer team have worked with over 50,000 young people to generate insights that lead to co-created content using unique methodology that puts consumers at the heart of the creative process. This approach to audience collaboration has been successful for high profile clients such as the BBC, the British Council and the Nike Foundation.

Latimer works with young people in specially-created communities throughout each stage of a project, from

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research to distribution, and encourages them to share ownership of the campaign’s output. The agency has tackled issues ranging from homelessness, knife crime and child marriage, through to more traditional challenges around branding and market positioning.

According to the UK Office for National Statistics, the current unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds in the UK is 13.6%, and the unused digital skills of these unemployed young people are estimated to be worth £6.7 billion. Latimer’s co-creation process empowers young people to become active citizens and provides new opportunities for them to enter the media industry. Since its inception in 2010, Latimer has so far created over 200 job opportunities for its youth network, believing that it is far more important to create opportunities than have a purely transactional relationship with its network of young creatives and influencers.

Matt Hay co-founder at Latimer Group, said: “The team at ClearlySo supported us effectively throughout the whole process. The funding we secured is testament to our methodology of co-creation and highlights how having a genuine social goal as part of your business objectives is becoming not only popular but critical given the vulnerable world we now live in.”

Mike Mompi, Investment Manager at ClearlySo, further added: “The Latimer team are stellar – they continue to be pioneers in the co-creation space as they define new and impactful ways of creating and distributing the most relevant content on behalf of their clients. They have executed consistently and this investment will help them take the business to another level.”

PRINDIVILLE PLC LAUNCHES SUPER CAR MINI-BOND FOR INVESTORS Luxury car dealership Prindiville plc is launching a mini-bond to expand its business, giving investors a rare opportunity to buy into the supercar market.

Chief executive Alex Prindiville, who has more than 20 years of experience in the industry, is raising capital to acquire

stock of sought-after supercars and classic cars, including iconic brands such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche, Rolls Royce and Maserati.

From its London showroom, Prindiville plc serves a global network of High Net Worth clients, securing rare and desirable super cars with significant investment potential, sometimes before they have even been launched.

The Asset-Backed Prindiville Bond aims to provide investors a gross return of 7.5% per annum, paid every six months, with a return of their capital at the end of the five-year term.

It has been designed for sophisticated investors with a minimum investment of £50,000, especially those with a passion for luxury cars.

Investors who put in a minimum of £100,000 will have access to exclusive events at Prindiville’s London showroom and be able take part in track days, experiencing the thrill of driving the world’s most sought-after super cars.

The bond is secured against Prindiville plc’s stock, which is projected to exceed 120 cars. Around 20 of these will be in the £200,000 to £1m price range, including rare exotica and special classics, which offer the highest profit margins.

The business is planning to raise £12m from the mini-bonds and terms have been agreed in principle to move to a new, larger showroom once sufficient profits have been achieved from the business.

Some of the stock will be selected to offer conventional nearterm returns, but a significant percentage will be targeted for medium to long-term investment potential.

The classic and sports car market has offered investors a 467% return on their investment over a 10-year period, according to research by Knight Frank, out-performing all other equivalent asset classes, but the market is starting to plateau. Meanwhile, limited edition super cars such as the McLaren P1 - only 375 were produced - have more than doubled in value since launch and the P1 now sells for around £1.7m.

‘The UK and global luxury markets have been both my workplace and passion for over 20 years and I have amassed enormous experience in identifying the potential investment opportunities and where to go to acquire them,’ said Mr Prindiville.

‘At the heart of the Prindiville proposition is our ability to identify and then source cars that will be in high demand, often at significant discounts to their market value. Our investors will be supporting a new and innovative British company.

‘The demand is outstripping what I can keep up with. I am turning business away because I haven’t got the capital.”

Mr Prindiville, 42, decided to launch the bond after a wealthy client expressed an interest in investing in the company and suggested he create a suitable structure that was safe enough to allow him to do so.

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UK CREATIVE MEDIA SECURES FUNDING FROM THE GREATER MANCHESTER LOAN FUND The Greater Manchester Loan Fund (“GMLF”), managed by Maven Capital Partners (“Maven”), one of the UK’s most active private equity houses, has supported Bury-based UK Creative Media Limited (“UKCM”) with a £150,000 funding package which will enable the business to accelerate the roll-out of its personalised card and gift franchises.

Alex Rothwell, Investment Manager at Maven, said: “UK Creative Media is a fast growing, innovative company which has successfully identified a gap in the market and is bringing the concept of personalised greetings cards and gifts that began life online to the high street, with great success to date.

UKCM has developed ‘Creation Express’, a range of innovative units through which customers can create, within minutes, fully personalised cards and gifts, including ceramics such as mugs, money boxes and candle holders and which are sold to local high street stores including card and gift shops and local convenience stores.

Today’s investment means that the company will be able to further invest in its existing workforce in the Greater Manchester area with the potential to increase the number of jobs at the firm over the next two years and beyond.

The units have the infrastructure required to complete the whole production process including printers and heat pressers. Consumers upload pictures from devices such as mobile phones, SD cards, or USB drives and via social media such as Facebook, and craft their designs on a user-friendly touch screen which has UKCM’s software in-built. Rather than having to wait for delivery, the item is completed there and then, with the whole process taking a matter of minutes, To date, personalised products have primarily been reserved for online retailers, however Creation Express is exploiting a gap in the market and bringing a similar service to high street stores. UKCM’s units are enabling independent stores to tap into the growing trend towards personalised bespoke cards and gifts. By using blank stock the unit also removes space, cash and stock issues which regularly plague small retailers, allowing them to cater for all calendar occasions and not just larger events like Valentine’s Day or Christmas.

In less than a year UKCM has sold its franchises into almost 200 retail outlets and following the announcement of GMLF funding it is targeting to sell 1,000 units, in the UK, within five years.

The franchise network will also be supported by a consumer website: www.creationexpress.co.uk which will offer hundreds of unique, personalised cards and gifts for home delivery and offering the only same day click and collect service in the UK whereby customers are able to collect their items from a local store.

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The GMLF is delighted to support this dynamic business and will continue to look to provide funding for other SMEs in the Greater Manchester area that are looking to expand in this way.”

“Kurt Abbott, Co-Owner of UKCM, added: ‘We are proud to be part of a fantastic community of independent retailers who can offer these unique products and look forward to helping many more thanks to the investment from Greater Manchester Loan Fund.”

Mike Blackburn, Chair of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “UK Creative Media is a great example of Greater Manchester’s successful creative, digital and tech sector. The firm has identified a new consumer need and created an original and accessible solution for it. On behalf of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership I am happy that the GMLF is supporting this business so it can continue to expand.”

Cllr Rishi Shori, Leader of Bury Council, said: “I am delighted that UKCM has been selected to receive this investment which will not only benefit its workforce directly, but will also help independent retailers, which are at the heart of our communities and high streets, to tap into the fast growing personalised cards and gifts marketplace which has traditionally been dominated by online retailers.

Innovation to meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s customers is vital to business success, especially in the fastmoving world of technology. I would like to congratulate UKCM on its achievements and wish the firm the very best for the future.”

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“Gamechanger: A visionary strategist bringing fresh and unique ideas to the table, an individual or business that stands out from the crowd with ideas that inventively change the way a situation develops.�

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ADVENT INTERNATIONAL, ALONGSIDE BPIFRANCE, ENTERS INTO EXCLUSIVE NEGOTIATIONS WITH SAFRAN TO ACQUIRE SAFRAN IDENTITY & SECURITY Proposed transaction would create a French global leader in identification and security technologies through the combination of Safran Identity & Security and Oberthur Technologies Advent International announced that it has entered into exclusive negotiations with Safran to acquire Safran Identity & Security (“Safran I&S”), a global leader in identity and security solutions. Advent has made a firm and irrevocable offer of 2.425 billion for Safran I&S. Bpifrance will invest alongside Advent International.

Safran I&S develops innovative technologies for the public and private sectors globally, including identity management, secure transactions and public security solutions. The company’s technologies are used for a wide range of markets and applications, including production and personalisation of secure ID documents and systems, and biometry-based identification systems. Safran I&S employs 7,800 people in more than 50 countries and generated revenue of €1.6 billion in 2015.

As the majority shareholder of Oberthur Technologies (“OT”), Advent International intends to bring together the complementary strengths of Safran I&S and OT to create a global leader in identification and security, based in France, with over €2.8 billion in revenue. By combining Safran I&S’s leadership in end-to-end biometric and identity solutions with OT’s leadership in the digital embedded security market, the two companies will be uniquely positioned to accelerate the convergence between governmental and commercial markets.

The proposed transaction is subject to customary approvals, such as the completion of the consultation process with the workers’ councils, the signing of a definitive agreement and antitrust and regulatory clearance.

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Advent International, one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors, with a presence in France since 1997, has a long track record of investing in the technology, media and telecom sector. Over the past 26 years, Advent has completed more than 70 investments in the sector across 24 countries worldwide.

ALBION VENTURES TO ACQUIRE OLIM INVESTMENT MANAGERS Albion Ventures (“Albion”), one of the largest independent venture capital investors in the UK, has agreed to acquire OLIM Investment Managers (“OLIM”) from Close Brothers Group, subject to regulatory approval. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

OLIM is a fund manager specialising in UK quoted equities, with around £490 million of assets under management. Its particular strengths are in charities, for which it manages £240 million, and in investment and other trusts (£170 million) and private clients (£80 million). The business was founded in 1986 and has been part of the Close Brothers Group since 2000. Angela Lascelles, the joint founder, will remain Chief Executive of OLIM and the existing investment management team will continue to manage its range of funds and segregated portfolios.

OLIM’s investment products include the Close OLIM UK Equity Income Fund, a unit trust offering retail investors the opportunity to benefit from above average income and long term capital growth; the Charity Value and Income Fund, a common investment fund aimed at smaller charities; and the Value and Income Trust plc, which is unique among investment trusts in that it invests both in UK equities and direct property.

The acquisition of OLIM is the latest in a series of initiatives undertaken by Albion to grow and diversify its investment management activities beyond its range of six Venture Capital Trusts. Albion Community Power was launched in 2013 to build, control and operate community-scale UK renewable projects. Albion Care Communities was established in 2015 to develop and operate luxury care homes for the elderly. Earlier this year Albion was appointed to manage and administer the newly-launched UCL Technology Fund, which raised £50m to commercialise University College London’s world-class research output.

Patrick Reeve, Managing Partner of Albion, commented, “This is a transformational acquisition for Albion, doubling our assets under management and administration to almost £1 billion. We are delighted with the benefits it will deliver to both sides; OLIM’s expertise in quoted equities adds a new dimension to our business, and there are a number of areas where we can help them grow, including aspects of sales and marketing and our knowledge of specialist investment areas such as health care.”

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Angela Lascelles, Chief Executive of OLIM, commented, “We have known the Albion team for many years and there is a strong complementary fit between the businesses, both in terms of investment focus and culture. We are really looking forward to joining them.”

Martin Andrew, Chief Executive of Close Brothers Asset Management, commented, “As we continue to focus on developing our integrated wealth management proposition, we decided to look for a new owner for OLIM who is better placed to take the business to the next stage of its evolution.

We know Albion well, we welcomed their approach and wish the enlarged business every success in the future”.

BROWNE JACOBSON COMPLETES SALE OF PINNACLE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS TO NEXT FIFTEEN COMMUNICATIONS GROUP PLC Browne Jacobson has advised on the £4.4 million disposal of PMC Investments Limited (Pinnacle Marketing Communications) to London a full-service marketing communications consultancy specialising in multi-region, integrated, content-driven campaigns for the electronics, industrial engineering and technology sectors.

The business was co-founded in 1996 and serves clients across Europe, USA, Middle East and Asia, including Toshiba Electronics, Sandvik Coromant and European Telecommunications Standards Institute, amongst others.

Next Fifteen Communications Group Plc was formed in 1981

by Tom Lewis and Mark Adams and has since become one of the world’s leading digital marketing communications and public relations groups. The Group, which employs over 1200 people in 14 countries, serves many of the world’s biggest international brands including IBM, BlackBerry, Google and Facebook.

This is the fourth disposal Browne Jacobson has advised on involving Next 15. Other deals included advising co-founders Simon Glover and Nick Stickland on the sale of London based creative agency ODD in 2015, acting for founding owners Roger Perowne and Alistair Cunningham on the disposal of 75% of their stake in Morar Consulting Limited to specialist communications group in 2014 and the disposal of Publitek Limited earlier this year.

Simon Flatt, Pinnacle MD, said: “Nigel and Sam’s knowledge of working on deals involving

Next 15 has provide invaluable and made them the ideal choice to represent Pinnacle on this deal. “Pinnacle has built a solid reputation for developing and delivering integrated, content-based marketing communications campaigns that target highly technical global audiences. It is clear that Next 15 truly recognises the value of this content-led approach.

“By becoming part of this dynamic, international group, we believe we can further enhance the value we bring to our existing clients, take better advantage of global opportunities, and further accelerate plans for growth.”

GOOEE RECEIVES US$8 MILLION FUNDING DEAL WITH SILICON VALLEY BANK Gooee, the enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) platform designed for the LED lighting sector, has secured a US$8 million funding deal with the high-tech focused Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

The financing will be used to support the continued development of the Gooee platform, which is estimated to launch at the beginning of 2017.

As a business, Gooee provides a full suite of hardware and software components that lighting companies can integrate into their own products and connect them to the Gooee Cloud. To date over 30 lighting businesses, including Feilo Sylvania, Aurora Lighting and Gerard Lighting, have signed partnership deals with Gooee.

Connecting to the Gooee Cloud enables lighting companies to offer their customers competitive, cloud-based services – such as Lighting Control, Energy Management, LED Analytics and Beacon Management – across a multitude of vertical markets and through a scalable, service-oriented business model.

Simon Coombes, Chief Technology Officer at Gooee, said: “SVB shares the vision that bringing LED lighting into the IoT space will open the next wave of opportunities across the value chain. This funding deal with SVB allows us to finalize preparations for Gooee’s ecosystem through to its launch.”

Rosh Wijayarathna, Director at SVB’s UK Corporate Banking team added: “We are delighted to support Gooee in its exciting expansion story. Energy conservation is a very real issue that Gooee is tackling through its smart lighting platform. Gooee connects lighting manufacturers with the Internet of Things and has the potential to disrupt the industry and make smart cities greener and more efficient.

We look forward to continuing to partner with Gooee’s management and supporting the ongoing growth of the business.”

The funding deal builds on an exciting year for Gooee, which in addition to the rapid increase in the number of signed

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partnerships, won an innovation award at Light + Building 2016 and appointed key advisory board member, Shmuel Silverman.

GRAPHITE CAPITAL ACQUIRES INDUSTRIAL INSTALLATION SPECIALIST, BECK & POLLITZER Graphite Capital, a leading mid-market private equity specialist, has acquired Beck & Pollitzer, which provides industrial machinery installation and relocation services, from Bridgepoint Development Capital for an undisclosed sum.

Beck & Pollitzer’s blue chip clients, which include Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Rexam, Kimberley Clark and many other international brands, operate principally in the automotive, aerospace, metals and packaging industries. The company’s services range from moving single machines to the relocation of entire factories and installation of complex production lines. Beck & Pollitzer employs more than 600 staff in 26 offices located in 14 countries and executes projects worldwide.

The company, which was established over 150 years ago, has a strong presence in the UK and across continental Europe, and is growing strongly in North America and Asia. Its geographical and sector diversity has enabled the business to expand despite the challenging macro-economic conditions of the last ten years. Revenue is expected to reach £80 million in the current year, a rise of circa 10 per cent on 2015.

The management team, led by chief executive Andrew Hodgson, plans to increase the company’s share of a growing market, currently valued at some £1.8 billion. It expects to grow organically by developing opportunities in existing and new markets and by building on its long-term client relationships. It is well positioned to expand in sectors such as building products, aerospace and steel, having won several large contracts with a German specialist steel plant manufacturer. In addition, Beck & Pollitzer is evaluating acquisitions to expand and deepen its geographical coverage, increase its market share and broaden its capabilities.

As part of the transaction, the management team has re-invested a significant proportion of its sale proceeds. RBS and HSBC provided the bank finance for the transaction.

Graphite brings strong experience of investing in sectors and companies related to Beck & Pollitzer’s operations including in U-POL, a manufacturer and distributor of auto-refinishing products, Micheldever Tyres, the UK’s leading tyre distributor,

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and Aktrion, an outsourced service provider to the print, automotive and food sectors.

Graphite senior partner Mike Innes said: “We know Beck & Pollitzer well and have been impressed with the achievements of Andrew and his team over the last few years. We are delighted to support their ambitious international growth plans.”

Beck & Pollitzer chief executive Andrew Hodgson commented: “We are looking forward to working with Graphite to realise Beck & Pollitzer’s potential over the coming years. There are exciting opportunities ahead which we intend to exploit fully with Graphite’s expertise and support.”

Alongside Mike Innes, partner Simon May and investment manager John Western managed the transaction for Graphite.

H.I.G. WHITEHORSE PROVIDES FINANCING FOR CAPVIS’ ACQUISITION OF GOTHA COSMETICS IN ITALY H.I.G. WhiteHorse, a credit affiliate of global investment firm H.I.G. Capital, has supported Gotha Cosmetics’ acquisition

by Capvis Equity IV LP, a fund advised by Capvis Equity Partners AG (together “Capvis”) by providing funding to support a €65 million unitranche facility arranged by Credit Suisse. Gotha Cosmetics is a developer and manufacturer of private label cosmetics mainly focusing on lips, eyes and face products.

Based in Italy, Gotha Cosmetics was founded in 2005 and has become a key partner for both independent beauty brands and multi-national customers evolving towards more outsourcing-based production models. Capvis will further develop Gotha Cosmetics and help it grow its revenues and international reach.

Appu Mundassery, Managing Director at H.I.G. WhiteHorse, said: “We are delighted to assist Capvis by providing a tailor-made financing solution for the acquisition of Gotha Cosmetics. This transaction demonstrates our ability to support high-quality businesses with bespoke, flexible and committed financing solutions in a timely manner; we continue to regard Italy as a key market and see more opportunities in the near future”.

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KINGS PARK CAPITAL ANNOUNCES INVESTMENT IN JUST GO! HOLIDAYS • Kings Park Capital LLP acquires a significant equity stake in Cheltenham-based Just Go! Holidays • Just Go! Holidays aims to capitalise on its favourable positioning towards the fast-growing ‘third age’ demographic • The Royal Bank of Scotland provides senior debt facility for an undisclosed amount Kings Park Capital LLP (‘KPC’), an independent private equity firm dedicated to investing in the European leisure sector, has taken a significant equity stake in Just Go! Holidays (‘JGH’) alongside the Company’s CEO, Luis Arteaga. The Royal Bank of Scotland’s Corporate Transactions team provided a senior debt package in support of the transaction.

JGH is an independent tour operator providing group holidays to the over 50s demographic. The Company offers a collection of coach, air and cruise holiday products, approximately 80% of which are in the UK. Since 2011, it has had an official partnership with the National Trust, giving it unique access to the Trust’s membership base and historic sites across the UK. The Group also offers inbound group holidays to the American market through its “Albion Journeys” brand.

Founded in 1996, the Group is based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and employs 61 people. In 2015, JGH’s holidays were taken by 76,000 passengers, generating turnover of nearly £20million.

JGH aims to capitalise on its favourable positioning towards the fast-growing ‘third age’ demographic, who have become the biggest consumers of holidays in the country over the last decade, and is well-positioned to benefit from the favourable staycation trend.

Luis Arteaga, JGH’s CEO, said: “I am delighted to have secured Kings Park Capital as my partner and excited for the new chapter in Just Go! Holidays’ history. Our vision is to continue expanding the business’s holiday offering through new destinations and further product innovation, whilst building upon our collection of valued strategic partnerships both in the UK and in the US. I look forward to working together with KPC to accelerate the growth of the business.”

Artjom Dashko, Investor Director at KPC, said: “We are excited to have made a second travel investment in our latest Fund, and believe that in Luis and his management team

we have found an excellent and capable partner to deliver on the vision of making Just Go! Holidays a leading group holidays player in the wider £40 billion UK leisure travel market, both organically, but also by making selective bolt-on acquisitions in this fragmented area. We have also been very pleased with the support from the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Corporate Transactions team who structured a senior debt finance package to support the transaction.”

Stuart Blair, Director Corporate Transactions team at the Royal Bank of Scotland said: “JGH have a very impressive management team and they will reap the rewards of joining together with the leisure experts at KPC. This is a great deal for both parties and I am delighted to be working with everyone involved in the completion of the acquisition.”

KPC was advised by Burness Paull LLP on this transaction.

BDO and Armstrong Transaction Services provided financial and commercial due diligence services, respectively. The shareholders in JGH were advised by Roxburgh Milkins LLP. DMH Stallard LLP acted for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

MARLIN EQUITY PARTNERS ACQUIRES QUALITEST LTD Travers Smith LLP has advised Marlin Equity Partners (“Marlin”) on its acquisition of a majority interest in QualiTest Ltd (“Qualitest”). A minority stake was retained by QualiTest President, Ayal Zylberman.

The Travers Smith team was led by private equity partner James Renahan, supported by associates David Wall and Robert Coward. The Travers Smith finance team, led by partner Donald Lowe and supported by Adeola Adesola and Will Sheridan, advised Marlin in respect of the debt package provided by Investec Bank plc and Silicon Valley Bank (the “Banks”). Tax advice was provided by Travers Smith tax partner Kathleen Russ, supported by Silvana Van der Velde.

Founded in 1988, Qualitest is the world’s second largest software testing and business assurance services company.

It was founded in Israel and has since expanded into the United States and the United Kingdom. Qualitest has more than 500 blue chip clients from a variety of sectors including financial services, technology, and healthcare.

Goldfarb Zeligman provided Israeli law advice to Marlin and Deloitte LLP provided corporate finance advice to Marlin. Zemah Schneider & Partners provided advice to Ayal Zylberman, the other selling shareholders and the re-investing management team of Qualitest.

DLA Piper UK LLP provided advice to the Banks.

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PAREXEL ANNOUNCES EXECUTION OF DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE EXECUPHARM Acquisition will strengthen and add scale to current functional services offering to meet growing demand PAREXEL International Corporation (NASDAQ: PRXL), a leading global biopharmaceutical services provider announced that the Company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ExecuPharm, Inc. (“ExecuPharm”), a leading, global functional service provider (FSP) serving the biopharmaceutical industry. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Established in 1995, ExecuPharm provides clients with qualified professionals across functional areas, such as clinical monitoring or study management, along with associated operational activities including onboarding, training, line management, performance management and policy administration. The company is headquartered in King of Prussia, PA, and it works with many of the top 20 and midsized and small biopharmaceutical companies. ExecuPharm’s strong client relationships have led to 85 percent growth in the company in the past three years.

“Functional services represent an established and growing model within the biopharmaceutical industry. Clients are increasingly using a combination of programmatic and functional outsourcing models,” said Josef von Rickenbach, Chairman and CEO, PAREXEL. “With ExecuPharm, PAREXEL will expand and strengthen our existing functional services offering and capabilities to meet the growing market demand while allowing our clients to fulfill all of their clinical development outsourcing needs through a single company.”

Functional service providers offer biopharmaceutical clients stand-alone outsourced services, such as clinical monitoring, data management, biostatistics, site monitoring, study management, medical writing, pharmacovigilance and other related functions. Customers may outsource functions tactically, on a particular trial, or strategically to constitute or supplement an entire department.

“We are excited to become a part of PAREXEL and offer our clients an expanded global presence, increased therapeutic expertise, broad product development knowledge, and high quality service. By providing clients the ability to outsource only certain functions, we provide clients flexibility in their drug development programs,” added Maria Larson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, ExecuPharm.

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TIKEHAU IM REACHED SUCCESSFUL CLOSE OF TIKEHAU DIRECT LENDING III FUND (TDL III) AIMED AT PROVIDING PRIVATE DEBT FINANCING TO COMPANIES BASED IN EUROPE Tikehau IM announced the successful close of its TDL III Fund, its new generation of direct lending fund, at €610 million. Tikehau IM’s total asset under management in Private Debt amount to €3.3bn.

Over 40% of the Fund is already invested through 15 portfolio companies based in France, Spain and Norway.

Most recent investments include a unitranche financing for the acquisition of Financière Rive Gauche by the ATLAND Group and the acquisition of Marlink, Airbus Group’s Commercial Satellite Communication business by Apax.

The investor base predominantly includes insurance companies, pension funds, private banks and family offices based in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Finland, Hong-Kong and Canada.

With this new generation of fund and dedicated managed accounts, Tikehau IM provides a full range of tailor-made financing solutions, from corporate financing to LBO acquisition financing.

Tikehau Direct Lending III (TDL III) is a fund incorporated in Luxembourg offering a diversified portfolio of private debt solutions (senior debt, stretched senior, unitranche, mezzanine, PIK Note and preferred equity). The fund targets companies valued between €50m to €500m from different sectors and geographic areas.

Antoine Flamarion, co-founder of Tikehau Capital stated: “This new generation of fund is larger than our previous vintages and has attracted top-tier investors. This is a recognition of the Private Debt team’s expertise and its ability to anticipate the needs from both portfolio companies and investors. In a context of growing banking disintermediation, we are convinced that private debt is an attractive and longlasting solution adapted to the profound changes of the financing markets.”

Tikehau IM is one of the pioneers and leading players in Europe to arrange private debt financing solutions from €10m to €300m and has commitments in over 90 companies in Europe. Since the beginning of 2016, Tikehau has arranged in excess of €700m of financing, a significant increase compared to 2015 reflecting a growing market share in Europe. Tikehau Capital’s strong entrepreneurial roots and agility bring unique capacities to establish long term partnerships with companies and their management teams offering the best tailor–made risk-reward financing solutions.

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The Private Debt team has expanded to a total of 15 persons managing a total AuM of €3.3bn, including the French based initiatives Novo 2 and Novi 1, the senior loan strategies and direct lending. It is one of the leading and comprehensive platforms in Europe.

SHARDUL AMARCHAND MANGALDAS & CO ADVISES ON HPL ELECTRIC & POWER’S IPO Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co acted as the sole transaction counsel in relation to the initial public offering (IPO) of HPL Electric & Power Limited. The IPO opened on September 22, 2016 and closed on September 26, 2016.

The Company is an established manufacturer of, metering solutions, lighting equipment, wires and cables and Switchgears in India.

The Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co Team acted as the sole transaction counsel. The Capital Markets team of the firm was led by Mr. Prashant Gupta, Partner & National Practice Head – Capital Markets, and included Mr. Sayantan Dutta, Partner; Ms. Shraddha Krishnan Dash, Senior Associate and Mr. Devi Prasad Patel, Associate.

The IPO involved issue and allotment of 17,871,287 equity shares of face value of 110 each for cash at a price of q202 per Equity Share (including share premium of q192 per equity share) aggregating up to q3,610 million.

HPL Electric and Power Limited, a multi-product electric equipment company, is an established player in the electrical equipment industry. Its product range is divided into four verticals – Metering Solutions, Switchgears, Lighting Equipment and Wires & Cables.

The parties involved in the transaction were HPL Electric & Power Limited (the “Issuer”) and SBI Capital Markets Limited, IDFC Bank Limited and ICICI Securities Limited (the “Underwriters”) The deal is valued at INR 361 Crores.

AMTD GROUP AND LENDIT JOINTLY ANNOUNCE THE FORMAL ESTABLISHMENT OF AMTD-LENDIT JOINT GLOBAL OFFICE AND SIGNING OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT AMTD Group Company Limited (“AMTD”) – the leading diversified financial services group based in Hong Kong with broad business coverage and network across Asia, and LendIt – the world’s largest and most influential Fintech summit organization, announced the establishment of AMTD-LendIt Joint Global Office (“Joint Global Office”) as well as the signing of a strategic partnership agreement, creating a premier conduit for optimal and seamless exchange between Asian / global capital and the leading global internet / Fintech universe.

In recognition of its global footprint, this announcement comes during LendIt’s Europe event in London, currently in full swing with its highest attendee numbers ever.

As the most influential host of the world’s largest Fintech events, LendIt was established with a vision to connect global internet finance and Fintech leaders, resources and capital and forging a distinguished platform for information sharing and business expansion. During the past few years, AMTD has focused on the transformative power of technological innovation and is dedicated to forging a highly efficient channel of communication and cooperation between the top global Fintech players and Asian capital. AMTD is keen to support the latest Fintech innovations among Asian and global markets, and promote the healthy and dynamic development of the global internet and Fintech space.

This latest collaboration marks the next stage of a long-term partnership between AMTD and LendIt, on the back of the resoundingly successful and unprecedented inaugural LendIt-AMTD Global Fintech Investment Summit held in Hong Kong in July 2016. AMTD and LendIt are committed to cultivating the global Fintech industry through resources sharing, capital infusion and technology development.

In recent years, as the global internet and Fintech industries rapidly develop with increasing sophistication, this space has become one of the most important focus of the capital markets and the most sought-after investment arena by a broad spectrum of investors globally. Currently, the Fintech industry continues to reshape traditional finance and beyond, with innovative, revolutionary and disruptive impact through a series of frontier innovations driven by data and technology

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iDEAL BRIEF including “BlockChain”, “Robo-Advisor” and “Big Data analytics”. Meanwhile, investment and capital movement in this space continue to build on enormous activity in recent years with accelerating momentum, propelling this segment into one of the fastest growing and highest-potential investment areas globally. Against this backdrop, and as a result of the deepening cross-border, cross-regional and cross-sectoral linkage of capital and technology, the global Fintech industry would benefit from a pioneering platform with global strategic vision, top local capability and insights with in-depth industry resources.

Commencing with the Joint Global Office, AMTD and LendIt commit to jointly forge a world-class, revolutionary linkage between Asian and global capital and technology, and dedicate to pioneering a new era of internet, Fintech and emerging industries Aiming to facilitate a full spectrum of cross-border capital markets and financial advisory solutions, the Joint Global Office will also actively participate in direct investments in leading global Fintech/internet companies. In addition, the Joint Global Office will commit to establishing a premier Asia-based platform with a global vision for industry-leading exchange of investors / companies, thought leaders, industry titans and regulators, as well as hosting marquee events. The Joint Global Office will serve as a premier conduit for optimal and seamless exchange between Asian / global capital and the leading global internet / Fintech universe, and seeks to orchestrate an unprecedented force propelling the speedy, healthy and long-term development of this space.

A tour-de-force coalition with leadership jointly constituted by core members of both parties, forging a world-class global management team Mr. Calvin Choi, Chairman and President of AMTD Group and Mr. Jason M Jones, Co-Founder and President of LendIt will serve as Co-Presidents of the Joint Global Office, with overall strategic oversight. Mr. Bob Leung, Group Vice President of AMTD Group and former Head of Asia Insurance and Diversified Financials of UBS Investment Research and Dr. Tharon Smith, Managing Director of LendIt China will serve as Joint Heads. Mr. Kevin Zhang and Mr. Deepak Lalit will also each represent AMTD and Lendit, respectively, to serve as Joint Deputy Heads.

AVONDALE COMPLETE THE SALE OF CALDER FOODS TO FLAGSHIP FOOD GROUP In 2002 Nigel Harrison and Paul Baker established Calder Foods, a specialist chilled food manufacturer, taking the business from strength to strength to a £22m turnover. Their goal was to bring another party to the business to increase the value even further. They instructed Avondale to secure an acquisition that would not only be financially rewarding but also enabled them to retain a stake and active involvement in the business.

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Avondale’s exceptional insight into the food industry enabled them to be extremely targeted in their approach to potential acquirers. Of the six parties Avondale brought to the table, five submitted indicative offers. Ultimately it came down to two offers; one trade and one private equity, and after much negotiation and deliberation the offer from Flagship Food Group, a US owned multi-national food service specialist, was accepted.

Founding members Paul and Nigel, who will remain in their current positions as joint MDs of Calder Foods and retain shares in the Flagship, commented “This is one of the toughest business and personal decisions we have ever had to make. Not only did Avondale bring the right acquirers to the table but they also coached us selecting the best offer and partner for the future of Calder. We are delighted to be joining the Flagship family. The partnership provides a golden opportunity to develop the Calder Foods portfolio, taking advantage of Flagship’ Europe’s wider customer base in the foodservice sectors to promote sales.”

Commenting on the acquisition Russell Maddock, CEO of Flagship Europe said: “Calder Foods has an exceptional reputation within the foodservice sector and their products will provide the perfect complement to our own portfolio of ‘Food to Go’ products for this marketplace. We look forward to a smooth transition and to further developing both the business and the ‘Love Fresh’ brand under the Flagship Europe umbrella.”

AVONDALE COMPLETE THE SALE OF HYDRALECTRIC TO ROCKPOOL INVESTMENTS Established in Surrey in 1976, Hydralectric is, a leading global provider of premium quality flexible hoses and supplier of added value solenoid valves, pumps and water controls.

The owner, Colin Hayward wanted to take the business to the next level and fulfil its growth potential. On recommendation, he appointed Avondale, M&A specialists, to seek a suitable acquirer.

Intense research and confidential approaches led to a total of three offers. Ultimately Colin accepted the offer submitted and backed by private equity firm, Rockpool Investments.

The deal completed within 12 months of instruction.

Colin and Paul Ring (Managing Director) will retire and leave the business. The remaining management team stays unchanged with Simon Willis joining as the new Managing Director. Andrew Bristow, who has over fifteen years’ experience of the foodservice market, has been appointed as Chairman and intends to play an active role.

Managing Director Simon Willis is looking forward to the new business opportunities presented by the change in ownership and is keen to pay tribute to the outgoing owner and Managing Director.

iDEAL BRIEF He commented: “Colin and Paul must be commended for building Hydralectric into an established market leader in multiple sectors and one of the area’s major employers. The new management team is relishing the challenge of leading the company to the next level, expanding our services into new sectors and further growing the business.”

Colin stated: “We appointed Avondale to steer us through the business sale process to a successful completion and I look forward with confidence to the new management team developing the full potential of Hydralectric.”

BIRKETTS DELIVERS YET AGAIN Top 100 Law Firm, Birketts has advised the shareholders of P2P Mailing Ltd, one of the UK’s leading independent international ecommerce logistics providers, on its sale to The Delivery Group for an undisclosed sum.

P2P Mailing Ltd, which is based in Basildon, Essex, provides both tracked and untracked services to some of the best known brands and online retailers, facilitating their access to overseas markets and helping to increase international sales.

P2P will become part of The Delivery Group, which is private equity backed and has already combined Secured Mail and CMS Network UK under common ownership.

The combined group will have an expected turnover of £200m, an employee base of 500 staff and is expected to handle in excess of 500 million items per annum.

Birketts advised on all legal matters with Corporate Partner Adam Jones and Corporate Solicitor Alex Forwood leading the team, assisted by Matthew Grindley (Property Senior Associate), Karl Pocock (Tax Senior Associate) and Jessie Basra (Employment Solicitor).

Ian Dowie, Managing Director and majority owner of P2P Mailing which was formed in 2009, said: “We selected Birketts to advise us on all legal matters because of their reputation for excellence. They were by far and away the obvious choice. The client service and project management that we received from Birketts was of the highest calibre, and the team impressed us by outlining a complex process in simple terms and offering practical advice to aid completion.”

Adam Jones, Corporate Partner at Birketts, added: “It has been a pleasure to advise Ian Dowie and the other shareholders of P2P Mailing. The management team has built an attractive business, with high-quality retail clients and valuable relationships with overseas postal administrators.

The sale will enable this very successful Essex-based company to aim for even greater heights. This transaction demonstrates once again how Birketts’ multi-disciplinary team can help achieve a successful exit for business owners, solving key issues and delivering to deadline and budget.”

BOWMARK CAPITAL BACKS BUY-OUT OF LEADING IT SOLUTIONS PROVIDER Bowmark Capital, the mid-market private equity firm, is backing the buy-out of Node4 Holdings, the fast-growing IT solutions provider, from its previous institutional investor, LDC. Founded in Derby in 2004 by its then 23-year-old Chief Executive, Andrew Gilbert, Node4 is a leading provider of integrated IT solutions, hybrid infrastructure and cloudenabled managed services to small and medium-sized businesses.With full ownership of its own infrastructure, including three state-of-the-art data centres in Derby, Leeds and Northampton, Node4 retains full control over service delivery.

The company achieved a £28 million turnover in the year to March 2016 and an impressive revenue growth rate of 37 per cent per annum since 2014, capitalising on the growing trend towards the outsourcing of information and communications technology (ICT) services. In addition, customers increasingly favour integrated providers such as Node4, which are able to provide the full range of ICT services and solutions. Digitalisation and the increased use of cloud-enabled applications, together with the increasing complexity of hybrid cloud solutions, represents a significant opportunity for the company to build on and expand its client base.

Bowmark has acquired a majority shareholding in the company alongside the current management team. The transaction funding includes an additional £40 million made available (in follow-on debt and equity funding) to underpin the company’s ongoing acquisition strategy, which has already seen three bolt-on acquisitions in the past two years.

Bowmark Investment Director Stephen Delaney said: “We have been tracking the ICT managed services sector for a number of years and are delighted to have the opportunity to invest in the standout company in the sector. We have been hugely impressed with Andrew Gilbert and his team and what they have achieved to date.”

Andrew Gilbert said: “Our well-invested infrastructure and technical base provide us with a highly scalable platform.

With Bowmark’s support, and the additional firepower that this transaction gives us, we are well-placed to capitalise on the significant growth opportunity, both organically and by acquisition.”

Martin Draper, Chief Executive of LDC, said: “The company’s success demonstrates the impact private equity investment can have as a catalyst to build scale and value, and to support the vision of ambitious management teams. Our close partnership with Andrew and the team has helped the business to more than double its revenues and triple its employee numbers.”

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CINVEN AND CVC TO ACQUIRE NEWDAY Cinven and CVC Capital Partners announced that funds advised by Cinven and CVC Capital Partners have agreed to acquire NewDay (‘the Company’), a leading consumer finance provider specialising in the UK credit card market, from Värde Partners. The consideration is not disclosed.

NewDay is one of the UK’s fastest growing specialty finance companies, providing credit to more than five million customers and with £1.6 billion of receivables. It operates in two business segments: Near-Prime, which provides aqua and marbles branded credit cards to customers who are new to credit or wish to rebuild their credit history; and Co-brand, which provides credit cards in partnership with established retailers such as Debenhams and House of Fraser.

The UK is the largest credit card market in Europe. NewDay has generated strong growth over the past five years, which is expected to continue given continued consumer demand for its products, strong brand recognition and distribution channels, as well as the launch of additional innovative credit products.

NewDay has strong underwriting capabilities, with its credit risk management systems using proprietary analytics and insights refined over the past 14 years. The business delivers industry leading customer advocacy, and is well-positioned for significant future growth.

The management team will continue to be led by James Corcoran, Chief Executive, who joined NewDay in 2009.

The Company is headquartered in London with additional operations in Leeds and employs over 800 people.

Caspar Berendsen, Partner at Cinven commented: “NewDay is an extremely well-managed, strongly-performing company. Within the UK’s large credit card market, the Company is well positioned in the attractive and growing near prime segment. It has a strong track record of organic and acquisitive growth and we look forward to supporting this growth.”

Peter Rutland, Partner at CVC, added: “There is a significant opportunity for specialised lenders like NewDay to help customers build their credit histories. We look forward to working with management to help support their continued growth by delivering products that are aligned to customers’ needs.”

James Corcoran, Chief Executive of NewDay, commented: “We are delighted to be working with Cinven and CVC going forward – both have an excellent track record of supporting growing businesses and as responsible investors in the financial services sector. They are both fully aligned with NewDay’s objectives of continuing to grow by offering

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compelling products and services to our customers alongside the highest standards of risk management.”

Cinven and CVC Capital Partners are leading global private equity firms with over 14 billion and $33 billion of assets under management respectively and a strong track record of investing in and successfully growing financial services businesses. Cinven’s financial services investments have included: Avolon, Premium Credit, JRP Group (formerly Partnership Assurance), Viridium (formerly Heidelberger Leben), Ergo Italia, and Guardian Financial Services. CVC’s UK financial services investments have included: Avolon, Brit Insurance, Domestic & General, the RAC, AA, Saga and Skrill.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory and antitrust approvals.

Advisors to Cinven and CVC on the transaction included: Goldman Sachs (M&A), Clifford Chance (legal), PwC (commercial), EY (accounting), Deloitte (tax), Alvarez & Marsal (credit) and Duff & Phelps (regulatory).

CINVEN TO SELL SLV TO ARDIAN International private equity firm, Cinven, announced that it has agreed to sell SLV Group (‘SLV’ or ‘the Group’), the German-headquartered provider of residential and technical lighting, to Ardian, for an undisclosed consideration.

This represents the second successful realisation of an Industrials business within the last month, following Cinven’s agreement to sell Italian-headquartered Avio Spazio to Space2 and Leonardo-Finmeccanica on 20 October 2016.

Cinven has a strong track record in Germany; current investments include CeramTec, HEG, JOST, Synlab and Viridium.

Cinven acquired SLV in May 2011 from its founder and HgCapital. Cinven’s Industrials and German teams had identified SLV as an attractive opportunity in 2010, developing a close relationship with SLV’s management team which led to a ‘preferred buyer status’. Cinven’s Portfolio team in Asia was integrally involved in assessing the transaction, primarily focused on SLV’s Asian supplier network and sourcing strategies. The insight provided by Cinven’s Portfolio team in Asia, combined with Cinven’s previous experience across Europe investing in asset-light business models, gave Cinven a significant competitive advantage in the process.

SLV has grown significantly since Cinven’s acquisition generating a c.40% increase in sales and reflecting Cinven’s well-executed investment strategy. Key achievements include: • Strengthening SLV’s management team, most importantly with the appointment of a new CEO, Robert Fellner- Feldegg, in February 2014. Robert has been instrumental in

iDEAL BRIEF transforming SLV and positioning the business for the next phase of growth; • Improving SLV’s product development process by implementing a bottom-up, structured and scalable product innovation process and optimising the go-to-market time. Notably, Cinven’s Portfolio team in Asia supported management in building SLV’s first sourcing office in China; • Developing SLV’s footprint in key geographies through measured, successful and profitable expansion outside of Germany and across different channels; • Completing the acquisitions of Unex (2014), a Swiss provider of LED lighting fixtures, Lagotronics (2015), SLV’s Dutch Distribution Partner and Nordtronic (2016), a Danish provider of LED lighting products; • Further strengthening SLV’s relationships with professional electricians and installers through closer partnerships and loyalty programs; and • Successfully repositioning and professionalising the business, creating an excellent platform for future growth in its existing markets and internationally.

Bruno Schick, Partner at Cinven, said: “During Cinven’s ownership, we have worked closely with SLV’s management team to deliver our growth strategy, improving product development and internal processes, completing the acquisition of three value-accretive businesses and expanding SLV internationally.”“SLV is an innovative company with a proven and successful business model. The sale of SLV is an example of another successful Industrials investment for Cinven, this time in Germany, following the recent sale of Avio Spazio in Italy.”

Robert Fellner-Feldegg, Chief Executive at SLV, said: ”Cinven has been an excellent partner to SLV. The team has consistently been able to provide support and guidance both in Europe and Asia, which have had a fundamentally positive impact on SLV’s business performance. SLV is extremely well positioned for future growth and we are looking forward to the next phase of our development supported by my strong international team who shares a clear vision going forward.”

Advisors to Cinven on this transaction included: Goldman Sachs International (M&A); McKinsey (commercial); Deloitte (financial); Hengeler Mueller (legal) and KPMG and EY (tax & structuring).

CINVEN AND CVC TO ACQUIRE NEWDAY Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa announce that funds advised by them have agreed to acquire the Allegro Group (‘Allegro’ or ‘the Group’), the largest online

marketplace and non-food shopping destination in Poland, from Naspers Limited (JSE: NPN.SJ and LSE: NPSN) for US $3.253bn.

Established in 1999, Allegro has more than 20 million registered users who carry out 14 million transactions monthly. In addition, the Group operates Ceneo, the leading price comparison platform in Poland. The Group is headquartered in Poznan, Poland and employs 1,275 people.

Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa identified Allegro as an attractive investment opportunity based on: • Strong structural growth in the Polish e-commerce market driven by offline to online conversion from a relatively low base; • Attractive characteristics of a marketplace business model which benefits from strong network effects and low capital intensity; • Allegro is a market leading e-commerce platform. It has iconic brand recognition and unrivalled user engagement metrics; • Multiple attractive value levers including further investment into mobile and greater convenience in order to drive user experience; and • Highly experienced management team with proven execution track record, deep experience in e-commerce and technology.

David Barker, Partner at Cinven, said: “Allegro is a great business. It is a clear market leader and extremely well positioned to benefit from structural e-commerce drivers with a strong technology platform and strong reputation with its users. We are very excited to be working with management to drive the business growth and we are looking forward to working alongside Permira and Mid Europa.”

Richard Sanders, Partner at Permira, commented: “The Permira Funds have been backing internet leaders for many years. In Allegro we have found a real gem which is the pre-eminent consumer and merchant internet brand in Poland. The business has a fantastic underlying technology platform and we look forward to backing the management team to develop it further. We believe Allegro is ideally positioned to capture the next wave of growth in online and mobile commerce.”

Pawel Padusinski, Partner at Mid Europa, added: “We recognise the strong organic growth opportunities available in the Polish e-commerce and retail sectors. Our investment in Allegro is consistent with our strategy of supporting leading market players with impressive track records in the CEE region. We are enthusiastic about working closely with the management team and our partners from Cinven and Permira in supporting Allegro’s further growth.”

Przemyslaw Budkowski, Chief Executive of Allegro, added:

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iDEAL BRIEF “The combination of Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa provides us with unrivalled expertise in growing ecommerce and technology businesses in emerging Europe. We are delighted to have attracted their financial backing and operational insights going forward, as well as their investment commitment to the business to considerably enhance our customers’ experience.”

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory and antitrust approvals.

Advisors to Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa on the transaction included: Goldman Sachs International (lead financial advisor), Macquarie Capital (financial), Clifford Chance (legal), McKinsey (commercial) and EY (accounting and tax), while the seller was advised by Morgan Stanley (financial advisor), Allen & Overy (legal) and Deloitte (accounting and tax).

EUXTON GROUP COMPLETES BIMBO WITH AIB FUNDING • Chorley-based Euxton Group announced BIMBO with the support of £2.75m investment from the Foresight Group.

• £1.14m senior loan facility structured by Allied Irish Bank (GB) to assist the transaction.

19th October 2016 The Euxton Group has completed a buy-in management buyout (BIMBO) with the help of a £2.75m investment from Foresight Group.

Allied Irish Bank (GB) has provided funding to support the transaction with a £1.14m loan facility.

Based in Chorley, the Euxton Group is a horticultural ecommerce business, which encompasses Hedges Direct, Best4 Hedging and Impact Plants. This deal represents Foresight Group’s first investment from the Foresight Regional Investment Fund targeting SME enterprises in the North West, North Wales and South Yorkshire.

Euxton Group has grown rapidly over the last three years, having achieved annual sales growth of more than 30 per cent and employs 37 members of staff. Foresight’s investment will help the group to further drive sales and capitalise on the increasing prevalence of ecommerce.

The Allied Irish Bank (GB) team in Manchester has structured senior loan facilities to support the BIMBO alongside a full suite of day-to-day banking services for the Euxton Group.

Michael McVey will join as Managing Director, working alongside the existing team of Jamie Shipley, Kathryn Gallagher and Paul Francis. Claire Alvarez, who led the transaction out of Foresight’s Manchester office, will also join

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the Euxton board.

Michael McVey, Managing Director of Euxton Group, said: “We are excited to be working with Foresight to help Lancashire-based Euxton Group continue its growth in the landscaping and gardening market. With their support we will continue to develop the group through improvements to our websites, adding additional product ranges and expansion into overseas markets. We have also been pleased with the backing from Allied Irish Bank (GB) who has advanced senior loan facilities of £1.14milion to support the BIMBO.” James Livingston, Partner at Foresight, said: “As the first deal for the Foresight Regional Investment Fund, we are extremely pleased to have invested in Euxton Group. The business is a leader in its target market, and we look forward to working with the management team to create further value within the business and continue growth.”

Evan Geoghegan, Relationship Manager at Allied Irish Bank (GB), said: “The Euxton Group has great potential for growth and the management team are focused on developing the firm’s offering in the UK market. We are delighted to support the BIMBO and wish the new team all the very best for the future success of the group.”

Paula McGrath and Chris Cumber at Brabners Corporate Finance advised on the deal. Kieran Toal and his team at Shoosmiths and Denise Walker and Daniel Hayhurst at Brabners provided legal advice. Kuits Solicitor, Manchester office provided legal advice to Allied Irish Bank (GB). Financial due diligence was provided by Grant Thornton, led by Philip Grindley; commercial due diligence was completed

by Neovian Partners led by Lushani Kodituwakku; and Andy Airey and Michael Hicks from Catalysis Partners provided management due diligence.

The company was advised by Napthens and Cassons.

IK INVESTMENT PARTNERS TO INVEST IN APOSAN IK Investment Partners (“IK”) announced that the IK Small Cap I Fund has reached an agreement to acquire APOSAN Dr. Künzer GmbH (“APOSAN” or “the Company”), a leading pharmaceutical homecare company in Germany. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

APOSAN was founded in 1991 by Dr. Clemens Künzer, with the purpose to service homecare patients through the compounding of individualised infusible and injectable medication. Since then, the company has evolved to an integrated full-range pharmaceutical homecare supplier with its own manufacturing capacities and a dedicated key account management and homecare nurses team to

iDEAL BRIEF generate and support its growing nationwide patient base.

The APOSAN group of companies is organised in three main business segments: pharmaceutical homecare, providing services to patients that require long-term infusion to diseases; classical homecare, providing standard enteral nutrition solutions as well as selected standard medical devices; and ophthalmic injectables. Founder Dr. Clemens Künzer will retain a substantial shareholding in the Company.

The broad and experienced management team led going forward by Rainer Schmitz as CEO, Michael Schmitz as CSO and Claudia Vitiello as COO will also become shareholders and invest alongside Dr. Künzer and IK. APOSAN is headquartered in Cologne, Germany, and serves over 10,000 patients per year.

This deal complements MUFG Investor Services’ full service offering for alternative investment managers, adding regulated 1940 Act mutual fund and exchange traded fund services expertise to a comprehensive service proposition, which spans single manager, fund of hedge fund, private equity, real estate and infrastructure funds, pension funds and traditional asset managers.The acquisition adds $52 billion assets under administration (AuA) and brings the total AuA for MUFG Investor Services’ to $422 billion.

The assets serviced by Rydex Fund Services primarily consist of Guggenheim and Rydex branded mutual funds, exchange-traded products and closed-end funds, for which Guggenheim Investments will continue to serve as investment advisor.

“Starting from the pharmacy Eigelstein in Cologne 25 years ago, APOSAN has grown to become a market leader within its niche, with integrated GMP production using state-of-the art clean room facilities. It has truly been a remarkable journey. As we now enter the next phase in our development, APOSAN will be led by a highly experienced management team with Rainer Schmitz as the CEO. The Company will also enter into a new partnership with IK, who has a strong track record in building successful companies,” says Dr. Clemens Künzer, founder of APOSAN.

Junichi Okamoto, Group Head of Trust Assets Business Group, Deputy President, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation said: “The acquisition of Rydex Fund Services is a key component of our strategic expansion and enables us to broaden our support of new and existing clients as they embark on new market opportunities. The deal significantly expands our capabilities and reinforces our position as one of the leading global fund administrators.”

“We would like to thank Dr. Künzer for his contribution over the many years. Led by its experienced and broad management team, APOSAN is well positioned to capture future growth, both organically as well as through selective add-on acquisitions. IK’s investment approach and track record has convinced the management team that we have chosen the ideal partner for APOSAN going forward, and their previous experience will support APOSAN as we embark on our growth trajectory,” says Rainer Schmitz, CEO of APOSAN. “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of APOSAN, a market leader in the homecare services sector in Germany, an area in which IK has extensive experience thanks to its previous investments in the homecare space. APOSAN has attractive growth opportunities, targeting niches within the German homecare market, and a highly experienced and committed management team. We look forward to support APOSAN over the coming years,” says Anders Petersson, Partner at IK Investment Partners, and advisor to the IK Small Cap I Fund.

MUFG INVESTOR SERVICES COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF RYDEX FUND SERVICES FROM GUGGENHEIM INVESTMENTS MUFG Investor Services, the global asset-servicing group of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, has completed the acquisition of Rydex Fund Services, a 1940-Act mutual fund administration business, from Guggenheim Investments, the global asset management and investment advisory business of Guggenheim Partners.

Michael Rucci, Chief Executive Officer, MUFG Fund Services (USA), said: “Rydex Fund Services is a valuable addition to our business, particularly at a time when demand for liquid alternative strategies and their importance in portfolio construction are growing at a fast pace. Through this acquisition, we are perfectly placed to offer new and innovative solutions and ensure our clients take advantage of the best market opportunities.”

Nikolaos Bonos, Head of Rydex Fund Services, commented: “This partnership is a significant step forward for Rydex Fund Services, as it will create greater opportunities for our employees and clients, and enable us to continue the growth of the business in the future. MUFG Investors Services’ strategic focus on asset servicing and commitment to invest in the client franchise make it an ideal partner for us.”

MUFG Investor Services has acquired all of Rydex Fund Services’ business and intends to provide a seamless transition for its employees and clients.

NRS, PART OF ACCUITY, ACQUIRES FIRE SOLUTIONS TO EXTEND NRS’ COMPLIANCE TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION OFFERINGS TO BROKER DEALERS NRS, part of Accuity announced that it has acquired FIRE Solutions, a leading provider of compliance and education products and services to the broker-dealer community and an industry leader in securities exam preparation. Palm Ventures, LLC is the lead investor in FIRE Solutions along with The Palmer Group. The acquisition is part of NRS’s strategy to provide a comprehensive, single-source compliance portfolio to its clients that will enable them to fulfill their regulatory

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iDEAL BRIEF requirements.

In addition to its state-of-the-art learning management system and industry leading educational content, the FIRE Solutions team, with its deep knowledge and experience for broker-dealers, will be joining NRS. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.The FIRE Solutions products comprise: firm element and other continuing education content; annual compliance meeting; and securities exam preparation solutions to broker-dealers. In the US, there are over 4,000 broker-dealers and almost 640,000 registered representatives who are subject to mandated requirements for education throughout their career. NRS currently re-sells the FIRE Solutions continuing education offering as an integrated solution with its ComplianceMax platform and will incorporate all of the FIRE content in its solutions for brokerdealers and investment advisers.

The acquisition brings together two complementary and successful businesses. The combination of NRS’s comprehensive compliance technology, deep subject matter expertise and renowned customer service, together with FIRE Solutions’ learning technology and broker-dealer expertise, will allow NRS to offer customers an integrated compliance technology and training portfolio while reducing vendor management burdens.John Gebauer, President of NRS, said: “The acquisition of FIRE Solutions supports our strategy of providing a holistic compliance solution to our customers and will help us further serve broker-dealers at a time of burgeoning regulation such as the DOL Fiduciary rule. Given our existing product integration with FIRE Solutions and desire to address key regulatory requirements for NRS’ core customer set, FIRE Solutions is a natural fit for NRS. We already know and respect the FIRE Solutions team and know that we share the same high commitment to quality and customer service. We look forward to welcoming the FIRE Solutions team and their clients to the NRS community.”

Eric Sternbach, CEO, FIRE Solutions, said: “Having worked with the NRS team for many years we are excited to become a part of the family. Our shared belief in the importance of long term customer relationships bodes well for the future development and evolution of our educational solutions.

This transaction is very good news for both our employees and our clients who will benefit from NRS’s commitment to investing in the solutions and delivering a holistic platform for our clients.”

STAGE CAPITAL LAUNCHES AS INDEPENDENT PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM Spin-out of UK & European private equity investor NBGI Private Equity.

New firm backed by funds managed by Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, with initial AUM of over €300m.

Stage Capital announced that it has completed its separation from NBGI, backed by funds managed by Deutsche Bank Private Equity (“DBPE”) and Goldman Sachs Asset Management (“GSAM”, together the “Investors”). DBPE and GSAM will be Limited Partners in the funds managed by the firm, alongside significant investment by members of the Stage Capital team. The Investors have acquired 100%

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Graham Thomas, Managing Partner & CEO, Stage Capital

of National Bank of Greece’s interests in the funds under management by NBGI Private Equity for a consideration of €288m, in addition to committed funding to support and build the existing portfolio.

The core senior investment team members from NBGI Private Equity have become partners in Stage Capital, led by incoming Managing Partner & CEO Graham Thomas, whose previous experience includes roles at Goldman Sachs, MidOcean Partners and RIT Capital Partners.

Stage Capital manages a portfolio comprising private equity, venture capital and real estate investments across UK and Europe. A number of portfolio companies remain in growth and build-up mode and the firm will continue to be active in making acquisitions and supporting organic growth.

Stage typically invests between €5m-€25m into each portfolio company, and has been committed to investing in the midmarket since 2000. The team will continue to back experienced, dynamic management teams to build strong platform investments and drive change to create valuable, sustainable businesses.

Graham Thomas commented: “The Stage Capital name reflects the platform that we provide as an investor, both in terms of the financial support and the expertise that we bring as a seasoned investment team. We are delighted to have been backed by DBPE and GSAM, and are focused on realising strong returns for our Investors. There are exciting opportunities to further develop and build Stage Capital.”

In the run up to completion of its spin out, Stage Capital has remained active on the investment and exit front: Stage Capital recently secured a successful exit from its Real Estate portfolio. Stage Capital’s Polish logistics assets, comprising five warehouses with a combined area of over 126,000 sqm, were profitably sold to real estate investor Hines in July 2016. The Real Estate portfolio has also invested further in its Czech logistics portfolio, commencing the construction of a new 30,000 sqm building which is due to complete by the year end. On the Buyout front, UKbased ATR Group (which Stage Capital acquired in 2012) announced its merger with Centurion in late July 2016. The combination creates a global player in the oil and gas rental equipment and services market with a group turnover of over £100 million, operating from bases in the UK,

iDEAL BRIEF Netherlands, Caspian, Singapore, Australia and the US. ATR’s chief executive Keith Moorhouse has become CEO of the combined group in which Stage remains a significant investor.

TRUE CAPITAL ACQUIRES THE COTSWOLD COMPANY Acquisition will accelerate online growth, category expansion and a showroom roll-out of one of the UK’s largest online furniture retailers True Capital, the retail and consumer sector specialist investment firm, announced the majority acquisition of Blackbird Retail Holdings, owner of one of the UK’s largest online furniture retailers, The Cotswold Company.

True Capital is partnering with the existing management team who will continue to lead the company through its next stage of growth. True Capital will utilise its sector specialist expertise to help further accelerate online growth, expand product and category ranges and increase showroom presence across the UK. Founded in 1996, The Cotswold Company was acquired by Blackbird Retail Holdings in a purchase led by Kevin Johnson and James Birtwhistle in 2009. The company sells high quality oak, pine, painted furniture and accessories with a market leading value proposition.

The company handles over 100,000 orders every year from its 170,000 sq ft warehouse in Wednesbury. The business, which generates annual revenues in excess of £35m has delivered strong compound annual sales and EBITDA growth over the last four years, and with True Capital’s support it is very well positioned to continue that trajectory.

The online retail furniture market has grown rapidly in recent years with double digit growth, and is expected to keep growing at a compound annual growth (CAGR) of around 13% to 2020, according to Verdict and Forrester research.

The Cotswold Company has established a platform from which it will continue to benefit from the on-going channel shift.

Gordon Segal, founder of the US based $1bn turnover furniture retailer Crate&Barrel, whose family office, Prairie Management Group, is a significant investor in the True Capital fund, will play an active role in the company, particularly around product, real estate and supply chain following the transaction.

In The Cotswold Company we identified a strong business exposed to the right structural growth trends, with excellent financial metrics, driven and executed by exceptional founders and a world class management team.

Gordon Segal’s involvement in this acquisition is another great example of our sector ecosystem and I am sure he will prove to be a fantastic asset for the company going forward.

We are looking forward to working closely with Kevin and the management team to build and scale the business over the coming years to become a true market leader.”

Kevin Johnson, CEO of The Cotswold Company, comments: “I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved to date in delivering great quality furniture to homes throughout the UK. We have built a loyal and growing consumer base, and are continually driven to ensure our customers receive not only the best furniture, but also an exceptional retail experience.

In True Capital we have found a partner to take our business to the next level, whilst allowing us to adopt new technologies that will benefit our customers’ experiences.

Throughout the process, which took just eight weeks, it was evident that the professionalism, experience, spirit of partnership and retail network that True Capital will bring to our business is second to none. We are delighted to have them on board and look forward to growing the business with them over the coming years.”

Gordon Segal comments: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to get involved in the next stage of The Cotswold Company’s growth.

Building great businesses requires exceptional people and an outstanding culture. Having spent a long period of time with both True Capital and The Cotswold Company management team in recent weeks, I am absolutely confident Kevin and the wider team, with True Capital’s support, have the potential to build a very significant company. I am hopeful the experience I have gathered over the last 50 years building Crate&Barrel will be valuable to the team, and I am excited to be working with Kevin, Matt and their respective teams going forward.”

The Royal Bank of Scotland’s Corporate Transactions team provided the senior debt package for the transaction, plus committed working capital lines. The transaction was led

by Stefan Gunn, Director in Corporate Transactions, and he comments: “We were delighted to be able to support management and True Capital on this exciting corporate development.

The business is a leading player in the online furniture market and our expertise in acquisition finance and trade finance should support them to grow this channel, whilst also exploring new routes to market. Kevin and the wider management team are highly impressive and they will be augmented by True Capital’s vast expertise in the sector.”

True Capital was advised by Jones Day and PwC.

Matt Truman, CEO and co-founder of True Capital comments: “As a sector specialist firm, we aim to invest in retailers of the future and utilise our unique retail and consumer ecosystem to help accelerate growth.

The shareholders of Blackbird Retail Holdings were advised

by Livingstone Partners, JDC Corporate Finance and Pinsent Masons.

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“Gamechanger, what we define as an individual or business that aims to create a new model that leaves the older model obsolete.

Gamechangers impact how the game is played from one objective and ruling model to a completely new vision – changing the face of how we know something.�

Gamechangers Gamechangers 28

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ACTIS APPOINTS CARLTON BYRD AS A DIRECTOR IN THE INVESTOR DEVELOPMENT GROUP Actis, a leading growth markets investor, announced the appointment of Carlton Byrd as a director in the Investor Development Group in the New York office where he will further bolster the fundraising and investor relations expertise.

Carlton joins from Commonfund where he was a Managing Director and spent several years raising capital for PE funds from US institutional investors. Prior to this, Carlton carried out a number of business development roles in the hedge funds industry, having started his career in Financial Services with Goldman Sachs in 1994, where he spent eight years.

Carlton holds an MBA in Finance from Harvard Business School, and a double degree in Economics and Applied Science from University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology.

Actis is a leading investor in growth markets, delivering consistent competitive returns, responsibly across three asset classes of Energy, Real Estate and Private Equity. It has a growing portfolio of investments across Asia, Africa and Latin America and US$6.3bn assets under management.

In June 2016 Actis closed Africa Real Estate Fund 3 (“ARE3”) with commitments totaling more than $500m, comfortably exceeding the original $400m target. ARE3 is the largest opportunistic private real estate fund targeting sub-Saharan Africa raised in the market to date.

The diverse investor base includes pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, development finance institutions and

endowments from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Commenting on the appointment, Adiba Ighodaro, Partner and head of the New York office at Actis, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Carlton to the team in New York. Carlton brings with him extensive experience, an impressive track record and considerable acumen. He will further strengthen Actis ‘presence in the US and most importantly his expertise will help to realise the ambitions of our investors.”

BLANCCO TECHNOLOGY GROUP APPOINTS KEITH BUTCHER AS CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Top Finance Executive from PaySafe Group Will Guide Financial Operations, M&A Opportunities and Investor Relations for Continued Growth & Success Blancco Technology Group announced it has appointed Keith Butcher as its Chief Financial Officer, effective September 19, 2016. In his new role, Butcher will work side-by-side with CEO, Pat Clawson, to identify, evaluate and engage in key opportunities, including financial modeling, cost cutting, M&A opportunities and investor relations.

Butcher will also join the Board of Directors in October 2016 and will report directly to Pat Clawson, Blancco Technology Group’s Chief Executive Officer. At that time, the company’s longtime CFO, Jog Dhody, will resign from the company and the Board.

“I am delighted to welcome Keith into his new role and to the Board of Directors,” said Pat Clawson, CEO of

Blancco Technology Group. “Keith’s deep knowledge and experience in guiding public companies on the London Stock Exchange make him highly qualified to take on the CFO role. I’m confident his financial acumen and M&A expertise will help position us for long-term growth and success.

I’d also like to thank Jog Dhody for his dedication and valuable contributions over the last four years and wish him luck in his future endeavors.”

“I’m pleased to join Blancco Technology Group,” said Keith Butcher, newly appointed Chief Financial Officer of Blancco Technology Group.

“The company is uniquely positioned as the dominant leader in the data erasure market and has a tremendous opportunity to increase its value to enterprise businesses that must erase data permanently and verifiably to accommodate customer demands and regulatory requirements.”

Over the course of his career, Butcher has held CFO roles at several highgrowth techology and e-commerce companies, including PaySafe Group, Flomerics and DataCash Group. In each of these roles, he played an instrumental role in streamlining costs, improving investor relations and guiding the companies through successful mergers and acquisitions.

During his tenure as CFO at PaySafe Group, formerly known as Optimal Payments, Butcher guided the company through three significant acquisitions that helped transform the company into a £2 billion business. This included the company’s successful acquisition of Skrill in 2015 for 1.1 billion, which propelled PaySafe Group into the FTSE 250.

Butcher concluded, “Being a CFO is more than simply safeguarding corporate assets, streamlining costs and producing sets of accounts. It’s about monitoring the company’s current finances, while also keeping a strategic eye on shaping the future of the business. To do this, it’s important to make sure teams are adequately supported with the necessary resources and to engage in opportunities that deliver added value and significantly increase the company’s market share.

These will be key focus areas in my role and I am looking forward to helping the company continue its growth and success.”

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CAMPBELL STEEDMAN JOINS WINSTON & STRAWN IN DUBAI

FPE STRENGTHENS TEAM WITH CFO APPOINTMENT

Winston & Strawn LLP announced that Campbell Steedman has joined the firm as Managing Partner, Middle East. Mr. Steedman was most recently a partner at White & Case.

NorthEdge-backed engineering firm FPE Global has appointed Tim Hines to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to support its continued growth strategy.

Mr. Steedman’s practice focuses on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and privatizations in a variety of sectors, including energy, transportation, financial institutions, FMCG, and telecommunications. Prior to joining White & Case in 2011, he led the Middle East practice at Norton Rose.

“The addition of Campbell Steedman to our team underscores our commitment to enhancing our presence in the Middle East,” said Tom Fitzgerald, Winston’s firmwide managing partner.

“Campbell is a well-known M&A lawyer and a welcome addition to the firm,” added Dominick DeChiara, chair of Winston’s Corporate Department.

“His reputation and experience handling transactions in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa will add significant depth to the firm and value to its clients.”

With nearly 25 years of experience, Mr. Steedman is known for his ability to navigate the complexities of intricately structured, multijurisdictional transactions. His achievements have led to him being named “External Counsel of the Year” 2009 by Asian-Counsel Magazine and “M&A Lawyer of the Year,” UAE at the 2010 ILO Client Choice Awards.

“Winston has demonstrated a strong commitment to expanding its transactional practice globally,” said Mr. Steedman. “I’m excited to join the firm and look forward to working with our existing team to develop and grow our practice in the Middle East.”

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Tim joins FPE with over 11 years’ experience in senior financial management positions. He has spent the past two years as finance director at mining solutions firm Joy Global, and has held other senior roles at Manchester Airport, HJ Heinz, Kellogg’s and KPMG. In his new role, Tim will be responsible for driving the company’s financial strategy as the Manchesterheadquartered business continues to target growth in overseas markets. An expert in bulk materials handling and pneumatic conveying, the company has already doubled order intake in 2016 and sales are forecasted to grow to £16m by the end of 2017.

Tim’s appointment comes after a period of investment in FPE’s senior management team. The company introduced Dave Cooper as CEO in March this year and has appointed a number of industry experts as it shifts its focus to a number of high growth sectors. This includes specialist materials handling, food and beverage, pet foods, detergents and chemicals and renewables.

FPE Global was backed by private equity firm NorthEdge Capital in a management buyout in 2014.

David Cooper, CEO at FPE Global, said: “We’re delighted to have Tim on board as we target further growth on an international scale. Tim’s experience in capital goods businesses coupled with his knowledge of our core markets will be a great asset to the team as we look to build on recent successes and get more deeply engrained with our core markets and key customer base.

Tim Hines, Chief Financial Officer, FPE Global

Tim Hines, Chief Financial Officer at FPE Global, added: “FPE has a clear growth strategy and with increasingly strong sales figures the role represents an exciting opportunity. The company has the right team in place to offer a best in class service to customers and I am confident that we can cement our position as a global leader in the bulk handling space.”

LAW FIRM AKD APPOINTS FOURTH PARTNER TO NEW LUXEMBOURG OFFICE Leading Benelux law firm AKD has recruited experienced corporate and tax lawyer, Cécile Jager, to join its new Luxembourg office as a partner from partner to join AKD’s Luxembourg

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office, bringing further top-level experience to the firm’s corporate practice. AKD’s Luxembourg office, which opened its doors recently, is meeting growing demand for integrated, international legal services in stable jurisdictions and expands the firm’s corporate, tax, banking and finance, and investment funds practices.

Managing partner, Erwin Rademakers, comments: “We are delighted to welcome Cécile Jager to our Luxembourg team. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our international structuring practice.

Her appointment is part of AKD’s international growth strategy, aimed at offering our clients a full package of legal and tax services with local offices throughout the Benelux.”

With over 220 lawyers, civil-law notaries and tax advisors, AKD is the internationally focused legal and tax firm for businesses dealing with the Benelux countries. Cécile Jager joins AKD from the well-known Luxembourg law firm, Bonn Steichen & Partners (“BSP”), where she worked for 13 years, the last four of which as a partner.

Prior to that she worked at PwC in Luxembourg and at Banque de Gestion Privee Indosuez in various positions.

She says: “AKD has a very strong reputation throughout the Benelux and its can-do attitude matches my own.

The firm’s ambitions for its domestic and international expansion in my area of expertise are very exciting and I look forward to contributing to the ongoing international success of AKD.” Cécile Jager was admitted to the Luxembourg Bar in 2003. She graduated from Université Nancy II with a master’s degree in business law in 1999 and gained a post-graduate degree in wealth management in 2000. She advises on tax and corporate issues in connection with structured financings as well as on the acquisition and disposition of assets and companies and group restructurings.

She has particular expertise on specific corporate aspects of both domestic and cross-border deals, including M&A transactions, corporate reorganisations and private equity investments. Her expertise in both tax and corporate, enables her to advise international

METRO BANK BOOSTS INVOICE FINANCE TEAM WITH SENIOR HIRE Metro Bank, the entrepreneur’s bank, announced the appointment of Kevin Craven as Head of Invoice Finance - a newly created role. Kevin will report directly to Richard Saulet, Director of Invoice and Asset Finance.

With over 20 years’ of invoice finance and asset based lending experience, Kevin will be responsible for spearheading Metro Bank’s invoice finance business.

Kevin joins the leading challenger bank from Bibby Financial Services where he led the corporate sales team before taking up the position of Corporate Risk Director. Prior to Bibby, Kevin headed up the corporate division at HSBC Invoice and Equipment Finance for over 9 years.

Commenting on his appointment, Kevin said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to join such a forward thinking organisation as Metro Bank. I have watched with interest the growth of the bank since its launch in 2010, and am really excited to be able to use the experience that I’ve gained over the past two decades, to help grow and develop the business further.”

Richard Saulet, Director of Invoice and Asset Finance at Metro Bank said: “I’m delighted to welcome Kevin to the growing team. Kevin brings with him extensive experience and a real desire to do the right thing for customers.

His insights and attitude will be a great asset for us as we continue to revolutionise banking for customers.”Metro Bank’s latest development follows strong Q2 results

for the leading challenger bank, which saw a 110% year-on-year increase in lending, with loans to commercial customers representing 35% of total lending. The bank also reported a 74% year-on-year growth in deposits to £6.6bn, 52% of which was from business customers.

MILLENIUMASSOCIATES FURTHER STRENGTHENS ITS SENIOR TEAM WITH BIAGIO ZOCCOLILLO JOINING AS PARTNER MilleniumAssociates AG, the international M&A and Corporate Finance Advisory firm based in Switzerland and the UK, has appointed Biagio Zoccolillo as Partner.

Mr Zoccolillo has a long and illustrious career having held management positions at Berner Kantonalbank, Swiss Volksbank, UBS, West Merchant Bank, United European Bank and Mirabaud & Cie. His international experience has seen him operate across range of geographies including Europe, CIS, Africa, Latin America and Switzerland. More recently Mr Zoccolillo established his own independent consultancy practice advising entrepreneurs, wealthy families, individuals as well as corporates and institutions.

Ray Soudah, MilleniumAssociates’ founding partner commented “We are delighted to welcome Biagio Zoccolillo to the team, he is a seasoned banking expert with not only impressive regional and international experience but also a strong understanding of a variety of clients, be they from a banking fraternity or the entrepreneurial and corporate sphere and will add to the firm’s capabilities and be invaluable support in our efforts to expand our Swiss and global advisory services.

Mr Zoccolillo added “I am very pleased to partner with MilleniumAssociates, their expertise, global reach and impressive investor network complements my own experience, and their independence and lack of conflicts will enable me to support old and new clients regardless of industry sector or geography.”

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NUXEO APPOINTS STEVE KING AND DAVE KELLOGG TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS King Joins as Executive Chairman and Kellogg to Serve as Independent Director Nuxeo, developer of a leading Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform which enables organizations to manage complex digital content at massive scale, announced the expansion of its board of directors with the addition of Steve King as Executive Chairman and Dave Kellogg as Independent Director.

The announcement follows the completion of Nuxeo’s recently announced Series B funding round which totalled $30 million.

“Nuxeo is delivering an essential solution that meets the urgent and exploding market demand for nextgeneration ECM technology that will manage today’s complex digital content at massive scale,” said Eric Barroca, CEO, Nuxeo.

“Faced with the increasing complexity, volume and diversity of digital content, organizations need a powerful and flexible solution that will enable architects and developers to easily build and run the applications that power business.

The addition of Steve and Dave to our board will provide the expansive vision and experience Nuxeo needs to quickly capitalize on this ‘white hot’ market opportunity as we act quickly to execute our business strategy for global expansion.”

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Steve King is a veteran enterprise software executive and distinguished visionary in the electronic document and digital content market.

Most recently he was CEO of Recommind, a leading provider of eDiscovery and information analytics which was acquired by OpenText. Prior to that he served as CEO of DocuSign, the global standard for digital transaction management.

Earlier he led ZANTAZ, Inc. as president and CEO where, under his seven-year leadership, it grew to become the recognized market leader in cloud-based content archiving and e-discovery solutions. King also served in multiple executive positions at E*TRADE, becoming the CEO of E*OFFERING, a pioneering online investment bank of E*TRADE. He currently sits on the boards of multiple startups.

King earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and an MBA from Thomas Edison State University.

“Nuxeo has a tremendous opportunity to lead the next generation of cloud-scale digital content and asset management.

With innovative technology, impressive customer successes and a growing global infrastructure the company is primed for success,” said King. “I look forward to helping to chart the company’s growth during such a pivotal time.”

Dave Kellogg is an enterprise software thought leader, executive, strategist and marketer. Currently he is the CEO of Host Analytics, the leader in cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions. Prior to Host Analytics, Kellogg served as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Service Cloud business unit of Salesforce. com. He has also served as CEO for MarkLogic and has held marketing executive positions with Business Objects, Versant Corporation and Ingres Corp.

He holds a bachelor’s degrees in Geophysics and Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.

“The digital content explosion is driving opportunity like never before. Nuxeo is right at the heart of this change, delivering a flexible yet powerful platform that enables business applications to not just manage, but truly use, content in new and transformative ways,” said Kellogg.

“I look forward to working with this creative, passionate team to accelerate market adoption and to drive the future of ECM technology.”

RESTRUCTURING PARTNER JOINS SIDLEY Sidley Austin LLP announced that Jifree Cader is joining the firm as a partner in its Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy practice.

Mr. Cader brings a wealth of experience in advising clients on all facets of European insolvencies and restructurings.

Mr. Cader works closely with private equity firms, hedge funds, investment banks, and other distressed debt and par investors, providing advice on their investment portfolios. He has also advised insolvency practitioners.

“We are very pleased to welcome Jifree to Sidley,” said James F. Conlan, co-chairman of the firmwide Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy practice.

“His considerable experience in restructuring work, particularly on behalf of private equity sponsors, will further strengthen our own significant restructuring capabilities.

As Jifree previously worked closely alongside several of our new partners, reuniting them will result in immediate value for our clients.”

Mr Zoccolillo added “I am very pleased to partner with MilleniumAssociates, their expertise, global reach and impressive investor network complements my own experience, and their independence and lack of conflicts will enable me to support old and new clients regardless of industry sector or geography.”

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SPECIALIST ASSET FUNDER JOINS ULTIMATE FINANCE GROUP Ultimate Finance has strengthened its asset finance division further with the appointment of specialist lender Andrew Casey. Having worked at both Lloyds and NatWest in asset finance, he joined Close Brothers printing finance division before moving to Paragon Bank.

Although Andrew has specialist knowledge within the print sector, he has provided asset finance and refinancing solutions across all industry sectors. From his base in North Lincolnshire he will be covering the East of England from Newcastle down to Norwich. Andrew joins Ultimate Finance Group as it continues to demonstrate its appetite to lend, having increased its loan book to more than £100m for the first time, representing a rise of 33 per cent in the last 12 months, and attracted a record number of clients, which currently stands at 1800.

Commenting on his new role, Andrew said, “Having worked in the industry for many years, I admire the ‘can do’ attitude of the Ultimate team. Being an independent lender it is able to adopt a flexible approach and speedy response to SMEs’ cashflow requirements. “In addition, the fact it now has the financial backing of its parent investment company, Tavistock Group, means it does not have to rely on banks or financial markets for funding, which is a major advantage in these uncertain times. This has led to the record lending levels not only for the Group but for the Asset division too.” Managing director of Ultimate Asset Finance, Andy Ribbins, is delighted to welcome Andrew to the team.

“These are really exciting times for Ultimate and Andrew is a great addition to help us build our presence in the East of England,” he said. “He joins us with an excellent reputation in the area, amongst SMEs and introducers alike, for excellent service levels and in-depth knowledge of the asset finance market.”

ULTIMATE FINANCE MAKES SENIOR APPOINTMENT IN LEEDS The Leeds office of Ultimate Finance has appointed Jamie Hunt as a regional director. He joins the company having spent more than 30 years working in the banking and commercial finance sector. Having spent 18 years with Yorkshire Bank, he moved over to asset based lending with Aldermore before running his own brokerage. During his career he has been involved in deals which have been used for MBOs, MBIs, start-ups, restructures and to provide cash flow solutions for established businesses.

Jamie Hunt, Regional Director, Ultimate Finance

Speaking about his reason for joining Ultimate Finance, Jamie said, “I knew a lot of the team in Yorkshire and several of the others nationally, having worked with them during my time as a broker. I have always been impressed with their approach and willingness to get things done.

“The company has recently progressed to another level having received financial backing from its parent company Tavistock. With significant funds now available to lend I believe Ultimate Finance will quickly become amajor player in the asset based lending market.”Noel Haverly, Ultimate Finance’s head of sales for Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland, is confident Jamie will prove to be a real asset.

Andrew Casey, Specialist Lender, Ultimate Finance Group

“Having operated in Yorkshire as both a lender and a broker, he is extremely well known and highly respected in the region. He also understands that brokers and clients alike need quick decisions and flexibility to find solutions for funding requirements both of which we can provide at Ultimate Finance.”

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BANKING VETERAN TAKES UP ROLE WITH INFINITY

Norman Davidson, left, with Dave Furlong of Infinity

A banking veteran who held numerous senior posts during a 42-year career with HSBC has taken up a role with investment firm Infinity.

Norman Davidson, 59, who retired at the end of 2015, has joined the investment committee for Infinity’s debt fund.

He is the first external figure to be appointed to the committee. His duties will include advising on prospective deals, reviewing the existing portfolio and acting as an ambassador for the debt fund and Infinity’s other activities, which include private equity and property investment. Infinity, which is based in Salford Quays following its move from Manchester city centre earlier this year, manages and advises on clients’ investments across a range of funds and asset classes.Its debt fund, which provides flexible finance of between £2m and £10m for growing businesses, is headed by partner Dave Furlong, who joined Infinity last year.

Dave previously worked with Norman at HSBC as head of leveraged finance for the northwest. Norman began his career with the former Midland Bank as a 17-year-old clerk and rose through the corporate ranks to finish as head of the UK regions for HSBC Leveraged Finance. In charge of five offices between 2011 and 2015, he jointly managed a substantial book of leveraged loans to mid-market companies.

Dave Furlong said: “Norman is a true heavy-hitter from the banking world and his appointment is a fantastic boost for Infinity.

“He has vast experience, strong analytical skills and excellent working relationships with the corporate and professional communities across the north.

“His attributes will greatly complement the skill-set of our existing investment committee members, and we could not wish for someone with a better track record to become our first external appointment.”

Norman said: “Debt funds have shown tremendous growth over the last five years and I’m looking forward to helping Infinity develop its offering.

“I spent a good proportion of my career filtering deals, making sure we did the right transactions. It was not just about lending the money but also about looking after it.

“I like the culture at Infinity and am excited to be using my background and experience to good effect to help the business grow.”

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CITY FINANCIAL APPOINTS LOU THORNE AS GLOBAL CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER City Financial, the independent investment management firm with over US$4 billion in-group assets, announced the appointment of Lou Thorne in a newly created role as Global Chief Operating Officer, with effect from 7 November 2016.

Based in New York, Lou will be responsible for City Financial’s global operations, risk, legal, compliance and technology teams across six offices. He will report to Andrew Williams, Chief Executive, and will join City Financial’s executive management committee. Lou succeeds David Levitan who will be stepping down from the role 1 March 2017 to pursue interests outside of the investment management industry.

commitment to the continued development of the firm, and in particular, a significant investment in operational infrastructure as we grow both the scale and number of investment strategies that we offer our clients worldwide.

“This appointment comes at an exciting time for City Financial, and I would like to thank David Levitan for his leadership and efforts in taking our business over the past 10 years from start-up to over US$4 billion in total client assets.”

Lou Thorne commented: “City Financial has established itself as a leading independent investment management firm with exceptional capabilities in both alternative and long-only products. With the increased complexity of supporting investment teams across three continents, the time is right for City Financial to further invest in operational infrastructure to better serve its growing client base. I look forward to working with Andrew and his team to expand the business in all markets, with an overriding focus on maintaining operational excellence.”

HAWKSFORD’S NEW LEADER TO SPEARHEAD AMBITIOUS GROWTH PLANS Michel van Leeuwen, an experienced financial services and fin-tech business leader who brings industry expertise from leadership roles at Cordium and Microsoft Capital Markets, has joined Hawksford as group chief executive to lead the delivery of its ambitious growth plans.

Lou Thorne, Global Chief Operating Officer, City Financial

Prior to joining City Financial, Lou was Managing Director and Global Chief Operating Officer of Fortress Investment Group’s (NYSE: FIG) Liquid Markets Hedge Fund business.

At Fortress he was responsible for infrastructure and support functions, and was actively involved in firm-wide infrastructure planning and business development. Lou has deep experience across varying strategies and structures spanning the US, Europe and Asia, and has an enviable track record of successfully building and managing global teams.

Prior to this, Lou was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer at MissionPoint Investment Partners. He began his career at Tudor Investment Corporation, where he spent over eight years serving in various middle and back office capacities. Lou graduated with a B.S. in Banking and Finance from Hofstra University.

Andrew Williams, Chief Executive at City Financial, said: “Attracting someone of Lou’s calibre demonstrates our

The appointment underpins Hawksford’s focus on an accelerated growth strategy, which will see the business expand its core corporate, private client and funds service lines while simultaneously introducing additional ancillary services that benefit clients. The growth strategy involves both organic growth and growth by acquisition. The company, backed by UK private equity firm Dunedin, plans to double its overall size and increase its geographical footprint over the next three to five years.

Mr van Leeuwen will apply his experience in financial services technology and business optimisation to help raise the client services processes at Hawksford to an even higher level. This will ensure that both current and future clients, as well as the expanding team of professionals at Hawksford, will benefit whilst simultaneously delivering growth.

Mr van Leeuwen said “Hawksford has a strong leadership team which I look forward to working alongside to deliver the company’s strategic plan. The company has many excellent qualities, including the ability to be flexible and nimble in a busy marketplace delivering rigorous technical expertise. I look forward to harnessing these attributes and building on the established momentum for the next stage of Hawksford’s growth.

“The opportunity to integrate additional service lines and technology into Hawksford will result in best of breed service delivery across all business lines. The objective is to create a ‘one stop shop’ service provider for both new and existing clients around the world reducing cost and inefficiency.”

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HENRI MARCOUX JOINS TIKEHAU CAPITAL AS DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR Tikehau Capital announced the appointment of Henri Marcoux to the newly created position of Deputy Managing Director. He will be based in Paris and will report to the co-founders of the group, Antoine Flamarion and Mathieu Chabran.

Henri Marcoux will supervise and coordinate the corporate and finance functions within Tikehau Capital, which currently manages €8.7 billion invested in all asset classes.

Michel van Leeuwen, CFO, Hawksford

Mr van Leeuwen’s thirty years of experience includes leadership roles at high profile businesses. Prior to joining Hawksford he was group CEO of Cordium, a market-leading provider of regulatory compliance consulting services to the asset management and securities industry. Cordium delivered strong organic growth and integrated various strategic acquisitions. Cordium was backed by private equity firm Sovereign Capital, which won an industry award for its successful exit from Cordium in 2015.

Prior to Cordium, Mr van Leeuwen served as managing director of Microsoft Worldwide Capital Markets and was responsible for delivering nearly $1 billion in revenues across the global capital markets industry. He also served as CEO of the Risk Management division at Misys plc and was a member of its operating board. Earlier positions include senior roles at State Street Bank and Algorithmics.

Henri Marcoux, 43, gained 21 years of experience in audit and financial management from working with first tier players. He spent 11 years at Groupe EPI, a luxury brand group (JM Weston, Bonpoint, Figaret, Champagne Piper, Charles Heidsieck), as Chief Financial Officer, member of the Executive Board and member of the Strategic Committees of its affiliates. Henri was responsible for financial control, financing and banking relations, the corporate legal department and consolidation. He was also actively involved in all the M&A projects carried out by the Group. In addition, he was in charge of managing the Group’s real estate assets.

Henri started his career as a financial controller at Bouygues Group in Indonesia (1995-1997), then as a financial auditor at KPMG (1997-2000). He then joined Alcatel Group, first as manager within the internal audit team (2000-2003) and then as business unit financial controller (2003-2005).

Henri graduated from Paris ESLSCA Business School.

Philip Taylor, chairman of Hawksford, said, “We are thrilled that a business leader of Michel’s calibre has been appointed to lead Hawksford. The business is poised for significant growth and his specialist market knowledge and M&A experience will be vital in helping Hawksford to achieve its international ambitions. Acting CEO Michael Powell and CFO Steve Spybey have ensured that Michel will take the reins of a well-structured business that is poised for growth.”

Mr Powell, a founding member of the team that performed the management buyout of Rathbones in 2008, continues to focus on delivering his expertise to Hawksford’s clients while remaining a highly valued director and member of the board.

Mr van Leeuwen intends to relocate to Jersey for his new role.

Hawksford has 220 employees and offices in Jersey, the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

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Henri Marcoux, Deputy Managing Director, Tikehau

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JOINING OF SIDDHARTH RAJA TO ARGUS PARTNERS

“Siddharth, who shall also be a member of the Firm’s National Executive Committee, will greatly strengthen the leadership at Argus Partners. As Argus Partners enters a new chapter and embarks on the next stage of growth, Siddharth’s drive and passion for excellence and desire to consistently deliver the best quality of legal service seamlessly merges with the Firm’s vision.

Siddharth Raja, founder partner of Samvad: Partners, will be joining Argus Partners as Senior Partner and National Executive Director.

Aditya’s distinctive entrepreneurial acumen coupled with exceptional technical skills creates a special advantage for the Firm in this new phase. Megha’s indirect tax experience superbly compliments the Firm’s Indirect Tax practice at the threshold of the GST regime. Siddharth, Aditya and Megha share our core values and I am extremely excited to have them on board.” - Krishnava Dutt, Managing Partner of Argus Partners.

“Siddharth will be based in our Bangalore office, along with responsibility for, and oversight of, our Chennai office and practice that he will also help drive. He will also have a strong leadership role across the Firm.”

Aditya Narayan and Megha Malhotra Narayan, partners at Aditya Narayan & Co. will join as an equity and salaried partner, respectively, in Bangalore. They, along with their team, will significantly augment their existing practice.

Siddharth is a 1997 batch NLSIU Bangalore alumnus (and a gold medalist), with an LLM from Warwick University in International Economic Law where he was a Foreign & Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholar and a JN Tata Scholar.

He has been consistently recognized by various international publications including Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 for his high quality and excellent technical knowledge. He brings to the Firm nearly two decades of experience in M&A and private equity practice.

Aditya, a 2006 NLSIU Bangalore alumnus, has an established practice in disputes resolution, general corporate, real estate and IPR. Megha, also a 2006 NLSIU Bangalore alumnus, is an indirect tax practitioner. She has worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers for over seven years.

These significant additions to the senior team at Argus Partners will greatly strengthen their M&A, PE/VC transaction, disputes, indirect tax, and general corporate and commercial legal advisory practices, and will enhance their market presence in southern India. It notably complements the Firm’s existing practice across the country.

“I believe this is a key turning point in my close to 20-year legal career, especially since 2004 when I returned to India and then co-founded Samvad: (and its predecessor firm), which will continue to be in my DNA. The move marks a well-thought through shift towards both a niche pracice area as well as a continuing national and cross-border presence; a tremendous strategic advantage.

There exists a golden opportunity to cater to the burgeoning practice area of start- ups as well as the early- to mid- stage venture capital eco-system; crafting and structuring investment transaction solutions for funds, HNIs and family offices, as well as exits for investors and for corporates. In this I believe my joining Argus, with Aditya and Megha, will be a perfect fit, leveraging both teams’ inherent strengths and capabilities to deliver such solutions to our clients in a timely and effective manner. I am also looking forward to the challenges of the leadership role in Argus.” – Siddharth Raja.

“Megha and I are both excited to be joining Argus Partners. For us, and our team, the merger acknowledges great synergies amongst our existing practice, Siddharth’s practice and experience and Argus well-established presence across India. We believe that our deep domain-expertise and entrepreneurial instincts will enable us to contribute significantly to the Firm’s next phase of growth. At the same time, this merger

will enable us continue to offer - and broaden our offering of - top- quality, efficient and meaningful legal advice and representation to our clients going forward.” – Aditya Narayan.

ULTIMATE FINANCE CONTINUES TO EXPAND IN MANCHESTER WITH ANOTHER KEY APPOINTMENT The Manchester office of Ultimate Finance is building on the success in the North West region over the last year with a further senior appointment, having added six to the team so far this year.

Neil Lukins joins the SME funder as a regional director having spent 14 years working in the banking and commercial finance sector. For the last eight years he was with HSBC where he became regional business development manager within the global trade and receivables department.Throughout his career he has specialised in invoice discounting and factoring, working with SMEs from start up to £6.5m turnover.

In addition to his strong banking background he has an excellent sales record as well as an in-depth understanding of credit and risk.

Speaking about the reasons for joining Ultimate Finance, Neil said, “Having worked in the banking sector for many years, I was attracted to Ultimate Finance because of the flexibility it can offer SMEs and the speed with which it is able to make decisions.

“A key driver for me is the fact it has a strong appetite to work with clients and tailor bespoke working capital solutions to help them to grow their businesses.”

Group sales director, Richard Waldman, is delighted to have made another high profile appointment.

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“It is encouraging that more and more senior people within the finance sector want to join us because they recognise the strengths of Ultimate Finance and the way we operate.

“During his time with HSBC, Neil built up an excellent reputation and trust among SMEs, as well as being well respected by introducers. He will therefore be an excellent addition to the team as we grow our presence in the North West from our new Manchester office.”

VOLAW GROUP APPOINTS ITS NEXT MANAGING DIRECTOR

Robert Christensen was appointed a director of Volaw upon its foundationin 1982 and became Managing Director in 1988 and has overseen the growth of Volaw to become one of Jersey’s leading owner-managed trust and corporate services businesses. He is a leading figure in Jersey’s finance industry, having been instrumental in establishing Jersey Finance Limited, the promotional body for Jersey’s finance industry, which he currently chairs.

In recognition of Mr Christensen’s contribution as Chair of Cancer Research UK in Jersey spanning over 20 years, he was honoured in the Queen’s

Volaw Group’s Managing Director, Robert Christensen, has announced his retirement from the end of 2016 and the appointment of his successor, who will take up post from 1 January 2017.

New Year Honours list for 2015 by being appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). Mr Christensen is leaving Volaw to pursue an opportunity outside of the financial services industry whilst remaining in close contact with Volaw and some key clients.

Following a rigorous recruitment process Volaw’s board has selected Mark Hucker to be Volaw’s next Managing Director, subject to approval by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.

Mark Hucker was born and educated in Jersey, where he has spent the major part of his career, gaining more than 20 years’ experience in the offshore financial sector. He is a chartered accountant with deep experience in

the fund and investment management sector as Managing Director of Strategy and Operations for Ermitage Asset Management, before he took a role as Managing Director of Key Trust Company. Moving to Standard Bank Jersey, Mr Hucker became Chief Executive of the Standard Bank Offshore Group, covering its offices in Jersey, the Isle of Man and Mauritius.

Commenting on Mark Hucker’s appointment, Robert Christensen said: “Mark’s varied career with a number of senior roles in different sectors of Jersey’s finance industry makes him an excellent choice to be Volaw’s next Managing Director.

He has proven experience in developing strategic vision and execution on corporate goals and he shares the ambition of Volaw’s board to drive Volaw’s growth more swiftly during the next five years.”

Mark Hucker commented: “I am delighted and honoured to join such a fantastic business as Volaw. This is an exciting era with great opportunities and my aim is to build on the Group’s considerable success. I relish this opportunity to grow the Volaw business over the coming years.”

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Berluti, Table Football Menswear labels have been storming the pitch with their football designs, but Berluti wasn’t satisfied with just upgrading the ball - this table football set makes the whole game more beautiful. Trimmed in the house’s trademark Venezia leather and handmade in France, you won’t find a finer game of baby foot. Part of Berluti’s Toys for Boys collection, the brand designed this table football set in collaboration with Bonzini, who have over 60 years’ experience in designing professional games tables.

41 Gamechangers

PARADE

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Supernova, Electric Blue Chandelier by Lou Blass

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Linley, London Landmark Cushion 43 Gamechangers

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Mosaique, Evil Eye Vase

Gamechangers 44

“Gamechanger: A visionary strategist bringing fresh and unique ideas to the table, an individual or business that stands out from the crowd with ideas that inventively change the way a situation develops.�

45 Gamechangers

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Sammedia Ltd Sammedia Ltd Forward House, Henley-in-Arden Warwickshire, B95 5AA Tel: 03303 600 300 Email: info@sammedia.com

“Our goal is to make financial advice accessible to everyone.”

Q: Why financial services and why now?

The mobile phone has made a huge impact on our lives. Technology businesses continue to overhaul many existing industries such as marketing by Google and Facebook, books by Amazon, films by Netflix, music by iTunes and Spotify, taxis

by Uber… the list keeps growing.

These firms known as ‘technology disruptors’ have taken technologies such as the mobile phone, internet connectivity, email and satnav and created completely new ways of doing ordinary everyday tasks.

The technologies behind these are very complex; but the solution for the user is very simple. The financial services industry seems to be in reverse, the solutions for the consumer are very complex whereas the underlying technologies are antiquated, relying on far too much paperwork. This needs to change.

Q. Tell us about moneyinfo and what it does?

Think of it as a digital financial filing cabinet on your phone. All of the information regarding your finances is brought together into one place and, as much as possible, automatically kept up to date. We cover everything financial including your bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages, loans, savings, investments, insurances, pensions and property.

when we get there are bewildering. Proper financial advice can save people a fortune over their lifetime. We want to ensure people can get access to it at key points in their lives.

Q: Who should use a product like moneyinfo?

The journey to financial independence needs to start at the beginning of people’s financial life not near the end. Our tools are equally important to students at university looking to manage their finances and keep debt under control as they are to a pensioner trying to work out how much they can afford to spend without ending up solely reliant on the state.

Q: What made you get into financial services?

Like many in the industry, I fell into financial services by chance. I went to Grammar School and did my exams a year early. I was only just 17 when I finished school. Rather than go to university that year, my Mum saw a job advertised in the local paper for a trainee computer operator at a financial adviser firm. I had no computer knowledge and my job mostly involved looking up stock-prices from the Financial Times and ringing insurance companies to get the details of unit holdings. However, financial advice fascinated me. I was a boy from a council estate suddenly looking at valuations for people with hundreds of thousands of pounds invested.

moneyinfo serves as a financial passport, which can deliver the information required to help people access financial advice when and wherever they need it.

Within three months I had taught myself to program on an Apple II computer and took over managing the firm’s computer systems. The firm then sponsored me to go to university to study a computer science programme. As it turned out, I ended up leaving university after a year as the technology was so far behind what I was using in business, but my path to financial services and technology had begun.

Q: How will you get people to engage with their finances?

Apathy towards finances is our biggest challenge. We actively encourage people to input their information by providing benefit back in return. For example, if you enter your house number and postcode, moneyinfo shows you when you bought your property, how much you paid, and calculates an approximate value from Land Registry Data. It then keeps your property value updated regularly thereafter. You can store your home insurance and other important documents against your property. moneyinfo keeps everything organised and accessible for when you need it, which could be in an emergency when all you may have access to is your mobile phone.

Q. Talk us through some of the FinTech solutions you’ve been involved with?

Following my initial work at a financial adviser, I was offered a job with a FinTech called LSD Software. The LSD stood for pounds, shillings and pence in old money – honestly! These guys were acquired by a company called Fame Computers in Birmingham, which resulted in me moving to the Midlands near Warwick, now home for 25 years. I left to start a company called 1st Software which became the UK’s most successful adviser system with 4 in 10 financial advice firms using our software. After selling 1st Software and leaving in 2008 I became involved with Sammedia, we have been developing moneyinfo since 2009.

Q: Why would people want to use moneyinfo?

We all want reassurance that we are making the right decisions and that if something terrible happens we will be taken care of financially.

Q: Many people don’t trust financial services, how is this going to change?

I believe that as an industry we offer significant value to consumers, however it is right to say that some organisations have given our industry a bad name by selling unsuitable or overly expensive products to consumers.

People get the reassurance of being able to manage all of their finances in one place including all the associated paperwork. This information provides the fuel for advice tools which can then help people make better financial decisions.

In general, people don’t want to worry about their finances but at points in our lives we all have to, often when it’s too late to do much about it. moneyinfo helps you organise your finances and can gently nudge you into making important financial decisions at the right times.

Q: Isn’t this just about selling more financial products?

Financial products provide a significant benefit to people, helping insure against risks such as health, life, property etc. and encouraging short term saving and long-term saving, such as saving towards your retirement. Few people have sufficient life cover and income protection in place, yet these products are relatively cheap and can provide significant peace of mind. Over the years, the government has introduced many tax-efficient savings products and it is important to use the tax-advantages of these to maximise your retirement income. For the majority of us, saving for retirement and the choices available

Sammedia work with high-quality advice firms, with great reputations built up over many years. Our industry has been through significant change due to regulation. Knowing that the regulator has the benefit of hindsight, firms have to carefully consider the products they offer, not just in relation to suitability but also ensuring that the consumer understands what they are buying.

Our industry faces the challenge that people need advice. It’s very important that we meet this challenge. Technologies such as moneyinfo will help to build long-term trust in financial services and ensure that the majority of us have a better financial future.

Mik Cons, CEO Sammedia

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HEALTHCARE A closer look into Healthcare, Pharmaceutical and BioTech

Healthcare (noun): The organized provision of medical care to individuals or a community Healthcare, as an important body of both science and art has developed over many centuries. While tremendous progress has been made over these hundreds of years, more recently it has become apparent that despite significant recent investment and progress, that many systems (across the western world as much as the developing world) are struggling to cope with their systems under increasing pressure – therefore highlighting the importance of these industries and the research they perform.

Healthcare, pharmaceutical and biotech play such crucial roles in today’s society. Gamechangers wanted to take a closer look into the innovations that are changing the way we look at healthcare, technological advancements that are keeping us one step ahead and the leaders that are behind it all.

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Can The Medicines Company Change Medicine?

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As The Medicines Company continues to deliver on its strategy to reinvent itself around a pipeline of promising potential blockbuster drugs, it just may help to reinvent the way the pharmaceutical industry delivers value. Supported by a sophisticated set of biopharma investors, the company is also taking an audacious new approach to capital deployment— one aimed at unlocking potentially massive shareholder value.

Generating revenue from selling drugs and improving the lives of patients are the twin missions of any pharmaceutical company.

A successful pharma can make enough money that the revenue can be spread around —some for investors, some for licensing in new opportunities, some for R&D. Founded in Cambridge, MA in 1997 and now based in Parsippany, NJ, The Medicines Company built an enviable revenue stream with a trailblazing hospital sales strategy and solid late-stage development operation that has been unusually successful recently at turning promising molecules into marketed drugs. In 2016, it decided to give all of that up. That decision represents a big call for the near-20-year-old ĆƒUPĹžD FKDQJH LQ GLUHFWLRQ DQG LQ SRWHQWLDO outlook.

The Medicines Company has made a number of bold and successful moves to reinvent itself.

During what has been, at times, a turbulent WUDQVLWLRQ WKH FRPSDQ\ KDV VROG RĆ‚ PXFK RI its hospital-channel revenue generating drugs DQG UHIRFXVHG LWV GHYHORSPHQW HĆ‚RUWV DURXQG a small handful of potential blockbuster drug candidates. In the process, revenues and DVVRFLDWHG SURĆƒWV KDYH IDOOHQ GUDPDWLFDOO\ DQG yet shareholders and analysts have jumped on board—Fidelity piled into the stock, acquiring DERXW RI WKH ĆƒUPĹ V VKDUHV RQ WKH RSHQ market, and those shares are currently trading at or close to their all-time high. Fidelity is in good company. Long-term players Wellington, BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, plus a slew of sharp-minded hedge funds such as Corvex, Bridger Capital, Camber Capital and 6DULVVD DOO ĆƒJXUH DPRQJ WRS KROGHUV 7KH QHZ generation of investigational drugs, says the company—and its sell-side analysts—could potentially improve health outcomes for millions of patients while cutting costs from the infamously labyrinthine US health care system.

They could also generate outsize revenue streams—way above those envisioned from

7KH Ĺ&#x;2ULJLQDOĹ 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\ EXVLQHVV plan. If that re-invention sounds incredibly GLĆ…FXOWĹžSHUKDSV HYHQ FRXUDJHRXVĹžWKDWĹ V because it is.

Drug development is notoriously tricky—only one in ten development candidates that enter human trials will eventually be approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a new PHGLFLQH 0RVW RI WKRVH ZRQŠW JHQHUDWH WKH NLQG of revenue necessary to move the needle at a multinational pharmaceutical company. The ones that do succeed often wind up costing patients and their health insurers hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and have increasingly earned the ire of legislators and the public alike for their high prices and dubious health care value propositions. The Medicines Company has been able to succeed, in part, because of its emphasis on demonstrating and explaining how its products can save money compared to the competition.

To get its new and innovative drugs to the PDUNHW 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\ ZLOO ĆƒUVW QHHG WR SURYH WKDW WKH\Ĺ UH VDIH DQG HĆ‚HFWLYH %XW turning those drugs into blockbusters at a time when health insurers and other payers are eyeing new therapies with unprecedented scrutiny will require continued commercial innovation, too. A breakthrough cholesterollowering therapy from The Medicines Company may illustrate how fresh thinking around the delivery of a medicine can create value for patients and payers alike, and light a path forward for others in the pharmaceutical industry.

A new era 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V SUHYLRXV GHFDGH of success was thanks to a suite of products that CEO Clive Meanwell calls “a bunch of solid singles and doublesâ€? that the company could deploy down its established hospital sales channel. It appeared the hits would keep

on coming. In fact, in 2015, the company was IUHVK RĆ‚ D SHULRG RI XQSUHFHGHQWHG UHJXODWRU\ VXFFHVV ZLWK ĆƒYH GUXJV DSSURYHG LQ WKH US and the EU in a span of 14 months.

But that seismic success threatened to generate a looming tsunami of expensive launch activity. At the same time, revenue from the FRPSDQ\Ĺ V Ć„DJVKLS $QJLRPD[ GLUHFW WKURPELQ inhibitor therapy was evaporating in the wake RI D FKDOOHQJH WR WKH YDOLGLW\ RI WKH GUXJĹ V SDWHQWV by generic competitors. At one time Angiomax was the highest-selling hospital product in the US at nearly $700 million per year, thanks to its use as an anticoagulant in patients undergoing a variety of cardiovascular SURFHGXUHV DQG DV VXFK FRPSULVHG WKH OLRQĹ V VKDUH RI 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V WRWDO VDOHV The combination of generic competition for Angiomax and the investment necessary to make its new products a success was daunting. “Investors were skeptical that we could do what we needed to do to create value,â€? admits Meanwell.

But The Medicines Company had been able to leverage its development and marketing successes to boost its prospects in the business development arena. “We always believed that once we had established a strong track record for developing products, marketing products, deploying capital appropriately and hiring good people that we could attract world leading technologies,â€? he says. “And in the last four RU ĆƒYH \HDUV WKDW LV H[DFWO\ ZKDW ZHĹ YH GRQH ĹŁ 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\ VHFXUHG WKH ĆƒUVW RI its key pipeline assets back in 2009, when in December of that year it agreed on a deal with 3Ćƒ]HU WR DFFHVV ZKDW ZRXOG EHFRPH 0'&2 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\ SDLG 3Ćƒ]HU million up front (with $410 million in potential milestones, plus royalties) for the potentially game-changing acute coronary syndrome therapy, a combination of a phospholipid and recombinant apolipoprotein A-1 Milano. In 2012, the company invested in the anesthetics start up Annovation Biopharma, and subsequently acquired the company and its lead therapy ABP-700 for up to $55 million plus potential royalties in 2015. In 2013, it bought Rempex Pharmaceuticals for $140 million up-front and $334 million in potential milestones, landing leading antibiotic meropenem/vaborbactam.

Also in 2013, the company licensed from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals for $25 million

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One of the constants that runs through the ‘old’ Medicines Company and the ‘new’ one is that we don’t pay lip service to the value proposition of our therapies ... We work with medical and economic experts to build a value proposition that the customer can understand, and then stick with it. — Clive Meanwell up-front an RNA interference therapy designed to silence the production of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9).

The PCSK9 synthesis inhibitor (PCSK9si) is in mid-stage clinical trials to treat patients ZLWK K\SHUFKROHVWHUROHPLD WKDW LVQĹ W FRQWUROOHG by statin therapy.

0HDQZKLOH 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V LQYHVWRUV ZHUH FKDĆƒQJ DW WKH LQWULQVLFDOO\ VORZHU JURZWK RI WKH FRPSDQ\Ĺ V KRVSLWDO SRUWIROLR Ţ(YHU\RQH felt that we needed to deploy our capital around these blockbuster opportunities, instead of chugging slowly up the funicular railway of growth of a specialty pharma hospital sales company,â€? says Meanwell. In late 2015, the company set in motion a plan that eventually VDZ LW VHOOLQJ RĆ‚ VL[ RI LWV PDUNHWHG SURGXFWV for total potential consideration of more than $1 billion.

7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V KRVSLWDO cardiovascular drugs, aside from Angiomax, went to the Italian specialty pharma company Chiesi. Mallinckrodt, a specialty pharma company based in Dublin, scooped up The 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V KHPRVWDVLV SRUWIROLR including Recothrom (recombinant thrombin) DQG 5DSOL[D ĆƒEULQ VHDODQW ,Q WKH SURFHVV WKH FRPSDQ\ VLJQLĆƒFDQWO\ GRZQVL]HG LWV RSHUDWLQJ and commercial footprints, allowing it to plough that savings into developing its potential future blockbusters. “It felt very strange, having spent the better part of ten years looking for quarteron-quarter revenue growth to then just jettison WKH SURGXFWV ĹŁ VD\V 0HDQZHOO Ţ$W ĆƒUVW WKH PRVW GLĆ…FXOW SHRSOH WR VHOO WKH QHZ VWUDWHJ\ WR ZHUH ourselves. But these are very intriguing, high-value, dream-like opportunities and they need a lot of money to drive them forward.â€?

Technology and trust $Q\ RI 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V IRXU GUXJ candidates could turn out to be a blockbuster with more than $1 billion in annual sales.

But as data emerged from The Medicines &RPSDQ\Ĺ V 3&6. VL SURJUDP DV ZHOO DV competing monoclonal antibodies from Amgen, 6DQRĆƒ 5HJHQHURQ DQG 3Ćƒ]HU RYHU WKH SDVW WZR years, PCSK9si emerged as its most profound opportunity. It looks as though The Medicines Company has a drug candidate that might be dosed so infrequently—maybe even only twice per year—that it could fundamentally change the management of hypercholesterolemia.

There are as yet no approved RNA interference therapies. This adds a layer of intrigue—and ULVNŞWR 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\ŠV VWUDWHJ\

Gamechangers 52

Meanwell acknowledges the risk but emphasizes the reward. â&#x20AC;&#x153;How many new classes of drugs are being developed in the ZRUOG ZKLFK RĆ&#x201A;HU WKH RSSRUWXQLW\ WR PDNH D PDVVLYH PHGLFDO DQG Ć&#x192;QDQFLDO GLĆ&#x201A;HUHQFH" <RX can count them on one hand,â&#x20AC;? he says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and I think you need to step out of the box and take that risk.â&#x20AC;? Not that the company did so blindly.

7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V SDUWQHU $OQ\ODP is the pioneering RNAi specialist helmed by John Maraganore. During a previous role at Biogen, Maraganore invented and led R&D on bivalirudin, which would eventually become 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V $QJLRPD[ Ţ:H KDYH a wonderful long-term relationship with John and that made it natural for us to get close to $OQ\ODP (YHQ LI ZH ZHUHQĹ W H[SHUWV DW Ć&#x192;UVW ZH were believers in the technology and we were believers in the people. There is a mutual trust.â&#x20AC;?

After all, Alnylam wanted to put one of its most important assets in the hands of a partner that could successfully commercialize it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;From our perspective, we knew that The Medicines Company have the people and vision to advance a transformative therapy like PCSK9si (ALN-PCSsc) forward,â&#x20AC;? says Maraganore. Ţ7KHUH ZDV D FRQĆ&#x192;GHQFH EDVHG RQ P\ SUHYLRXV experience with bivalirudin. Sometimes, it helps to have innovators work with innovators to pioneer breakthrough medicines.â&#x20AC;?

So far, commercial success in the PCSK9 space KDV EHHQ HOXVLYH IRU WKH Ć&#x192;UVW PDUNHW HQWUDQWV which have been criticized for the high prices of their anti-PCSK9 monoclonal antibody WKHUDSLHV ,Q $XJXVW UHVHDUFKHUV DĆ&#x2026;OLDWHG with the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that concluded that at current prices (roughly $14,000 per year) PCSK9 inhibitors marketed E\ $PJHQ DQG 6DQRĆ&#x192; 5HJHQHURQ ZHUHQĹ W FRVW HĆ&#x201A;HFWLYH IRU SDWLHQWV ZLWK KHWHUR]\JRXV familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), the indications for which the drugs were approved in 2015.

ICER tends to be regarded as an antagonist of the drug industry, and much of the industry UHVSRQVH WR WKLV VWXG\Ĺ&#x17E;DQG WKH LQVWLWXWHĹ V RWKHU stancesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;has been designed to discredit the ,&(5 PHWKRGRORJ\ Ţ%XW ZHĹ UH GRLQJ WKH RSSRVLWH ĹŁ VD\V 0HDQZHOO Ţ:HĹ G UDWKHU OHDUQ from their methodology. Since when has anyone got an adequate methodology for health HFRQRPLFV" ,WĹ V ULGLFXORXV WR LPDJLQH WKDW WKRVH

of us on the industry side have the righteous SDWK RI GHWHUPLQLQJ WKH Ć&#x192;VFDO YDOXH RI KHDOWK care and that everyone else is wrong,â&#x20AC;? he says.

If that sounds unusual coming from a ELRSKDUPDFHXWLFDO FRPSDQ\ &(2 WKDWĹ V EHFDXVH LW LV %XW 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V own calculation of the value of a PCSK9 LQKLELWRU LVQĹ W WKDW IDU RĆ&#x201A; RI ,&(5Ĺ V ,&(5 concluded that based on a $100,000 qualityadjusted life year the value of a PCSK9 inhibitor ZDV Ţ,&(5Ĺ V YLHZ RI WKH ZRUOG VKRXOG not be dismissed as inconvenient or invalid,â&#x20AC;? says Meanwell. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Their view of a fair price in many ZD\V UHĆ&#x201E;HFWV WKH YLHZ RI SD\LQJ FXVWRPHUV and so we take their estimate seriously as we EXLOG Ć&#x192;QDQFLDO PRGHOV RI WKH DVVHW ĹŁ 7UHDWLQJ 1,000,000 patients per year that need something better than a statinâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a number â&#x20AC;&#x153;which we could easily imagine doing,â&#x20AC;? he saysâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is $5 billion. In other words, he says, ŢWKLV UHSUHVHQWV D VLJQLĆ&#x192;FDQW UHYHQXH opportunity even at ICER-preferred prices!â&#x20AC;?

No â&#x20AC;&#x153;lip serviceâ&#x20AC;?

To understand why The Medicines Company FDQ DĆ&#x201A;RUG WR YLHZ WKH ZRUOG WKURXJK DQ ,&(5 lens as well as the more conventional industry OHQV LWĹ V LPSRUWDQW WR XQGHUVWDQG WKH XQLTXH DWWULEXWHV RI LWV 3&6. LQKLELWRU ,WĹ V DOVR important to recognize that The Medicines Company, with its deeply held commitment WR GHPRQVWUDWLQJ YDOXH LVQĹ W D W\SLFDO pharmaceutical company. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One of the constants that runs through the Ĺ&#x;ROGĹ 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\ DQG WKH Ĺ&#x;QHZĹ RQH LV WKDW ZH GRQĹ W SD\ OLS VHUYLFH WR WKH YDOXH proposition of our therapies,â&#x20AC;? says Meanwell.

In general the industry â&#x20AC;&#x153;talks a good gameâ&#x20AC;? about value, but when push comes to shove, the industry has collectively allowed its R&D teams and its marketing teams to be RYHUZKHOPHG E\ WKH Ć&#x192;QDQFLDO GHPDQGV of returns, he says. In some cases industry continues to succeed handsomely and spectacularly, he saysâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;particularly in specialty areas like oncology. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But that has never been our philosophy,â&#x20AC;? says Meanwell. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We work with medical and economic experts to build a value proposition that the customer can understand, and then stick with LW ĹŁ 7RR PDQ\ WLPHV LWĹ V D GUXJ FRPSDQ\Ĺ V Ć&#x192;QDQFH department that backs into the price of a drug based on an established return-on-investment criterion, he says.

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7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V 3&6. VL PD\ HQWHU a crowded marketplace when it is eventually DSSURYHG Ţ&RPLQJ WR PDUNHW IRXUWK RU Ć&#x192;IWK DV a me-too would be impossible,â&#x20AC;? acknowledges Meanwell. But the company is convinced LWV GUXJĹ V FRUH GLĆ&#x201A;HUHQWLDWLQJ IDFWRUV ZLOO JLYH LW DQ RSSRUWXQLW\ WR XSHQG WKH 3&6. Ć&#x192;HOG Along the way it may upend the way cholesterol is managed and drugs are distributed for high-risk patients.

The single most important medical need in lipid management is patient adherence (because the GLVHDVH LV DV\PSWRPDWLF DQG SDWLHQWV GRQĹ W IHHO DQ\ GLĆ&#x201A;HUHQW LI WKH\ PLVV WDNLQJ WKHLU GUXJV RQO\ 40% of patients continue taking their prescribed statin for more than six months).

The Medicines Company has produced solid data supporting the idea that PCSK9si could be dosed only once every six months. If that expectation is backed up by Phase 3 clinical data, the company will have tremendous FRPPHUFLDO Ć&#x201E;H[LELOLW\Ĺ&#x17E;D ZLGH UDQJH RI commercial options that could enable The Medicines Company to deliver a singularly unique value proposition to patients, physicians and payers, as well as compelling long-term and sustainable returns to its shareholders. In fact, those options could drive a complete shift in the economics of lipid management. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A shot every six months is about as often as I go to the dentist,â&#x20AC;? points out Meanwell. Unlike existing

anti-PCSK9 antibody therapies that require self-injection, â&#x20AC;&#x153;we could do it for you, and we FRXOG FKHFN \RXU FKROHVWHURO ZKLOH \RXĹ UH WKHUH ĹŁ he says. Or the therapy could be administered with a 21st-Century house call, whereby a nurse DGPLQLVWHUV WKH GUXJ LQ D SDWLHQWĹ V KRPH RU RĆ&#x2026;FH and gathers relevant data for pharma and payer alike. In this scenario, payers would know quickly whether a patient was responding to therapy and therefore know whether they should keep SD\LQJ IRU LW HQDEOLQJ HĆ&#x2026;FLHQW RXWFRPHV EDVHG contracting. Meanwhile The Medicines Company could even circumvent middlemen in the current drug distribution system that HURGH GUXJ FRPSDQ\ SURĆ&#x192;WV ZKLOH DW WKH VDPH time helping to push drug prices higher. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Having the right business model will be as important to success in the biopharma industry as having the right molecule,â&#x20AC;? says Real Endpoints CEO Roger Longman.

The Medicines Company has engaged Real (QGSRLQWV WR KHOS LW GHĆ&#x192;QH LWV SURGXFWVĹ YDOXHV in an increasingly payer-dominated marketplace. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For an industry trained on

the notion that science will always win out, LWĹ V YHU\ GLĆ&#x2026;FXOW WR DFFHSW WKH QHFHVVLW\ WKDW companies will now have to innovateâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; sometimes radicallyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;on the commercial side,â&#x20AC;? says Longman. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Medicines Company is H[WUDRUGLQDU\ LQ WKDW ZD\ WKH\Ĺ YH JUDVSHG WKH new economic realities of the marketplace and are willing to consider, develop, and employ the alternative models that will ensure patients actually get their drugs.â&#x20AC;?

To Meanwell, understanding the economic UHDOLWLHV RI 7KH 0HGLFLQHV &RPSDQ\Ĺ V FKRVHQ PDUNHWV LV SDUDPRXQW 7KHUHĹ V QR SRLQW LQ KDYLQJ a massive drug discovery and development HĆ&#x201A;RUW HYHQ EHIRUH \RXĹ YH GHWHUPLQHG ZKDW WKH HFRQRPLF RSSRUWXQLWLHV DUH KH VD\V Ţ7KDWĹ V FUD]\Ĺ&#x17E;QR PDWWHU ZKDW DUHD RI PHGLFLQH \RXĹ UH in, you need to understand the value drivers in that business and that part of the health care systemâ&#x20AC;? and only develop technologies and GHOLYHU\ PRGHOV WKDW FRXOG PDNH D GLĆ&#x201A;HUHQFH to those economics. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why would you bother WR GR DQ\WKLQJ HOVH"ĹŁ

The Medicines Company is extraordinary in that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve grasped the new economic realities of the marketplace and are willing to consider, develop, and employ the alternative models that will ensure patients actually get their drugs. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Roger Longman

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Big Data: A gamechanger in healthcare Big Data will leave no sector untouched as it continues to change the way we think about everything from sales to human resources, and medicine and healthcare are no different.

For years, the basis of most medical research and discovery has been the collection and analysis of data: who gets sick, how they get sick and why. But now, with sensors in every smartphone and doctors able to share information across disciplines, the quantity and quality of the data available is greater than ever before, which means that the potential for breakthroughs and change is growing just as exponentially.

Prevention We humans are notoriously terrible about preventing problems — we’re much more motivated to treat them after they appear. But healthcare providers know that the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is true.

Smartphones and other popular smart devices including Jawbone, Fitbit and others, now have the capacity to help people track their progress towards a healthier lifestyle.

incredibly useful databases that could be game changers in understanding the intersection of lifestyle and disease. The problem with many medical studies is that patient behaviors are self-reported, and there’s a well known psychological phenomenon wherein participants fudge their own data to make themselves look better.

But with smartphones and other devices, the device can impartially record and transmit the actual data — steps walked, heart rate, etc. — and the patient’s ego or opinions never enter into the equation providing more and more accurate data for researchers than ever before.

Diagnosis The next logical step, then is giving doctors access to this trove of patient information.

Apps and devices to help track and monitor physical fitness but also chronic ailments like diabetes, Parkinson’s and heart disease are also being developed.

The medical industry already collects a huge amount of data, but it’s often siloed in individual doctors’ offices, hospitals, and clinics. Unifying that data — and combining it with patient-collected data from smart devices — is the industry’s next big hurdle to overcome.

Researchers are beginning to compile this information into

Healthcare providers are already focusing on digitizing

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patient records and ensuring access to one set of records across the healthcare system.

For example, Kaiser Permanente has created a program called HealthConnect that unifies health records across its system, and the program is already credited with a $1 billion reduction in costs across the system.

The Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance aims to compile data from various sources (including medical and insurance records, wearable sensors, genetic data and even social media use) to draw a comprehensive picture of the patient as an individual, and then offer a tailored healthcare package. I predict that more and more services like this will emerge in the future.

In addition, programs like IBM’s Watson are being applied as pattern recognition programs to diagnostics. So far, algorithms with machine learning capabilities are proving as effective or more effective than human diagnosticians in spotting cancers in test results.

The potential here is incredible for catching more diseases at earlier stages, and thus increasing the likelihood of treatment success.

Treatment Big Data also allows the fascinating intersection of huge quantities of patient data with personal, individualized care.

IBM’s Watson and other deep learning algorithms have already proven successful at “reading” and analyzing huge quantities of text. IBM is working to produce an interface that would allow Watson (or a program like it) to analyze the existing medical research on any given topic and then synthesize and summaries the information for the doctor.

Follow Up Care Data, deep learning, and robotics come together especially when it comes to follow-up, long-term care, and preventing relapses and readmissions.

Big Data has been used to predict which patients are most likely to follow their doctor’s advice — and which aren’t — to help prevent hospital readmissions in the most vulnerable patients.

Apps are being developed that can track when a patient takes his or her medication — like GPS enabled inhalers for asthmatics. Others record information about calls, texts, physical location, movement and sleep patterns that can help alert doctors or family members if the patient is likely feeling unwell (poor sleep, lack of movement) or even in danger of an anxiety or other psychological attack.

Because of a rapidly aging population, the Japanese in particular are at the forefront of combining advanced robotics with caregiving and treatment. Robots can be used for everything from monitoring elderly patients who live alone, to helping doctors provide care from a distance to rural patients, to even robotic pets that help calm and soothe dementia and Alzheimer’s patients.

The potential to improve patient outcomes, understand disease — even cure cancer — all seem just around the corner with these advances in the quantity and quality of the data we collect along with the computing power to analyze and understand it.

Original Source: Bernard Marr, Forbes

The result is that the doctor will be able to make the best treatment choices for an individual patient based on the vast amounts of data available — without having to spend hours doing the research himself.

It’s likely that the medicines and treatments the doctor would then prescribe were also developed with the aid of Big Data.

Data on applicants helps researchers choose the best subjects for clinical trials, and algorithms help them analyze the results.

Recently, data-sharing arrangements between the pharmaceutical giants has led to breakthroughs such as the discovery that Desipramine, commonly used as an antidepressant, has potential uses in curing types of lung cancer.

In the near future, the doctor might also choose to use personalized medicine as a treatment option, which involves tailoring medicines to a person’s unique genetic makeup.

It is developed by integrating a person’s genetic blueprint and data on their lifestyle and environment, then comparing it alongside thousands of others to predict illness and determine the best treatment.

Big Data is also being used to track, analyze and treat epidemics across the world, including Ebola and Zika.

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The strategy that will fix healthcare In healthcare, the days of business as usual are over.

Around the world, every health care system is struggling with rising costs and uneven quality despite the hard work of well-intentioned, well-trained clinicians. Healthcare leaders and policy makers have tried countless incremental fixes - attacking fraud, reducing errors, enforcing practice guidelines, making patients better “consumers,” implementing electronic medical records - but none have had much impact.

It’s time for a fundamentally new strategy.

At its core is maximizing value for patients: that is, achieving the best outcomes at the lowest cost. We must move away from a supply-driven health care system organized around what physicians do and toward a patient-centered system organized around what patients need.

We must shift the focus from the volume and profitability of services provided - physician visits, hospitalizations, procedures, and tests - to the patient outcomes achieved.

And we must replace today’s fragmented system, in which every local provider offers a full range of services, with a system in which services for particular medical conditions are concentrated in health-delivery organizations and in the right locations to deliver high-value care.

Making this transformation is not a single step but an overarching strategy. We call it the “value agenda.” It will require restructuring how health care delivery is organized, measured, and reimbursed.

In 2006, Michael Porter and Elizabeth Teisberg introduced the value agenda in their book Redefining Health Care.

Since then, through our research and the work of thousands of health care leaders and academic researchers around the world, the tools to implement the agenda have been developed, and their deployment by providers and other organizations is rapidly spreading.

The transformation to value-based health care is well under way. Some organizations are still at the stage of pilots and initiatives in individual practice areas. Other organizations, such as the Cleveland Clinic and Germany’s Schön Klinik, have undertaken large-scale changes involving multiple components of the value agenda. The result has been striking improvements in outcomes and efficiency, and growth in market share.

There is no longer any doubt about how to increase the value of care. The question is, which organizations will lead the way and how quickly can others follow? The challenge of becoming a value-based organization should not be underestimated, given the entrenched interests and practices of many decades. This transformation must come from within. Only physicians and provider organizations can put in place the set of interdependent steps needed to improve value, because ultimately value is determined by how medicine is practiced. Yet every other stakeholder in the health care system has a role to play. Patients, health plans, employers, and suppliers can hasten the transformation - and all will benefit greatly from doing so.

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Defining the Goal The first step in solving any problem is to define the proper goal. Efforts to reform health care have been hobbled by lack of clarity about the goal, or even by the pursuit of the wrong goal. Narrow goals such as improving access to care, containing costs, and boosting profits have been a distraction. Access to poor care is not the objective, nor is reducing cost at the expense of quality. Increasing profits is today misaligned with the interests of patients, because profits depend on increasing the volume of services, not delivering good results.

In healthcare, the overarching goal for providers, as well as for every other stakeholder, must be improving value for patients, where value is defined as the health outcomes achieved that matter to patients relative to the cost of achieving those outcomes. Improving value requires either improving one or more outcomes without raising costs or lowering costs without compromising outcomes, or both.

Failure to improve value means, well, failure.

Embracing the goal of value at the senior management and board levels is essential, because the value agenda requires a fundamental departure from the past. While health care organizations have never been against improving outcomes, their central focus has been on growing volumes and maintaining margins. Despite noble mission statements, the real work of improving value is left undone. Legacy delivery approaches and payment structures, which have remained largely unchanged for decades, have reinforced the problem and produced a system with erratic quality and unsustainable costs.

All this is now changing. Facing severe pressure to contain costs, payors are aggressively reducing reimbursements and finally moving away from fee-for-service and toward performance-based reimbursement. In the U.S., an increasing percentage of patients are being covered by Medicare and Medicaid, which reimburse at a fraction of private-plan levels.

These pressures are leading more independent hospitals to join health systems and more physicians to move out of private practice and become salaried employees of hospitals.

The transition will be neither linear nor swift, and we are entering a prolonged period during which providers will work under multiple payment models with varying exposure to risk.

In this environment, providers need a strategy that transcends traditional cost reduction and responds to new payment models. If providers can improve patient outcomes, they can sustain or grow their market share. If they can improve the efficiency of providing excellent care, they will enter any contracting discussion from a position of strength. Those providers that increase value will be the most competitive. Organizations that fail to improve value, no matter how prestigious and powerful they seem today, are likely to encounter growing pressure. Similarly, health insurers that are slow to embrace and support the value agenda - by failing, for example, to favor high-value providers - will lose subscribers to those that do.

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The Strategy for Value Transformation The strategic agenda for moving to a high-value health care delivery system has six components. They are interdependent and mutually reinforcing; as we will see, progress will be easiest and fastest if they are advanced together.

The current structure of health care delivery has been sustained for decades because it has rested on its own set of mutually reinforcing elements: organization by specialty with independent private-practice physicians; measurement of “quality” defined as process compliance; cost accounting driven not by costs but by charges; fee-forservice payments by specialty with rampant cross-subsidies; delivery systems with duplicative service lines and little integration; fragmentation of patient populations such that most providers do not have critical masses of patients with a given medical condition; siloed IT systems around medical specialties; and others. This interlocking structure explains why the current system has been so resistant to change, why incremental steps have had little impact, and why simultaneous progress on multiple components of the strategic agenda is so beneficial.

The components of the strategic agenda are not theoretical or radical. All are already being implemented to varying degrees in organizations ranging from leading academic medical centers to community safety-net hospitals. No organization, however, has yet put in place the full value agenda across its entire practice. Every organization has room for improvement in value for patients - and always will.

1. Organise into Integrated Practice Units (IPUs) At the core of the value transformation is changing the way clinicians are organized to deliver care. The first principle in structuring any organization or business is to organize around the customer and the need. In health care, that requires a shift from today’s siloed organization by specialty department and discrete service to organizing around the patient’s medical condition. We call such a structure an integrated practice unit. In an IPU, a dedicated team made up of both clinical and nonclinical personnel provides the full care cycle for the patient’s condition.

IPUs treat not only a disease but also the related conditions, complications, and circumstances that commonly occur along with it - such as kidney and eye disorders for patients with diabetes, or palliative care for those with metastatic cancer. IPUs not only provide treatment but also assume responsibility for engaging patients and their families in care - for instance, by providing education and counseling, encouraging adherence to treatment and prevention protocols, and supporting needed behavioral changes such as smoking cessation or weight loss.

In an IPU, personnel work together regularly as a team toward a common goal: maximizing the patient’s overall outcomes as efficiently as possible. They are expert in the condition, know and trust one another, and coordinate easily to minimize wasted time and resources. They meet frequently, formally and informally, and review data on their own performance. Armed with those data, they work to improve care - by establishing new protocols and devising better or more efficient ways to engage patients, including group visits and virtual interactions.

Ideally, IPU members are co-located, to facilitate communication, collaboration, and efficiency for patients, but they work as a team even if they’re based at different locations.

Take, for example, care for patients with low back pain - one of the most common and expensive causes of disability. In the prevailing approach, patients receive portions of their care from a variety of types of clinicians, usually in several different locations, who function more like a spontaneously assembled “pickup team” than an integrated unit. One patient might begin care with a primary care physician, while others might start with an orthopedist, a neurologist, or a rheumatologist. What happens next is unpredictable.

Patients might be referred to yet another physician or to a physical therapist. They might undergo radiology testing (this could happen at any point - even before seeing a physician). Each encounter is separate from the others, and no one coordinates the care. Duplication of effort, delays, and inefficiency is almost inevitable. Since no one measures patient outcomes, how long the process takes, or how much the care costs, the value of care never improves.

Contrast that with the approach taken by the IPU at Virginia Mason Medical Center, in Seattle. Patients with low back pain call one central phone number (206-41-SPINE), and most can be seen the same day. The “spine team” pairs a physical therapist with a physician who is board-certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and patients usually see both on their first visit. Those with serious causes of back pain (such as a malignancy or an infection) are quickly identified and enter a process designed to address the specific diagnosis. Other patients will require surgery and will enter a process for that. For most patients, however, physical therapy is the most effective next intervention, and their treatment often begins the same day.

Virginia Mason did not address the problem of chaotic care by hiring coordinators to help patients navigate the existing system - a “solution” that does not work. Rather, it eliminated the chaos by creating a new system in which caregivers work together in an integrated way. The impact on value has been striking. Compared with regional averages, patients at Virginia Mason’s Spine Clinic miss fewer days of work and need fewer physical therapy. In addition, the use of MRI scans to evaluate low back pain has decreased by 23% since the clinic’s launch, in 2005, even as outcomes have improved. Better care has actually lowered costs, a point we will return to later. Virginia Mason has also increased revenue through increased productivity, rather than depending on more fee-for-service visits to drive revenue from unneeded or duplicative tests and care. The clinic sees about 2,300 new patients per year compared with 1,404 under the old system, and it does so in the same space and with the same number of staff members.

Wherever IPUs exist, we find similar results - faster treatment, better outcomes, lower costs, and, usually, improving market share in the condition. But those results can be achieved only through a restructuring of work. Simply co-locating staff in the same building, or putting up a sign announcing a Center of Excellence or an Institute, will have little impact.

IPUs emerged initially in the care for particular medical conditions, such as breast cancer and joint replacement.

Today, condition-based IPUs are proliferating rapidly

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across many areas of acute and chronic care, from organ transplantation to shoulder care to mental health conditions such as eating disorders.

Recently, we have applied the IPU model to primary care. By its very nature, primary care is holistic, concerned with all the health circumstances and needs of a patient. Today’s primary care practice applies a common organizational structure to the management of a very wide range of patients, from healthy adults to the frail elderly. The complexity of meeting their heterogeneous needs has made value improvement very difficult in primary care - for example, heterogeneous needs make outcomes measurement next to impossible.

In primary care, IPUs are multidisciplinary teams organized to serve groups of patients with similar primary and preventive care needs - for example, patients with complex chronic conditions such as diabetes, or disabled elderly patients.

Different patient groups require different teams, different types of services, and even different locations of care. They also require services to address head-on the crucial role of lifestyle change and preventive care in outcomes and costs, and those services must be tailored to patients’ overall circumstances. Within each patient group, the appropriate clinical team, preventive services, and education can be put in place to improve value, and results become measureable.

This approach is already starting to be applied to highrisk, high-cost patients through so-called Patient-Centered Medical Homes. But the opportunity to substantially enhance value in primary care is far broader. At Geisinger Health System, in Pennsylvania, for example, the care for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease involves not only physicians and other clinicians but also pharmacists, who have major responsibility for following and adjusting medications. The inclusion of pharmacists on teams has resulted in fewer strokes, amputations, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations, and in better performance on other outcomes that matter to patients.

2. Measure Outcomes and Costs for Every Patient Rapid improvement in any field requires measuring results - a familiar principle in management. Teams improve and excel by tracking progress over time and comparing their performance to that of peers inside and outside their organization. Indeed, rigorous measurement of value (outcomes and costs) is perhaps the single most important step in improving health care. Wherever we see systematic measurement of results in health care - no matter what the country - we see those results improve.

Yet the reality is that the great majority of health care providers (and insurers) fail to track either outcomes or costs by medical condition for individual patients. For example, although many institutions have “back pain centers,” few can tell you about their patients’ outcomes (such as their time to return to work) or the actual resources used in treating those patients over the full care cycle. That surprising truth goes a long way toward explaining why decades of health care reform have not changed the trajectory of value in the system.

When outcomes measurement is done, it rarely goes beyond tracking a few areas, such as mortality and safety. Instead, “quality measurement” has gravitated to the most easily measured and least controversial indicators. Most “quality”

metrics do not gauge quality; rather, they are process measures that capture compliance with practice guidelines.

HEDIS (the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set) scores consist entirely of process measures as well as easy-to-measure clinical indicators that fall well short of actual outcomes. For diabetes, for example, providers measure the reliability of their LDL cholesterol checks and hemoglobin A1c levels, even though what really matters to patients is whether they are likely to lose their vision, need dialysis, have a heart attack or stroke, or undergo an amputation. Few health care organizations yet measure how their diabetic patients fare on all the outcomes that matter.

It is not surprising that the public remains indifferent to quality measures that may gauge a provider’s reliability and reputation but say little about how its patients actually do.

The only true measures of quality are the outcomes that matter to patients. And when those outcomes are collected and reported publicly, providers face tremendous pressure - and strong incentives - to improve and to adopt best practices, with resulting improvements in outcomes. Take, for example, the Fertility Clinic Success Rate and Certification Act of 1992, which mandated that all clinics performing assisted reproductive technology procedures, notably in vitro fertilization, provide their live birth rates and other metrics to the Centers for Disease Control. After the CDC began publicly reporting those data, in 1997, improvements in the field were rapidly adopted, and success rates for all clinics, large and small, have steadily improved.

Measuring outcomes that matter to patients.

Outcomes should be measured by medical condition (such as diabetes), not by specialty (podiatry) or intervention (eye examination). Outcomes should cover the full cycle of care for the condition, and track the patient’s health status after care is completed. The outcomes that matter to patients for a particular medical condition fall into three tiers.

Tier 1 involves the health status achieved. Patients care about mortality rates, of course, but they’re also concerned about their functional status. In the case of prostate cancer treatment, for example, five-year survival rates are typically 90% or higher, so patients are more interested in their providers’ performance on crucial functional outcomes, such as incontinence and sexual function, where variability among providers is much greater.

Tier 2 outcomes relate to the nature of the care cycle and recovery. For example, high readmission rates and frequent emergency-department “bounce backs” may not actually worsen long-term survival, but they are expensive and frustrating for both providers and patients. The level of discomfort during care and how long it takes to return to normal activities also matter greatly to patients. Significant delays before seeing a specialist for a potentially ominous complaint can cause unnecessary anxiety, while delays in commencing treatment prolong the return to normal life.

Even when functional outcomes are equivalent, patients whose care process is timely and free of chaos, confusion, and unnecessary setbacks experience much better care than those who encounter delays and problems along the way.

Tier 3 outcomes relate to the sustainability of health. A hip replacement that lasts two years is inferior to one that lasts 15 years, from both the patient’s perspective and the provider’s.

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Measuring the full set of outcomes that matter is indispensable to better meeting patients’ needs. It is also one of the most powerful vehicles for lowering health care costs.

If Tier 1 functional outcomes improve, costs invariably go down. If any Tier 2 or 3 outcomes improve, costs invariably go down. A 2011 German study, for example, found that one-year follow-up costs after total hip replacement were 15% lower in hospitals with above-average outcomes than in hospitals with below-average outcomes, and 24% lower than in very-low-volume hospitals, where providers have relatively little experience with hip replacements. By failing to consistently measure the outcomes that matter, we lose perhaps our most powerful lever for cost reduction.

Over the past half dozen years, a growing array of providers have begun to embrace true outcome measurement. Many of the leaders have seen their reputations - and market share - improve as a result. A welcomed competition is emerging to be the most comprehensive and transparent provider in measuring outcomes.

The Cleveland Clinic is one such pioneer, first publishing its mortality data on cardiac surgery and subsequently mandating outcomes measurement across the entire organization. Today, the Clinic publishes 14 different “outcomes books” reporting performance in managing a growing number of conditions (cancer, neurological conditions, and cardiac diseases, for example). The range of outcomes measured remains limited, but the Clinic is expanding its efforts, and other organizations are following suit. At the individual IPU level, numerous providers are beginning efforts. At Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Spine Center, for instance, patient scores for pain, physical function, and disability for surgical and nonsurgical treatment at three, six, 12, and 24 months are now published for each type of low back disorder.

Providers are improving their understanding of what outcomes to measure and how to collect, analyze, and report outcomes data. For example, some of our colleagues at Partners HealthCare in Boston are testing innovative technologies such as tablet computers, web portals, and telephonic interactive systems for collecting outcomes data from patients after cardiac surgery or as they live with chronic conditions such as diabetes.

Outcomes are also starting to be incorporated in real time into the process of care, allowing providers to track progress as they interact with patients.

To accelerate comprehensive and standardized outcome measurement on a global basis, we recently cofounded the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement. ICHOM develops minimum outcome sets by medical condition, drawing on international registries and provider best practices. It brings together clinical leaders from around the world to develop standard outcome sets, while also gathering and disseminating best practices in outcomes data collection, verification, and reporting.

Just as railroads converged on standard track widths and the telecommunications industry on standards to allow data exchange, health care providers globally should consistently measure outcomes by condition to enable universal comparison and stimulate rapid improvement.

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Measuring the cost of care.

For a field in which high cost is an overarching problem, the absence of accurate cost information in health care is nothing short of astounding. Few clinicians have any knowledge of what each component of care costs, much less how costs relate to the outcomes achieved. In most health care organizations there is virtually no accurate information on the cost of the full cycle of care for a patient with a particular medical condition. Instead, most hospital cost-accounting systems are department-based, not patientbased, and designed for billing of transactions reimbursed under fee-for-service contracts. In a world where fees just keep going up, that makes sense. Existing systems are also fine for overall department budgeting, but they provide only crude and misleading estimates of actual costs of service for individual patients and conditions. For example, cost allocations are often based on charges, not actual costs.

As health care providers come under increasing pressure to lower costs and report outcomes, the existing systems are wholly inadequate.

To determine value, providers must measure costs at the medical condition level, tracking the expenses involved in treating the condition over the full cycle of care. This requires understanding the resources used in a patient’s care, including personnel, equipment, and facilities; the capacity cost of supplying each resource; and the support costs associated with care, such as IT and administration. Then the cost of caring for a condition can be compared with the outcomes achieved.

The best method for understanding these costs is timedriven activity-based costing, TDABC. While rarely used in health care to date, it is beginning to spread. Where TDABC is being applied, it is helping providers find numerous ways to substantially reduce costs without negatively affecting outcomes (and sometimes even improving them).

Providers are achieving savings of 25% or more by tapping opportunities such as better capacity utilization, morestandardized processes, better matching of personnel skills to tasks, locating care in the most cost-effective type of facility, and many others.

For example, Virginia Mason found that it costs $4 per minute for an orthopedic surgeon or other procedural specialist to perform a service, $2 for a general internist, and $1 or less for a nurse practitioner or physical therapist. In light of those cost differences, focusing the time of the most expensive staff members on work that utilizes their full skill set is hugely important.

Without understanding the true costs of care for patient conditions, much less how costs are related to outcomes, health care organizations are flying blind in deciding how to improve processes and redesign care. Clinicians and administrators battle over arbitrary cuts, rather than working together to improve the value of care. Because proper cost data are so critical to overcoming the many barriers associated with legacy processes and systems, we often tell skeptical clinical leaders: “Cost accounting is your friend.”

Understanding true costs will finally allow clinicians to work with administrators to improve the value of care - the fundamental goal of health care organizations.

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3. Move to Bundled Payments for Care Cycles Neither of the dominant payment models in health care - global capitation and fee-for-service - directly rewards improving the value of care. Global capitation, a single payment to cover all of a patient’s needs, rewards providers for spending less but not specifically for improving outcomes or value. It also decouples payment from what providers can directly control. Fee-for-service couples payment to something providers can control - how many of their services, such as MRI scans, they provide - but not to the overall cost or the outcomes. Providers are rewarded for increasing volume, but that does not necessarily increase value.

The payment approach best aligned with value is a bundled payment that covers the full care cycle for acute medical conditions, the overall care for chronic conditions for a defined period (usually a year), or primary and preventive care for a defined patient population (healthy children, for instance). Well-designed bundled payments directly encourage teamwork and high-value care.

Payment is tied to overall care for a patient with a particular medical condition, aligning payment with what the team can control. Providers benefit from improving efficiency while maintaining or improving outcomes.

Sound bundled payment models should include: severity adjustments or eligibility only for qualifying patients; care guarantees that hold the provider responsible for avoidable complications, such as infections after surgery; stop-loss provisions that mitigate the risk of unusually high-cost events; and mandatory outcomes reporting.

Governments, insurers, and health systems in multiple countries are moving to adopt bundled payment approaches.

For example, the Stockholm County Council initiated such a program in 2009 for all total hip and knee replacements for relatively healthy patients. The result was lower costs, higher patient satisfaction, and improvement in some outcomes.

In Germany, bundled payments for hospital inpatient care combining all physician fees and other costs, unlike payment models in the U.S. - have helped keep the average payment for a hospitalization below $5,000 (compared with more than $19,000 in the U.S., even though hospital stays are, on average, 50% longer in Germany).

Among the features of the German system are care guarantees under which the hospital bears responsibility for the cost of rehospitalization related to the original care.

In the U.S., bundled payments have become the norm for organ transplant care. Here, mandatory outcomes reporting has combined with bundles to reinforce team care, speed diffusion of innovation, and rapidly improve outcomes.

Providers that adopted bundle approaches early benefitted.

UCLA’s kidney transplant program, for example, has grown dramatically since pioneering a bundled price arrangement with Kaiser Permanente, in 1986, and offering the payment approach to all its payors shortly thereafter. Its outcomes are among the best nationally, and UCLA’s market share in organ transplantation has expanded substantially. Employers are also embracing bundled payments. This year,

Walmart introduced a program in which it encourages employees who need cardiac, spine, and selected other surgery to obtain care at one of just six providers nationally, all of which have high volume and track records of excellent outcomes: the Cleveland Clinic, Geisinger, the Mayo Clinic, Mercy Hospital (in Springfield, Missouri), Scott & White, and Virginia Mason. The hospitals are reimbursed for the care with a single bundled payment that includes all physician and hospital costs associated with both inpatient and outpatient pre- and post-operative care. Employees bear no out-of-pocket costs for their care - travel, lodging, and meals for the patient and a caregiver are provided - as long as the surgery is performed at one of the centers of excellence. The program is in its infancy, but expectations are that Walmart and other large employers will expand such programs to improve value for their employees, and will step up the incentives for employees to use them. Sophisticated employers have learned that they must move beyond cost containment and health promotion measures, such as copays and on-site health and wellness facilities, and become a greater force in rewarding high-value providers with more patients.

As bundled payment models proliferate, the way in which care is delivered will be transformed. Consider how providers participating in Walmart’s program are changing the way they provide care. As clinical leaders map the processes involved in caring for patients who live outside their immediate area, they are learning how to better coordinate care with all of patients’ local physicians. They’re also questioning existing practices. For example, many hospitals routinely have patients return to see the cardiac surgeon six to eight weeks after surgery, but out-of-town visits seem difficult to justify for patients with no obvious complications.

In deciding to drop those visits, clinicians realized that maybe local patients do not need routine postoperative visits either.

Providers remain nervous about bundled payments, citing concerns that patient heterogeneity might not be fully reflected in reimbursements, and that the lack of accurate cost data at the condition level could create financial exposure. Those concerns are legitimate, but they are present in any reimbursement model. We believe that concerns will fall away over time, as sophistication grows and the evidence mounts that embracing payments aligned with delivering value is in providers’ economic interest. Providers will adopt 4. Integrate Care Delivery Systems A large and growing proportion of health care is provided by multisite health care delivery organizations. In 2011, 60% of all U.S. hospitals were part of such systems, up from 51% in 1999. Multisite health organizations accounted for 69% of total admissions in 2011. Those proportions are even higher today. Unfortunately, most multisite organizations are not true delivery systems, at least thus far, but loose confederations of largely stand-alone units that often duplicate services. There are huge opportunities for improving value as providers integrate systems to eliminate the fragmentation and duplication of care and to optimize the types of care delivered in each location.

To achieve true system integration, organizations must grapple with four related sets of choices: defining the scope of services, concentrating volume in fewer locations,

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choosing the right location for each service line, and integrating care for patients across locations. The politics of redistributing care remain daunting, given most providers’ instinct to preserve the status quo and protect their turf.

Some acid-test questions to gauge board members’ and health system leaders’ appetite for transformation include: Are you ready to give up service lines to improve the value of care for patients? Is relocating service lines on the table?

Define the scope of services.

A starting point for system integration is determining the overall scope of services a provider can effectively deliver and reducing or eliminating service lines where they cannot realistically achieve high value. For community providers, this may mean exiting or establishing partnerships in complex service lines, such as cardiac surgery or care for rare cancers. For academic medical centers, which have more heavily resourced facilities and staff, this may mean minimizing routine service lines and creating partnerships or affiliations with lower-cost community providers in those fields. Although limiting the range of service lines offered has traditionally been an unnatural act in health care - where organizations strive to do everything for everyone - the move to a value-based delivery system will require those kinds of choices.

Concentrate volume in fewer locations.

Second, providers should concentrate the care for each of the conditions they do treat in fewer locations. The stated promise of consumer-oriented health care - “We do everything you need close to your home or workplace” - has been a good marketing pitch but a poor strategy for creating value. Concentrating volume is essential if integrated practice units are to form and measurement is to improve.

Numerous studies confirm that volume in a particular medical condition matters for value. Providers with significant experience in treating a given condition have better outcomes, and costs improve as well. A recent study of the relationship between hospital volume and operative mortality for high-risk types of cancer surgery, for example, found that as hospital volumes rose, the chances of a patient’s dying as a result of the surgery fell by as much as 67%. Patients, then, are often much better off traveling longer distance to obtain care at locations where there are teams with deep experience in their condition. That often means driving past the closest hospitals.

Concentrating volume is among the most difficult steps for many organizations, because it can threaten both prestige and physician turf. Yet the benefits of concentration can be gamechanging. In 2009, the city of London set out to improve survival and prospects for stroke patients by ensuring that patients were cared for by true IPUs dedicated, state-of-the-art teams and facilities including neurologists who were expert in the care of stroke. These were called hyper-acute stroke units, or HASUs. At the time, there were too many hospitals providing acute stroke care in London (32 of them) to allow any to amass a high volume.

UCL Partners, a delivery system comprising six well-known teaching hospitals that serve North Central London, had two hospitals providing stroke care - University College London Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital - located less than three miles apart. University College was selected to house the

new stroke unit. Neurologists at Royal Free began practicing at University College, and a Royal Free neurologist was appointed as the overall leader of the stroke program. UCL Partners later moved all emergency vascular surgery and complex aortic surgery to Royal Free.

These steps sent a strong message that UCL Partners was ready to concentrate volume to improve value. The number of stroke cases treated at University College climbed from about 200 in 2008 to more than 1,400 in 2011. All stroke patients can now undergo rapid evaluation by highly experienced neurologists and begin their recovery under the care of nurses who are expert in preventing stroke-related complications. Since the shift, mortality associated with strokes at University College has fallen by about 25% and costs per patient have dropped by 6%.

Choose the right location for each service.

The third component of system integration is delivering particular services at the locations at which value is highest.

Less complex conditions and routine services should be moved out of teaching hospitals into lower-cost facilities, with charges set accordingly. There are huge value improvement opportunities in matching the complexity and skills needed with the resource intensity of the location, which will not only optimize cost but also increase staff utilization and productivity. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, for instance, decided to stop performing routine tympanostomies (placing tubes into children’s eardrums to reduce fluid collection and risk of infection) at its main facility and shifted those services to suburban ambulatory surgery facilities. More recently, the hospital applied the same approach to simple hypospadias repairs, a urological procedure. Relocating such services cut costs and freed up operating rooms and staff at the teaching hospital for morecomplex procedures. Management estimated the total cost reduction resulting from the shift at 30% to 40%.

In many cases, current reimbursement schemes still reward providers for performing services in a hospital setting, offering even higher payments if the hospital is an academic medical center -another example of how existing reimbursement models have worked against value. But the days of charging higher fees for routine services in high-cost settings are quickly coming to an end.

Integrate care across locations.

The final component of health system integration is to integrate care for individual patients across locations. As providers distribute services in the care cycle across locations, they must learn to tie together the patient’s care across these sites. Care should be directed by IPUs, but recurring services need not take place in a single location. For example, patients with low back pain may receive an initial evaluation, and surgery if needed, from a centrally located spine IPU team but may continue physical therapy closer to home.

Wherever the services are performed, however, the IPU manages the full care cycle. Integrating mechanisms, such as assigning a single physician team captain for each patient and adopting common scheduling and other protocols, help ensure that well-coordinated, multidisciplinary care is delivered in a cost-effective and convenient way.

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5. Expand Geographic Reach Health care delivery remains heavily local, and even academic medical centers primarily serve their immediate geographic areas. If value is to be substantially increased on a large scale, however, superior providers for particular medical conditions need to serve far more patients and extend their reach through the strategic expansion of excellent IPUs. Buying full-service hospitals or practices in new geographic areas is rarely the answer. Geographic expansion should focus on improving value, not just increasing volume.

Targeted geographic expansion by leading providers is rapidly increasing, with dozens of organizations such as Vanderbilt, Texas Children’s, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and many others taking bold steps to serve patients over a wide geographic area.

Geographic expansion takes two principle forms. The first is a hub-and-spoke model. For each IPU, satellite facilities are established and staffed at least partly by clinicians and other personnel employed by the parent organization. In the most effective models, some clinicians rotate among locations, which helps staff members across all facilities feel they are part of the team. As expansion moves to an entirely new region, a new IPU hub is built or acquired.

Patients often get their initial evaluation and development of a treatment plan at the hub, but some or much care takes place at more-convenient (and cost-effective) locations.

Satellites deliver less complicated care, with complex cases referred to the hub. If complications occur whose effective management is beyond the ability of the satellite facility, the patient’s care is transferred to the hub. The net result is a substantial increase in the number of patients an excellent IPU can serve.

This model is becoming more common among leading cancer centers. MD Anderson, for example, has four satellite sites in the greater Houston region where patients receive chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and, more recently, lowcomplexity surgery, under the supervision of a hub IPU. The cost of care at the regional facilities is estimated to be about one-third less than comparable care at the main facility. By 2012, 22% of radiation treatment and 15% of all chemotherapy treatment were performed at regional sites, along with about 5% of surgery. Senior management estimates that 50% of comparable care currently still performed at the hub could move to satellite sites—a significant untapped value opportunity.

The second emerging geographic expansion model is clinical affiliation, in which an IPU partners with community providers or other local organizations, using their facilities rather than adding capacity. The IPU provides management oversight for clinical care, and some clinical staff members working at the affiliate may be employed by the parent IPU. MD Anderson uses this approach in its partnership with Banner Phoenix. Hybrid models include the approach taken

by MD Anderson in its regional satellite program, which leases outpatient facilities located on community hospital campuses and utilizes those hospitals’ operating rooms and other inpatient and ancillary services as needed.

Local affiliates benefit from the expertise, experience, and

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reputation of the parent IPU - benefits that often improve their market share locally. The IPU broadens its regional reach and brand, and benefits from management fees, shared revenue or joint venture income, and referrals of complex cases.

The Cleveland Clinic’s Heart and Vascular Institute, a pioneering IPU in cardiac and vascular care, has 19 hospital affiliates spanning the Eastern seaboard. Successful clinical affiliations such as these are robust - not simply storefronts with new signage and marketing campaigns - and involve close oversight by physician and nurse leaders from the parent organization as well as strict adherence to its practice models and measurement systems. Over time, outcomes for standard cases at the Clinic’s affiliates have risen to approach its own outcomes.

Vanderbilt’s rapidly expanding affiliate network illustrates the numerous opportunities that arise from affiliations that recognize each partner’s areas of strength. For example, Vanderbilt has encouraged affiliates to grow noncomplex obstetrics services that once might have taken place at the academic medical center, while affiliates have joint ventured with Vanderbilt in providing care for some complex conditions in their territories.

6. Build an Enabling Information Technology Platform The preceding five components of the value agenda are powerfully enabled by a sixth: a supporting information technology platform. Historically, health care IT systems have been siloed by department, location, type of service, and type of data (for instance, images). Often IT systems complicate rather than support integrated, multidisciplinary care. That’s because IT is just a tool; automating broken service-delivery processes only gets you more-efficient broken processes. But the right kind of IT system can help the parts of an IPU work with one another, enable measurement and new reimbursement approaches, and tie the parts of a wellstructured delivery system together.

A value-enhancing IT platform has six essential elements: • It is centered on patients.

• The system follows patients across services, sites, and time for the full cycle of care, including hospitalization, outpatient visits, testing, physical therapy, and other interventions. Data are aggregated around patients, not departments, units, or locations.

• It uses common data definitions.

• Terminology and data fields related to diagnoses, lab values, treatments, and other aspects of care are standardized so that everyone is speaking the same language, enabling data to be understood, exchanged, and queried across the whole system.

It encompasses all types of patient data. Physician notes, images, chemotherapy orders, lab tests, and other data are stored in a single place so that everyone participating in a patient’s care has a comprehensive view. The medical record is accessible to all parties involved in care. That includes referring physicians and patients themselves. A simple “stress test” question to gauge the accessibility of the data in an IT system is: Can visiting nurses see physicians’ notes, and

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vice versa? The answer today at almost all delivery systems is “no.” As different types of clinicians become true team members - working together in IPUs, for example - sharing information needs to become routine. The right kind of medical record also should mean that patients have to provide only one set of patient information, and that they have a centralized way to schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and communicate with clinicians. And it should make it easy to survey patients about certain types of information relevant to their care, such as their functional status and their pain levels.

The system includes templates and expert systems for each medical condition.Templates make it easier and more efficient for the IPU teams to enter and find data, execute procedures, use standard order sets, and measure outcomes and costs. Expert systems help clinicians identify needed steps (for example, follow-up for an abnormal test) and possible risks (drug interactions that may be overlooked if data are simply recorded in free text, for example).

The system architecture makes it easy to extract information.

In value-enhancing systems, the data needed to measure outcomes, track patient-centered costs, and control for patient risk factors can be readily extracted using natural language processing.

Such systems also give patients the ability to report outcomes on their care, not only after their care is completed but also during care, to enable better clinical decisions. Even in today’s most advanced systems, the critical capability to create and extract such data remains poorly developed.

As a result, the cost of measuring outcomes and costs is unnecessarily increased.

The Cleveland Clinic is a provider that has made its electronic record an important enabler of its strategy to put “Patients First” by pursuing virtually all these aims. It is now moving toward giving patients full access to clinician notes - another way to improve care for patients.

Getting Started The six components of the value agenda are distinct but mutually reinforcing. Organizing into IPUs makes proper measurement of outcomes and costs easier. Better measurement of outcomes and costs makes bundled payments easier to set and agree upon. A common IT platform enables effective collaboration and coordination within IPU teams, while also making the extraction, comparison, and reporting of outcomes and cost data easier.

With bundled prices in place, IPUs have stronger incentives to work as teams and to improve the value of care. And so on.

Implementing the value agenda is not a one-shot effort; it is an open-ended commitment. It is a journey that providers embark on, starting with the adoption of the goal of value, a culture of patients first, and the expectation of constant, measurable improvement. The journey requires strong leadership as well as a commitment to roll out all six value agenda components. For most providers, creating IPUs and measuring outcomes and costs should take the lead.

As should by now be clear, organizations that progress rapidly in adopting the value agenda will reap huge benefits, even if regulatory change is slow. As IPUs’ outcomes

patient volumes. With the tools to manage and reduce costs, providers will be able to maintain economic viability even as reimbursements plateau and eventually decline. Providers that concentrate volume will drive a virtuous cycle, in which teams with more experience and better data improve value more rapidly - attracting still more volume. Superior IPUs will be sought out as partners of choice, enabling them to expand across their local regions and beyond.

Maintaining market share will be difficult for providers with nonemployed physicians if their inability to work together impedes progress in improving value. Hospitals with privatepractice physicians will have to learn to function as a team to remain viable. Measuring outcomes is likely to be the first step in focusing everyone’s attention on what matters most.

All stakeholders in health care have essential roles to play.

Yet providers must take center stage. Their boards and senior leadership teams must have the vision and the courage to commit to the value agenda, and the discipline to progress through the inevitable resistance and disruptions that will result. Clinicians must prioritize patients’ needs and patient value over the desire to maintain their traditional autonomy and practice patterns.

Providers that cling to today’s broken system will become dinosaurs. Reputations that are based on perception, not actual outcomes, will fade. Maintaining current cost structures and prices in the face of greater transparency and falling reimbursement levels will be untenable. Those organizations - large and small, community and academic - that can master the value agenda will be rewarded with financial viability and the only kind of reputation that should matter in health care - excellence in outcomes and pride in the value they deliver.

Original Source: Michael E. Porter and Thomas H. Lee, MD, Harvard Business Review

Universal Healthcare: The affordable dream Twenty-five hundred years ago, the young Gautama Buddha left his princely home, in the foothills of the Himalayas, in a state of agitation and agony. What was he so distressed about? We learn from his biography that he was moved in particular by seeing the penalties of ill health – by the sight of mortality (a dead body being taken to cremation), morbidity (a person severely afflicted by illness), and disability (a person reduced and ravaged by unaided old age). Health has been a primary concern of human beings throughout history. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that healthcare for all – “universal healthcare” (UHC) – has been a highly appealing social objective in most countries in the world, even in those that have not got very far in actually providing it.

The usual reason given for not attempting to provide universal healthcare in a country is poverty. The United States, which can certainly afford to provide healthcare at quite a high level for all Americans, is exceptional in terms of the popularity of the view that any kind of public

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establishment of universal healthcare must somehow involve unacceptable intrusions into private life. There is considerable political complexity in the resistance to UHC in the US, often led by medical business and fed by ideologues who want “the government to be out of our lives”, and also in the systematic cultivation of a deep suspicion of any kind of national health service, as is standard in Europe (“socialised medicine” is now a term of horror in the US).

One of the oddities in the contemporary world is our astonishing failure to make adequate use of policy lessons that can be drawn from the diversity of experiences that the heterogeneous world already provides. There is much evidence of the big contributions that UHC can make in advancing the lives of people, and also (and this is very important) in enhancing economic and social opportunities – including facilitating the possibility of sustained economic growth (as has been firmly demonstrated in the experience of south-east Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and, more recently, China).

Further, a number of poor countries have shown, through their pioneering public policies, that basic healthcare for all can be provided at a remarkably good level at very low cost if the society, including the political and intellectual leadership, can get its act together. There are many examples of such success across the world. None of these individual examples are flawless and each country can learn from the experiences of others. Nevertheless, the lessons that can be derived from these pioneering departures provide a solid basis for the presumption that, in general, the provision of universal healthcare is an achievable goal even in the poorer countries. An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, my book written jointly with Jean Drèze, discusses how the country’s predominantly messy healthcare system can be vastly improved by learning lessons from high-performing nations abroad, and also from the contrasting performances of different states within India that have pursued different health policies.

Over the last three decades various studies have investigated the experiences of countries where effective healthcare is provided at low cost to the bulk of the population. The places that first received detailed attention included China, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Cuba and the Indian state of Kerala.

Since then examples of successful UHC – or something close to that – have expanded, and have been critically scrutinised by health experts and empirical economists. Good results of universal care without bankrupting the economy – in fact quite the opposite – can be seen in the experience of many other countries. This includes the remarkable achievements of Thailand, which has had for the last decade and a half a powerful political commitment to providing inexpensive, reliable healthcare for all.

Thailand’s experience in universal healthcare is exemplary, both in advancing health achievements across the board and in reducing inequalities between classes and regions. Prior to the introduction of UHC in 2001, there was reasonably good insurance coverage for about a quarter of the population.

This privileged group included well-placed government servants, who qualified for a civil service medical benefit scheme, and employees in the privately owned organised sector, which had a mandatory social security scheme from 1990 onwards, and received some government subsidy. In

the 1990s some further schemes of government subsidy did emerge, however they proved woefully inadequate.

The bulk of the population had to continue to rely largely on out-of-pocket payments for medical care. However, in 2001 the government introduced a “30 baht universal coverage programme” that, for the first time, covered all the population, with a guarantee that a patient would not have to pay more than 30 baht (about 60p) per visit for medical care (there is exemption for all charges for the poorer sections – about a quarter – of the population).

The result of universal health coverage in Thailand has been a significant fall in mortality (particularly infant and child mortality, with infant mortality as low as 11 per 1,000) and a remarkable rise in life expectancy, which is now more than 74 years at birth – major achievements for a poor country.

There has also been an astonishing removal of historic disparities in infant mortality between the poorer and richer regions of Thailand; so much so that Thailand’s low infant mortality rate is now shared by the poorer and richer parts of the country.

There are also powerful lessons to learn from what has been achieved in Rwanda, where health gains from universal coverage have been astonishingly rapid. Devastated by genocide in 1994, the country has rebuilt itself and established an inclusive health system for all with equityoriented national policies focusing on social cohesion and people-centred development. Premature mortality has fallen sharply and life expectancy has actually doubled since the mid-1990s. Following pilot experiments in three districts with community-based health insurance and performance-based financing systems, the health coverage was scaled up to cover the whole nation in 2004 and 2005. As the Rwandan minister of health Agnes Binagwaho, the US medical anthropologist Paul Farmer and their co-authors discuss in Rwanda 20 Years on: Investing in Life, a paper published in the Lancet in July 2014: “Investing in health has stimulated shared economic growth as citizens live longer and with greater capacity to pursue the lives they value.”

The experiences of many other countries also offer good lessons, from Brazil and Mexico (which have recently implemented UHC with reasonable success) to Bangladesh and the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (with progress towards the universal coverage that has already been achieved by Kerala). Bangladesh’s progress, which has been rapid, makes clear the effectiveness of giving a significant role to women in the delivery of healthcare and education, combined with the part played by women employees in spreading knowledge about effective family planning (Bangladesh’s fertility rate has fallen sharply from being well above five children per couple to 2.2 – quite close to the replacement level of 2.1). To separate out another empirically observed influence, Tamil Nadu shows the rewards of having efficiently run public services for all, even when the services on offer may be relatively meagre. The population of Tamil Nadu has greatly benefited, for example, from its splendidly run mid-day meal service in schools and from its extensive system of nutrition and healthcare of pre-school children.

The message that striking rewards can be reaped from serious attempts at instituting – or even moving towards – universal healthcare is hard to miss. The critical ingredients of

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or what medicine would work, or even what exactly the doctor is giving to them as a remedy. Unlike in the market for many commodities, such as shirts or umbrellas, the buyer of medical treatment knows far less than what the seller – the doctor – does, and this vitiates the efficiency of market competition. This applies to the market for health insurance as well, since insurance companies cannot fully know what patients’ health conditions are. This makes markets for private health insurance inescapably inefficient, even in terms of the narrow logic of market allocation. And there is, in addition, the much bigger problem that private insurance companies, if unrestrained by regulations, have a strong financial interest in excluding patients who are taken to be “high-risk”. So one way or another, the government has to play an active part in making UHC work.

The problem of asymmetric information applies to the delivery of medical services itself. It makes the possibility of exploitation of the relatively ignorant a likely result even when there is plentiful market competition. And when medical personnel are scarce, so that there is not much competition either, it can make the predicament of the buyer of medical treatment even worse. Furthermore, when the provider of healthcare is not himself trained (as is often the case in many countries with deficient health systems), the situation becomes worse still. As a result, in the absence of a well-organised public health system covering all, many patients, denied any alternative, remain vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous individuals who robustly combine crookery and quackery.

While such lamentable conditions are seen in a number of countries, there are other countries (or states within countries) that, as has already been discussed, demonstrate the rewards of having a functioning universal public healthcare system – with better health achievements and also larger development of human capabilities. In some countries – for example India – we see both systems operating side by side in different states within the country.

A state such as Kerala provides fairly reliable basic healthcare for all through public services – Kerala pioneered UHC in India several decades ago, through extensive public health services. As the population of Kerala has grown richer – partly as a result of universal healthcare and near-universal literacy – many people now choose to pay more and have additional private healthcare. But since these private services have to compete with what the state provides, and have to do even better to justify their charges in a region with widespread medical knowledge and medical opportunity, the quality of private medical services tends also to be better there than where there is no competition from public services and a low level of public education. In contrast, states such as Madhya Pradesh or Uttar Pradesh give plentiful examples of exploitative and inefficient healthcare for the bulk of the population. Not surprisingly, people who live in Kerala live much longer and have a much lower incidence of preventable illnesses than do people from states such as Madhya Pradesh or Uttar Pradesh.

A system of universal healthcare also has the advantage that it can focus on vitally needed – but often ignored – primary medical attention, and on relatively inexpensive outpatient care when a disease receives early attention. In the absence of systematic care for all, diseases are often allowed to develop, which makes it much more expensive to treat them, often involving inpatient treatment, such as surgery.

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Thailand’s experience clearly shows how the need for more expensive procedures may go down sharply with fuller coverage of preventive care and early intervention.

Good healthcare demands systematic and comprehensive attention, and in the absence of affordable healthcare for all, illnesses become much harder and much more expensive to treat. If the advancement of equity is one of the rewards of well-organised universal healthcare, enhancement of efficiency in medical attention is surely another.

The case for UHC is often underestimated because of inadequate appreciation of what well-organised and affordable healthcare for all can do to enrich and enhance human lives. It is one thing to accept that the world may not have the resources and the dexterity at this moment to provide the finest of medical care to all, but that is not a reason for eliminating our search for ways of proceeding towards just that, nor a ground for refusing to provide whatever can be easily provided right now for all. In this context it is also necessary to bear in mind an important reminder contained in Paul Farmer’s book Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor: “Claims that we live in an era of limited resources fail to mention that these resources happen to be less limited now than ever before in human history.”

In addition, we have to take note of the dual role of healthcare in directly making our lives better – reducing our impoverishment in ways that matter to all human beings – as well as helping to remove poverty, assessed even in purely economic terms. Reduction of economic poverty occurs partly as a result of the greater productivity of a healthy and educated population, leading to higher wages and larger rewards from more effective work, but also because UHC makes it less likely that vulnerable, uninsured people would be made destitute by medical expenses far beyond their means. Here again, Thailand’s experience shows how penury caused by medical costs can fall rapidly once UHC is established.

The mutual support that healthcare and economic development can provide has been brought out very extensively by the results of UHC-oriented policies in southeast Asia, from Japan to Singapore. The complementary nature of health advancement and economic progress is also illustrated in the comparative experiences of different states within India. I remember being admonished 40 years ago, when I spoke in support of Kerala’s efforts to have state-supported healthcare for all. I was firmly told that this strategy could not possibly work, since Kerala was, then, one of the poorest states in India. The thesis of unaffordability was, however, wrongly argued for reasons already discussed.

Despite its poverty, Kerala did manage to run an effective UHC programme that contributed greatly to its having, by some margin, the longest life expectancy in India and the lowest rates of infant and child mortality, among its other health accomplishments. But in addition to these so-called “social achievements”, it was possible to argue even in those early days – despite scorn from those who were opposed to UHC – that with the help of a more educated and healthier workforce, Kerala would also be able to grow faster in purely economic terms. After all, there are no influences as strong in raising the productivity of labour as health, education and skill formation – a foundational connection to which Adam Smith gave much attention. This has actually happened. In fact, the previously poor state of Kerala, with its

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Amartya Sen, Economist

success that have emerged from these studies appear to include a firm political commitment to the provision of universal healthcare, running workable elementary healthcare and preventive services covering as much of the population as possible, paying serious attention to good administration in healthcare and ancillary public services and arranging effective school education for all. Perhaps most importantly, it means involving women in the delivery of health and education in a much larger way than is usual in the developing world.

The question can, however, be asked: how does universal healthcare become affordable in poor countries? Indeed, how has UHC been afforded in those countries or states that have run against the widespread and entrenched belief that a poor country must first grow rich before it is able to meet the costs of healthcare for all? The alleged common-sense argument that if a country is poor it cannot provide UHC is, however, based on crude and faulty economic reasoning.

The first – and perhaps the most important – factor overlooked by the naysayers is the fact that at a basic level healthcare is a very labour-intensive activity, and in a poor country wages are low. A poor country may have less money to spend on healthcare, but it also needs to spend less to provide the same labour-intensive services (far less than what a richer – and higher-wage – economy would have to pay).

Not to take into account the implications of large wage differences is a gross oversight that distorts the discussion of the affordability of labour-intensive activities such as healthcare and education in low-wage economies.

Second, how much healthcare can be provided to all may well depend on the country’s economic means, but whatever is affordable within a country’s means can still be more effectively and more equitably provided through universal coverage. Given the hugely unequal distribution of incomes in many economies, there can be serious inefficiency as well as unfairness in leaving the distribution of healthcare entirely to people’s respective abilities to buy medical services. UHC can bring about not only greater equity, but also much larger overall health achievement for the nation, since the remedying of many of the most easily curable diseases and the prevention of readily avoidable ailments get left out under the out-of-pocket system, because of the inability of the poor to afford even very elementary healthcare and medical attention. It is also worth noting here, as European examples richly illustrate, that providing UHC is compatible

allowing the purchase of extra services for the especially affluent (or those with extra health insurance), and the demands of UHC must be distinguished from the ethics of aiming at complete equality. This is not to deny that remedying inequality as much as possible is an important value – a subject on which I have written over many decades.

Reduction of economic and social inequality also has instrumental relevance for good health. Definitive evidence of this is provided in the work of Michael Marmot, Richard Wilkinson and others on the “social determinants of health”, showing that gross inequalities harm the health of the underdogs of society, both by undermining their lifestyles and by making them prone to harmful behaviour patterns, such as smoking and excessive drinking. Nevertheless, the ethics of universal health coverage have to be distinguished from the value of eliminating inequalities in general, which would demand much more radical economic and social changes than UHC requires. Healthcare for all can be implemented with comparative ease, and it would be a shame to delay its achievement until such time as it can be combined with the more complex and difficult objective of eliminating all inequality.

Third, many medical and health services are shared, rather than being exclusively used by each individual separately.

For example, an epidemiological intervention reaches many people who live in the same neighbourhood, rather than only one person at a time. Healthcare, thus, has strong components of what in economics is called a “collective good,” which typically is very inefficiently allocated by the pure market system, as has been extensively discussed by economists such as Paul Samuelson. Covering more people together can sometimes cost less than covering a smaller number individually.

Fourth, many diseases are infectious. Universal coverage prevents their spread and cuts costs through better epidemiological care. This point, as applied to individual regions, has been recognised for a very long time. The conquest of epidemics has, in fact, been achieved by not leaving anyone untreated in regions where the spread of infection is being tackled. The transmission of disease from region to region – and of course from country to country – has broadened the force of this argument in recent years.

Right now, the pandemic of Ebola is causing alarm even in parts of the world far away from its place of origin in west Africa. For example, the US has taken many expensive steps to prevent the spread of Ebola within its own borders. Had there been effective UHC in the countries of origin of the disease, this problem could have been mitigated or even eliminated. In addition, therefore, to the local benefits of having UHC in a country, there are global ones as well. The calculation of the ultimate economic costs and benefits of healthcare can be a far more complex process than the universality-deniers would have us believe.

In the absence of a reasonably well-organised system of public healthcare for all, many people are afflicted by overpriced and inefficient private healthcare. As has been analysed by many economists, most notably Kenneth Arrow, there cannot be a well-informed competitive market equilibrium in the field of medical attention, because of what economists call “asymmetric information”. Patients do not typically know what treatment they need for their ailments,

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universal healthcare and universal schooling, now has the highest per capita income among all the states in India.

Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, both of which have made substantial moves towards the provision of education and basic healthcare for all, have both progressed admirably and now belong solidly among the richer Indian states.

There is, thus, plenty of evidence that not only does universal healthcare powerfully enhance the health of people, its rewards go well beyond health. There is, indeed, a strong relationship between health and economic performance, and we have every reason to base public policy on a proper understanding of the nature and reach of what is clearly a positive interdependence. There is no mystery in all this given the centrality of health for better lives and for enhancing human capabilities.

Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics, an IATA programme that takes the GDP legislation and fleshes out its implications for forwarders and handlers. IJS Global GEFCO is part of a Schiphol-wide project in which ten companies are combining to create a CEIV-certified airport.

Launched at the World Cargo Symposium in March, the initiative has been branded “Pharma Gateway Amsterdam Qualified and Transparent”, and has the support of Air Cargo Netherlands, the Dutch air cargo industry association, as well as participants such as Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo, handlers dnata and Swissport, and trucker Jan de Rijk.

“We are doing it as a community − airlines, forwarders and everyone involved in the chain,” Landman says.

Original Source: Amartya Sen, Economist

Pharmaceutical Gamechangers All specialist product areas have their particular regulations and jargon, but they seem to proliferate in pharmaceuticals more than in any other sector.

Naomi Landman, director commercial development for IJS Global GEFCO, says the current hot topic is serialisation.

These are rules that say that each pharmaceutical package has to have a barcode that can facilitate a global track and trace capability.

The idea is to protect against counterfeit drugs, and regulators all over the world are lining up to implement the new measures. The US is imposing serialisation on all drug products at the saleable unit and case level from November 2017, with repackagers to follow in 2018, while in the European Union serialisation will be a requirement from 2019. China and Brazil already have programmes in place.

What this will mean for airfreight is not yet entirely clear; Landman says details are still being finalised.

“But it may mean products will need to be scanned at various points. And if a forwarder stores pharmaceuticals, like we do, they may need to scan them and check them against a European database.

“That would mean that a pallet would have to be stacked so as to make barcodes accessible from the outside. Since it is not until 2019 we don’t have all the details yet, but we are investigating what procedures and training we might need to have in place.”

IJS Global GEFCO has also been busy recently meeting the Good Distribution Practice (GDP) standards of the European Union, themselves derived from World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

The forwarder received its certificate from the Dutch Ministry of Health on April 18. Previously, in 2014, IJS Global Netherlands was awarded Wholesale Distribution Authorisation (WDA), allowing it to store medicinal products.

And then there is CEIV − the Centre of Excellence for

“The idea is to get all partners in the supply chain up to a certain level, so that every one of the stakeholders understands their role and the impact it has on others.

“For example, the handling company has to have the same detailed procedures as the forwarder, knowing what the correct labelling is and storing the shipment at the correct temperature. Both need to measure time on the tarmac and keep it to a minimum, and so avoid temperature excursions.”

Ultimately, she reckons, it is all about seeing the supply chain through the eyes of the customer.

“Then you get a whole different dialogue. For the customer it is about getting a product to its final destination at the right temperature and integrity. What is important is that the drugs reach the patient in the right condition, and that matters because the patient is you, me, everyone.”

With all these speci-alist programmes and standards to contend with, it is not surprising that IJS Global GEFCO has dedicated teams who work only on pharmaceutical shipments.

“That is important as it requires a different mindset and also working with the right partners to develop knowledge and procedures together,” Landman points out.

The company also has to be prepared to invest in equipment, training and certification.

Asked if it gets a return on that investment, she reframes the question.

“If you want to do these products, you have to meet these requirements,” Land-man says. “We are a service-orientated company with many years of experience in this sector throughout the world and this is an area where we can and do add value.”

There have been various reports of pharmaceutical companies shifting product from airfreight to sea, and Landman does not deny that there is such a trend: “Ten years ago pharmaceutical customers did not speak much about ocean freight, but they do now.”

But she is not sure how far it will go, and sees airfreight as

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Naomi Landman, Director Commercial Development, IJS Global GEFCO

as still holding some cards. One is that it is more advanced than ocean freight in meeting GDP requirements and another is that an entire 40ft container packed with pharmaceuticals is a lot of stock to be moving at once or have tied up in one place.

“The cost of airfreight is higher, but the cost of keeping stock on the ocean for 30 days is also significant. Also, if there is a problem on the ocean − for example if a reefer breaks down – then how long does it take to get the product off the boat or into a different container? With airfreight you have temperature deviations too, but usually over shorter timeframes and in places where you can do something about it.”

Asked what airfreight could do to improve its offering, Landman is clear about the answer. “It would be good to have more transparency and monitoring in transit,” she remarks. “The question is technology − a willingness to invest, but also a willingness to share the information.”

Standards and procedures also have to be applied globally: “Although lots of airfreight companies have put effort into their pharmaceutical product, there are often still gaps. For example an airline may have invested at their hub airport, but not always at every destination they fly to. It has to be on every lane.”

Landman understands this is about creating CEIV-audited lanes. “Singapore has already been audited, work is

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underway in Miami and Amsterdam is coming up, so it is spreading.”India is one of the growth markets that Landman identifies for pharmaceutical traffic, with manufacturing of generic drugs there and across Asia increasing.

“We also see a trend towards repackaging products − preparing them for local markets. For example Singapore is a distribution point for product into Asia.

“A lot of product is also being combined with delivery devices − for example asthma drugs in vaporisers.

“And temperature-controlled is ever increasing.

“More and more product is temperature-controlled which used to be sent as general cargo.”

IJS Global’s recent merger with French logistics company GEFCO is also creating new opportunities for the pharmaceutical team. “There are a lot of great benefits,” Landman enthuses.

“GEFCO is in countries such as Russia, Brazil, and in eastern Europe where it was not present before. Equally, it has a Europe to Asia and Asia to Europe rail solution and we are investigating if that would be suitable for the pharmaceutical business. Both directions would be interesting, but particularly Asia to Europe.”

Original Source: Air Cargo News

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Biotech Venture Capital Mythbusting Redux Venture capital has been on a good run over the past few years across a range of sectors; even with recent slowdown relative to 2014-2015, venture-backed investments remain above historic averages. In fact, the first three quarters of 2016 alone are already higher than the annual rate of venture investing in all but two years since 2002.

Like the overall venture capital asset class, biotech has also been strong over the past few years: 2014-2016 will be the three largest years for private biotech funding since the start of data collection in 1995. On the public market front, even with the 30%+ correction since July 2015, we’ve continued to see significant IPO activity and will likely have over 30 biotech IPOs this year–a top-quartile year for new issuances.

It’s worth noting that biotech has witnessed a much more receptive IPO market over the past three years than other venture sectors: during that period, biotech has represented only 11% of VC financings, but 54% of VC-backed IPOs. And the demand from larger companies for biotech is at historic levels: private M&A values over the past few years are 3x what they were in 2010-2012, as described back in September.

Against this backdrop, it’s not surprising that there’s been a solid market for raising new venture funds focused on biotech investing: just in the past few weeks, we’ve heard of new funds from Sofinnova, Third Rock, and Versant, and a number of others are in the market. Interest from institutional Limited Partners (those who invest in VC funds) into the field is certainly higher than it was five years ago when pundits were lamenting the demise of life science venture.

“that’s where venture returns are.” On occasion (thankfully less often than five years ago), we still hear common refrains like “but it takes 12-15 years to bring a new drug to market” or “biotech’s losses are too big and too binary” or “biotech is too risky.”

Fortunately, a number of LP’s have either done their homework with industry data, or have direct exposure to one or more of the high-performing biotech venture funds. But a large swath of the LP community, and more generally the layperson audience, is still anchored to myths from earlier eras of venture capital.

Back in 2013, there was a piece “debunking” many of these myths, and in 2015 again highlighted the positive comparative performance of biopharma. These myths have been wrong for years, but they are even more wrong today.

In an attempt to synthesize prior points, and to look at updated data sets, let’s tackle the three major myths: that biotech returns lag other VC sectors, that it takes too long, and that the losses are more frequent and much bigger.

Returns Biopharma returns have indeed been quite strong over the past decade. Leveraging data from global investment firm Cambridge Associates, biopharma venture capital’s net IRR (e.g., the internal rate of return net of fees) for initial investments made during the decade of 2006-2016 outperformed the venture capital asset class as a whole by over 500 basis points for realized (exited) investments.

Including illiquid, unrealized investments (those still in progress), the combined net IRR for biopharma deals in this period still outperforms by over 250 basis points. While some subsectors (like software) perform more in line with biopharma during the period, other technology sectors don’t–creating the aggregate differential.

One would think in light of the solid performance in biotech that we’d either be growing within the venture sector, or at least holding our own as a share of the industry. Biotech has been shrinking as a share of the asset class over the past few years, moving from 19% of investments in 2010 down to 12-13% in 2015-2016. That’s over a one-third reduction in “market share” for biotech despite its stellar performance.

Why is this?

The biggest driver is the significant inflows of funding into the technology sectors within venture capital (like software), which are up 300-400% in the past few years (vs. biotech up 50%). Technology has seen the emergence of a number of mega-VC funds, as well as a near-Cambrian Explosion of micro-VC funds–leading to a big infusion of LP capital.

This dramatically changes the denominator, and hence the relative market share for biotech.

But another reason is the continued existence and propagation of negative myths ingrained in the conventional wisdom about biotech venture capital, especially across many in the LP community, including family offices, endowments, pensions and fund of funds. We’ve heard some FoF managers say they only invest in tech VC because

Another way to look at the returns is via their distributions.

The chart below plots the cumulative distribution of deals on the y-axis, and the multiple of invested capital on the x-axis.

The top-decile and top-quartile returns are the 90th and 75th percentile lines on the y-axis.

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The rate of high-performing 5x or greater deals is 50% greater for biopharma than IT/software (15% vs 10%, respectively), and the top-quartile multiples differ by a full turn of invested capital (3.5x for biotech vs 2.5x for IT/ software, respectively).

Biotech investment strategies that engage pharma partners early by focusing on cutting-edge innovation can bias even faster than these median data. For our last 12 biotech exits at Atlas, our median holding period has been 5.0 years– much faster than typical holding periods.

Loss Ratios

This distribution bodes well for the sector as a whole, and for investment managers within it–as this curve implies that biopharma has more predictability and is less dependent on rare outlier effects versus a tech sector that is more biased towards the one-in-a-hundred lottery ticket.

The Cambridge dataset explored here doesn’t track above 5x, but I’ve blogged on the differences at the higher end of the distribution before, and those are consistent with this theme.

Holding Periods Biotech investors typically don’t start drug discovery companies with the expectation of bringing those medicines to market during a single fund’s investment period: we all appreciate that drug R&D is a long-cycle endeavor.

But different players participate in different stages of the process. In general, early-stage VCs participate in discovering potential medicines and advancing them to early clinical proof of concept, at which point alternative capital providers like the public markets (via IPOs) or larger Pharma (via M&A) take on the later stages of development and marketing. This allows for shorter investment cycle times (vs. full drug R&D timelines) for early-stage biotech investors.

On the other hand, many technology companies need to become “real businesses” before they are able to generate an exit–often taking years to build the repeatable sales growth model and profitability.

Data tracking the time it takes from company founding to an exit event reflect this dichotomy. The two charts below capture these data, as tracked by business analytics firm Pitchbook. For both the median time to IPO and to major M&A event ($50M or greater), biopharma has been faster than the rest of venture capital as a whole over the last decade, in line with prior analyses.

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Losses in venture happen, and they happen reasonably frequently. We’re in a high-risk asset class, so this should be expected. But a common criticism of biotech is that there are either more losses and/or larger ones–neither of which is supported by the data.

The primary way to analyze this is through loss ratios. These metrics are either deal-weighted or dollar-weighted: The former captures what percentage of deals lose money (go below 1x), and the latter captures what percentage of the dollars invested go into loss-making deals. Based on a recent analysis from the data-driven investment firm Correlation Ventures, biopharma has lower deal- and dollar-weighted loss ratios than the rest of venture capital. Roughly 15% fewer deals lose money in biopharma, and 20% fewer dollars are exposed to those loss-making deals. These data are similar to those from Adams Street.

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Our seed-led strategy at Atlas is aimed at reducing the dollar-weighted loss ratios even further: by taking most of our losses in the seed stage, where we attempt to derisk the early science and story, our dollar-weighted loss ratio in Funds VIII and IX is around 25%.

Conclusion Biopharma has been and likely will continue to be a strong sector within venture capital, as many of its tailwinds reflect secular and structural forces: significant unmet medical needs remain addressable by pharmaceuticals, aging populations in both developed and emerging markets will further drive demand, Pharma R&D relies upon external sourcing to complement its internal efforts (even more so with pricing constraints), biomedical science is becoming more translational in focus, etc…. All of this bodes well for early-stage biopharma.

However, and coming full circle, we’ve recently seen the “odd juxtaposition” of strong performance and shrinking market share in venture. I’ve attempted to address the question of why, and hopefully debunked some of the myths above.

But it’s worth asking–does market share in venture even matter?

Frankly, it almost certainly doesn’t in the grand scheme: Enough institutional LP’s appreciate the performance potential of biotech and are making capital commitments into new funds; the sector is functioning well with a measured pace of startup creation and investing activity; new medicines are advancing through R&D; and, as a sector, we’ve been delivering with compelling returns.

Beyond all that, we’re also delivering on the biotech’s important double-bottom-line mission of doing well by doing well.

Original Source: Bruce Booth, Forbes

The future of Healthcare mergers under Trump The proposed health insurance mega-merger between Anthem and Cigna heads to court on Monday, as the companies face off against a Justice Department seeking to block their $48 billion deal. It will be followed in just a few weeks by the trial for another proposed insurance mega-merger, between Aetna and Humana.

announced the government’s decision to challenge these mergers.

But the election of Donald J. Trump could recalibrate how vigorously the federal government handles these two deals, as well as the many other deals now taking place in health care, according to legal experts. On Friday, Mr. Trump nominated Senator Jeff Sessions, the conservative Republican from Alabama, to replace Ms. Lynch. While it is unclear how Mr. Sessions would have the department handle antitrust cases, Mr. Trump has said that he wants less government regulation of business.

In each of the two big cases headed to court, a federal judge will decide whether consumers would be worse off after the mergers take place. The companies contend people would benefit because a bigger company would be more efficient and better able to strike deals with hospitals and doctors that result in lower prices for medical care. In its pretrial brief, Anthem argues the government’s opposition threatens to “deprive American consumers of lower health care costs.”

The insurance deals were the culmination of a deal frenzy that took place in which the giant for-profit companies were desperate not to be left behind if the biggest companies got even bigger. All four companies involved in the mergers say they are committed, although the relationship between Anthem and Cigna has been fraught. The two have accused each other of breaching the merger agreement.

Any fallout from the election would almost certainly not be felt immediately. Both cases are expected to be decided before Mr. Trump takes office in January.

But a Trump administration could still have a major say, particularly if either the companies or the government decide to appeal the initial decision.

There is little expectation that the Justice Department under the Trump administration would drop the case if the companies lost and appealed, for example, but it might be inclined to strike a settlement less onerous to the insurer.

After the department under President Bill Clinton won its antitrust case against Microsoft, the officials taking over for President George W. Bush pursued a settlement that many viewed as less far-reaching than one that would have been sought by their predecessors.

There is also a distinct chance, antitrust experts said, that the approach to health care mergers will not pivot much from the current one.

Together, those two mergers would remake the industry, resulting in the nation’s five largest health insurers shrinking to just three, including UnitedHealth Group, which remains independent. And the Justice Department is set to argue that the consolidation would be bad for consumers.

“If these mergers were to take place, the competition among insurers that has pushed them to provide lower premiums, higher-quality care and better benefits would be eliminated,” Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in July when she

Donald Trump, President-elect, United States

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“There is a history of bipartisan support for antitrust enforcement in health care,” said Leslie C. Overton, a partner at Alston & Bird and a former Justice Department official. “I don’t think we should expect a wholesale shift, based on the change from Democratic to Republican.”

The clearest sign of the new administration’s position, antitrust experts said, will come from who is appointed to crucial positions at the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission.

Other parts of the health care industry will also be on the lookout for any shift in stance. Hospital mergers, for example, have been aggressively challenged by the F.T.C. Last week, two large Chicago-area health systems, Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem, said they would continue their legal fight after an appeals court sent the case brought by the commission back to a lower court.

The F.T.C.’s position on the health care deals may change less than the Justice Department’s. The commission, an independent agency that includes both Republicans and Democrats, is somewhat less subject to the political preferences of the White House. But priorities often do change.

“The swings from administration to administration have not been as strong as they have in the Justice Department,” said Michael J. Perry, a former lawyer for the F.T.C. who is now a partner at Baker Botts. The agency has a long history of pursuing hospital mergers, he said, and “has a lot of success” in its attempts to block various deals.

the negotiating clout that comes with being bigger.

Hospitals are likely to see the divide between winners and losers grow, said Dr. Sanjay B. Saxena, a partner at the Boston Consulting Group, whose clients include health systems and insurers.

“That shake-up,” he said, “is going to continue.”

Original Source: Reed Abelson, Writer

3 Biotech stocks with the potential to become major gamechangers Buyside analysts don’t publish ratings and target prices for the public: Nearly all their notes, analyses and projections are top secret. However, in this interview orginally published in The Life Sciences Report, Wasatch Advisors’ Jill Wahleithner breaks that tacit rule. Wahleithner, a former big pharma scientist, identifies three unusual biotechs with advanced therapeutic technology platforms that could turn the tide against conditions that have plagued humankind for eons, and the potential returns on investment matches the potential to completely and radically change the practice of medicine.

In any event, few expect the deal-making that has taken place in recent years to abate. Hospitals have joined with other hospitals and bought physician practices, surgery centers and the like to bulk up. Last month, two of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems, Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health, said they were in talks to join forces.

Even among smaller insurers, mergers are likely to continue.

This month, WellCare Health Plans announced its intention to buy Universal American, a smaller insurer, as a way to expand its presence in the private Medicare Advantage market.

Although the federal health care law that was passed under President Obama, which prodded both insurers and health systems to deliver less-expensive medical care, encouraged some of the merger activity, many of these entities were likely to combine anyway. “We’re in the middle of a global merger wave,” said Martin S. Gaynor, an antitrust expert at Carnegie Mellon University.

The possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which many Republicans are pushing, is unlikely to change those dynamics. Hospitals may feel more pressure to join forces as a way of coping with what many people think will be a difficult environment. Government programs like Medicare and Medicaid could become less generous with their payments, and hospitals may experience an increase in the number of patients who have no insurance. What’s more, health systems need access to capital to pay for sophisticated computer systems, and insurers, hospitals and doctors prefer

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The Life Sciences Report: Back in the mid-1990s, you were a scientist at Novo Nordisk (NVO) , where you worked to find potential industrial enzymes. You understand the research and discovery phase of biotechnology quite well. Now, as a buyside analyst, you follow emerging companies with very sophisticated technologies, including immunology-focused platforms. How do you evaluate these platforms? Do you go to peer-reviewed literature as you look at emerging technologies?

Jill Wahleithner: All the time. I have online access to an academic journal library. It is the first place I go when I start looking into a company. I pull out the relevant publications so that I can understand the science, understand the pathways, and see what has happened in the past.

TLSR: Most investors outside of institutions have little idea how to evaluate the technology and how to assess

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intellectual property (IP). You have your name on at least two patents, so you understand this process. How do you evaluate IP? JW: I will pull up patents if I think if they’re relevant. There are times when I want to understand where a company is positioned with respect to the future of a particular product, so I read the patents. When you work for a pharmaceutical company as a bench scientist, part of your job is to bring forward ideas that you think could be part of the company’s patent pool. When you become the source of these ideas, you must learn how to think about patents—what a patent means and what exactly is patentable. That being said, I also recognize that my reading of a patent is not the same as what the courts might read, so there’s always a risk.

TLSR: A couple of decades ago, when I began speaking with analysts and CEOs of biotechnology companies, I would frequently hear the term “bulletproof” as it relates to biotech patents. I hardly ever hear that term anymore. Is that my imagination?

JW: I think that’s very insightful. Some patents that people considered to be bulletproof have been overturned. The U.S. Supreme Court definitely has impacted what is patentable and what is not patentable. I think there is more hesitation to be confident about what you are protected against.

TLSR: You review the science of emerging biotech companies for portfolio managers (PMs) at Wasatch Advisors. What are the PMs focused on? I know you write reports for them, but when you are in a face-to-face conference discussing early-stage names, what is the bottom-line judgment the PM wants to hear from you?

JW: It really depends upon the portfolio manager. Some of them have a deep interest in the space, and they want to understand what’s happening with the science. Others, not so much. It comes down to one thing. My job is to go back to the science and help PMs understand why a compound in development is relevant, where it fits in the medical community and what would happen if they did invest.

TLSR: You have a tremendous interest in immunotherapies and immune prophylaxis. You’re also very interested in genetically modified cellular technologies. Have we crossed into a new realm of harnessing and modifying the genome to leverage cellular and humoral immune responses?

JW: I think we’ve built a bridge, and we’re just now starting to walk across. The question is: How solid is the bridge? I see a lot of potential. I see so many promising ideas out there, but there have been a lot of failures. These failures have allowed companies to fine-tune their processes, and to come up with novel methods that incorporate the knowledge learned from the failures. In the next two to three years, we are going to see whether we really can fix diseases by driving the body to do the repairs, instead of adding products into the body to handle the symptoms of disease.

TLSR: Your answer implies that genetic disease may be curable with some of these technologies. If platforms can be developed such that functional cures can be accomplished— let’s say for HIV/AIDS—does that necessarily mean that you can cross over to another disease indication and effect the same kind of result with that platform?

JW: Possibly. It depends upon the disease. Given the basic technology of editing the genome, once it has been proven as safe, there are many ways to use that tool. What we’re seeing from Sangamo BioSciences Inc. (SGMO) right now, with its genome-editing HIV data, is that there have not been any long-term repercussions that raise questions about safety. This means you can go into diseases where existing treatments are not necessarily optimal. You don’t have to worry about possibly killing the patient with the Sangamo approach because we know, from trials with its HIV product SB-728-T, that you don’t have the downstream long-term safety events seen with some of the initial gene therapy technologies.

TLSR: Is Sangamo a company that you’re currently positive on?

JW: Yes, it is. It’s a company that I really like. I see a lot of potential. Its scientists are phenomenal. They think deeply about the products and how to develop these tools. In the next two years, we should see several products come to the clinic where, for the first time, the human body will be used to enable “functional cures.” It will be interesting to see how those “cures” do.

TLSR: What milestones should investors be looking for at Sangamo?

JW: I would look for Phase 2 data from the HIV program with SB-728-T, and whether that gets partnered. At this point, the company has generated enough data that if a larger pharma is interested, a partnership will happen. I would also look at Sangamo’s in vivoprotein replacement therapy products, which are just hitting the clinic. We should get some Phase 1 data from some of those in the next year, and that will tell us whether these tools meet their promise.

TLSR: Which protein replacement products are you referring to?

JW: The first one I think will be for beta thalassemia major with SB-BCLmR-HSPC. There will also be some data for lysosomal storage diseases, as well as for Huntington’s disease and for the hemophilias. We’re going to see multiple products hitting the clinic in the next year. Depending upon the product, different routes are being used to enable protein production in the body.

TLSR: We’re talking pretty much about monogenic (single gene-related) diseases here. Do you foresee this platform extending to polygenic diseases, since most diseases, by far, are polygenic?

JW: I could see where it might have some functionality in specific cancers. I don’t know about diseases like diabetes or heart disease. These are a lot more complicated, and it depends upon how the science evolves in identifying the causative agents and whether those agents can be impacted by altering the genome.

TLSR: Would you speak to another name?

JW: Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (INO) has spent years developing a DNA-based vaccine platform. Its first product and lead candidate, VGX-3100, is for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, a precancerous condition resulting from infection

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with the human papillomavirus (HPV). VGX-3100 is a synthetic, circular DNA molecule that acts like a virus. It comes into the body enabled by electroporation, an electrical shock applied to the skin with the injection. It hooks onto the cell surface and injects its DNA into the cell, which is what a virus does in vector-guided gene therapy. It then takes over the cellular translation or protein synthesis machinery, and directs the production of antigens, which are proteins, just as they were encoded in the plasmid. It allows the body to attack four proteins found on HPV virions. The idea of using DNA, which is simple to make and cost-effective, to drive the body’s natural immune response is just fascinating.

TLSR: The dangers of gene therapy have been written up in the general press, as well as the scientific literature. Inovio CEO Joseph Kim told me that one of the things about vector (viral)-based delivery of genetic material is that patients could develop an allergy to the virus itself. He believes this is one of the major advantages of Inovio’s plasmid delivery of genes into cells.

JW: That’s exactly right, and it’s why you can’t do repeat treatments when you’re using gene therapy products that are delivered by a virus. Patients develop antibodies that could cause a violent immune response on readministration of the vector. There are a lot of advantages to the plasmid delivery system. The injected plasmid just disappears with time because, unlike a virus, it’s not able to replicate. It doesn’t leave a footprint behind that might cause long-term safety issues. Inovio is capitalizing on the fact that the virus stimulates an immune response that could be dangerous for the patient, and its delivery system does not.

With safety established, the company announced last July that its 150-patient, Phase 2 trial met its primary endpoint.

VGX-3100 induced regression of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, and it cleared the virus from the cervical tissue.

Now we have both safety and proof of concept.

TLSR: Back in September 2013, Roche Holding AG (RHHBY) made a deal to pay Inovio an upfront $10 million ($10M) for the rights to two therapeutic immunizations, INO-5150 for prostate cancer and INO-1800 for chronic hepatitis B (HBV). Roche returned rights to Inovio for the prostate cancer program. Can you comment on that?

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JW: The INO-1800/HBV program is still intact with Roche, and it should be hitting the clinic this year. As for the prostate cancer program with INO-5150, Roche has had some failures in its oncology space, where it once had a huge lead relative to the rest of the world. That lead has flipped a bit, so Roche has gone back and looked at its portfolio. I think that after some failures in prostate cancer, like with Dendreon Corp.’s (DNDN) Provenge (sipuleucel-T), there are some questions about how effective immune therapies will be in prostate cancer. That’s part of why Roche made its decision.

Returning the rights to INO-5150 was more about Roche’s own business models than about the promise of Inovio’s technology.

TLSR: Since you brought it up, let’s address Dendreon. The company is in bankruptcy, and its assets are in the process of being acquired by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (VRX) (VRX:CA) . The development of Provenge was an amazing scientific achievement, but it is an autologous therapy, meaning that it’s not an off-the-shelf product. A patient’s own cells must be processed and returned to the patient. What did we learn from that? Is this something that investors in Sangamo might be concerned about since its lead candidates are autologous, genetically modified cells?

JW: It’s true that Sangamo has an autologous model, but Dendreon’s Provenge problem went beyond just the production issues. There was some skepticism about the clinical trial results that flowed down into the product’s uptake by clinicians. Production was definitely expensive, but Provenge also has to be administered in three different treatments from three different white blood cell harvests and three different processings. That’s a lot of work. With Sangamo’s platform, you have a one-time process. Right there, you’ve cut the cost down. Sangamo also has done a lot of work to produce a messenger RNA-driven process, which will help with cost. If anything, Sangamo has learned from the failures of Dendreon and will, I think, be able to work around some of the cost issues.

TLSR: Was there another company on your list?

JW: Of the three companies I’m talking about today, Argos Therapeutics Inc.’s (ARGS) program is probably closest to Dendreon’s platform. It has a vaccine that uses RNA from

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a cancerous tumor to direct an immune response. What caught my eye about its trial results with AGS-003, in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), is that every piece of immune data aligned with what Argos expected. The therapy is generating memory T cells, and the number of T cells that it generates is directly correlated to the response of the patient.

TLSR: It sounds like you are positive on Argos. Is that right?

We saw more than a doubling in overall survival in these patients, which is quite an increase. These data were stronger than we’ve seen previously with vaccine companies. In addition, Argos is developing an automated manufacturing platform, which will greatly reduce the cost and address some of the problems that Dendreon ran into.

JW: We should hear about the final patient being enrolled in its Phase 3 mRCC trial. Interim data will follow within several months of that enrollment completion. The interim data will just be the data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) reviewing safety and looking for futility. Bad news would take the stock down, but good safety news probably won’t affect the stock much.

TLSR: Argos has an HIV program as well. The company’s shares lost a third of their value on Jan. 9, when its Phase 2 trial in HIV failed to meets its primary endpoint. I should note that the stock has recovered quite well since then. But what was your take on that event?

JW: First, that program is fully funded by the National Institutes of Health, and while the company is involved in this study, it is not spending its own funds to develop that product. The next thing I would say is that when Argos took that hit in January, the trading volume was not that high relative to the number of shares outstanding. Usually that means somebody is taking advantage of press release results instead of an event that impacts the company long term.

JW: I do like the company. I think it has an interesting technology.

TLSR: What about catalysts or milestones that Argos investors might look for?

TLSR: Thank you, Jill.

Jill Wahleithner worked as a research scientist in both industry and academia for 10 years before moving to the financial industry as a biotech consultant. Since 2004, she has focused on reviewing the science of emerging biotechs for equity investment firms. In 2006, she signed an exclusive contract with Wasatch Advisors, and in 2014 transitioned to a full-time employee of Wasatch, where she helps company portfolio managers navigate the complex world of biotech.

Original Source: George S. Mack, The Life Sciences Report

The woman at the center of the biggest Biotech IPO of the year Myovant Sciences has conducted the biggest biotechnology initial public offering of the year by raising $218 million.

The company’s shares priced at $15 a piece, the higher end of its IPO range, but the stock did not pop, trading down by 11.6% and closing at $13.26.

Myovant will use the proceeds of the IPO to fund late-stage clinical trials for its relugolix drug in women with heavy menstrual bleeding associated with uterine fibroids and in women with endometriosis-associated pain, as well as men with advanced-prostate cancer. Myovant believes that the pill poses several advantages over currently approved injectable therapies. Myovant acquired a license for relugolix for most of the world except Japan and certain Asian countries from Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceuticals, which received a 12% stake in Myovant and future royalties from Myovant’s net sales.

Part of what Takeda got in the deal is the expertise of Lynn Seely, CEO of Myovant, who is ideally suited to run a company focusing on endocrine disorders and prostate cancer. Seely is a board-certified endocrinologist who led the development of blockbuster prostate cancer drug Xtandi as the chief medical officer of Medivation, which was recently purchased by Pfizer for $14 billion. Vivek Ramaswamy, the founder of Roivant Sciences, which acquired relugolix from Takeda and spun off Myovant, recruited Seely to Myovant.

Q. What made you excited about relugolix and leading the effort at Myovant?

“We have a late stage phase III asset in relugolix, it has

Lynn Seely, CEO, Myovant

already been in 1,300 study participants with robust phase II data. This is a drug with a targeted mechanism of action and we understand how it works. So this is a case where the science is very clear and now our job is to execute well on phase III.” Q. If this is such a promising assets, why would Takeda not keep it for itself?

“The answer is that we have teamed up with Takeda to do this development program globally. Takeda is running phase III trials as we speak in Japan, which is where they have a nice commercial organization for women’s health, and we are going to do the global development for women’s health outside of the Japanese territory as well as globally for prostate cancer.”

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Q. How did you get to partner with Roivant on Myovant?

“I have known Vivek for years but clearly this was a remarkable opportunity with a great lead asset. An opportunity to build an innovative global leader in women’s health was enormously attractive to me. It’s an opportunity to take a leadership role. One of the things that has been lacking in the pharmaceutical industry is female leaders.”

Q. How long have you been working on this?

“We began to discuss this even before the deal with Takeda had been completed, so I was part of the due diligence on this opportunity and helped them shape the development plan right out of the gate. It is very rare to see such a well developed drug come into a company like this so we can take advantage of all the work done by Takeda and take it into phase III and turn it into a blockbuster product.”

Q. Can you talk to us about the evolution of your career and how it prepared you to be CEO of Myovant?

“I was at Medivation from the very beginning, I was employee number three, and built that company with the others on the leadership team for 10 years. I built all the development functions and at the time I left out of the 650 employees more than half of them reported to me. I had a seat at the table as we executed one of the best oncology launches in history and so the experience I gained at Medivation was phenomenal. I thought this was a great

opportunity. Also, there is a real need here. Women are underrepresented in leadership positions in this industry and I feel like I am well qualified.”

Q. The company is also focused on women’s health issues.

“That’s right. I have an opportunity to be a voice for women in leadership roles but more importantly for me for women suffering from women health diseases. There are millions of women suffering from fibroids and endometriosis. This is a disease that has largely been ignored and seen as a surgical disease and we are hoping to develop medical therapy so that women have an alternative to surgical procedures they are now going through.”

Q. Anything else you would like to reflect on today?

“Some people are saying this company is coming out of nowhere, how can this company do this with nine employees? But the beautiful thing about the Roivant model is that they have a full development team while we are building our company very rapidly in the Bay area. Roivant has real development experience in taking drugs to phase III trials and commercialization and a variety of experts, so we have a large team working on this. I think the confidence that Pfizer expressed as a lead investor in this deal is also important.”

Original Source: Nathan Vardi, Forbes

Historic medical breakthrough is a gamechanger for Biotech One of the most marvelous medical breakthroughs in the history of the world has just occurred. For the first time, neuroscientists treated a total quadriplegic (a 21-year-old young man) with stem cells, and he has largely recovered the functions of his upper body after just two months.

This news is incredible for two reasons. First, using pluripotent stem cells, scientists have been able to help a patient’s severed nerves repair themselves. This discovery also points to the potential to accomplish the same sort of regenerative healing in every organ in our bodies.

As report by Patrick Cox, the author of the Transformational Technology Alert newsletter from Mauldin Economics. He focuses primarily on biotechnology but looks at all sorts of interesting companies and technologies that are going to transform our world.

The depth of Patrick’s knowledge of multiple disciplines is staggering. In fact, major scientists call him to share results and ask questions. They do so hoping that Patrick will point them to other research that they haven’t come across yet.

I kid you not. This guy is at the center of a nexus of antiaging researchers and biotechnologists that has few parallels.

Below, is Patrick Cox’s weekly letter where he tells his

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subscribers about this fantastic breakthrough from one of the researchers he has followed for almost 20 years Dr. Mike West of BioTime (BTX).

BioTime makes history with announcement of first stem cell spinal cord therapy results USC neuroscientists just announced truly historic news about BioTime’s (BTX) (*see disclosure below) stem cell platform.

For the first time, a quadriplegic patient with complete injury to the spinal cord has substantially recovered.

I’ve told you this was coming, but I wanted to get more information to you today as news of this long-awaited breakthrough in neurobiology spreads through the media. In fact, the news is even better than the information released by the Keck Medical Center of USC would indicate… and you should understand why.

A press release of this nature must follow strict conventions enforced by the SEC and FDA as well as traditional scientific guidelines. For example, the news release describes this spinal cord treatment, an injection of stem cells into the area of spinal cord injury, as “a procedure that may improve neurological function.” Watch the following video, however,

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and the only reasonable conclusion you can make is that the procedure has already done that.

Watch the entire B-roll video that USC has made available to the media. B-roll video isn’t edited as a story, of course.

Rather, it’s meant to supply short video snippets for reporters.

Nevertheless, most of this material is worth watching as it provides more information than is available in the extremely reserved press release, which is available here.

Note that Charles Liu, MD, PhD, says that this procedure should change the way that scientists and doctors think about spinal cord injury, making it possible to aim for full functional recovery for the first time.

The part of the B-roll that really gets me is seeing Kris Boesen, the 21-year-old man who received the treatment, wipe tears from his eyes while expressing his gratitude toward the scientists who made it possible. Prior to receiving BioTime’s stem cell therapy, Boesen was completely paralyzed from the neck down and couldn’t even lift his hands to his face.

Note also that Boesen mentions that his recovery is ongoing—from the top of the spine downward. We don’t yet know if he will regain use of his lower body, but he reports positive indications.

The critical part of this story that is entirely left out of the press release, however, is that the patient would have made a far better recovery if he had been treated promptly.

Boesen was injured on March 6 but could only communicate his desire to participate in the clinical trial through head movements. He had to undergo assisted breathing therapy before he could give verbal consent.

That means that about a month of serious scarification took place before 10 million AST-OPC1 cells were injected into Boesen’s cervical spine. Scarring is the enemy of nerve reattachment and the reason that this procedure is only being administered to patients who have recently suffered spinal cord injuries.

Nevertheless, those stem cells managed to sort out and self-assemble, connecting severed nerves correctly from the upper and lower sides of the injury.

This is the true power of regenerative medicine. It doesn’t rely on the surgeon’s skill. It’s the patient’s genome and the biological wisdom inherent in pluripotent stem cells that affect the cure. None of the scientists will publicly say this, but I’m positive that the results would have been much better and more rapid if Boesen had been given the injection immediately following his injury. Additionally, Boesen started

his treatment in the middle of a dose-escalating study, so he was only given half of the full therapeutic dose. (A full therapeutic dose will probably be 20 million neural stem cells.) So by no means should we view his dramatic and life-changing results as typical of what would happen to a patient given optimal dosage promptly after injury.

What this means for investors Essentially, Boesen’s ability to lift light weight overhead after a catastrophic spinal cord injury is proof that Dr. Michael West, co-CEO of BioTime, was right when he launched this project at Geron, which he founded in 1990. I first met Mike, by the way, shortly thereafter.

West did not run the company he founded but acted as Chief Scientific Officer so he could concentrate on the science and technology. West made many of the most critical and ground-breaking discoveries regarding stem cells.

Though at the time his theories and predictions were much maligned by the medical mainstream, his pioneering work has revealed the potential of stem cell medicine and made Boesen’s restored functionality possible.

West’s decision to hand Geron’s management over to others may have not been the best decision though. Despite extremely promising data regarding the spinal cord therapy as well as the cancer vaccine, the company seemed to lose its way. This actually worked to benefit current BioTime investors, however, as they are the majority owner of subsidiary Asterias (AST).

Moreover, Geron’s most important intellectual property was acquired for a fraction of the cost spent to develop its massive library of patents as well as several important technologies now in or near human trials. For example, Asterias also has a cancer vaccine headed for clinical trials in the UK. I consider it superior to those now being developed by cancer companies that have ten times the capitalization of parent company, BioTime.

Stock traders are just not that clever as a group, so the capitalization of Asterias has rivaled BioTime’s, creating interesting arbitrage opportunities.

This doesn’t make sense, of course, but success in the Asterias spinal cord trial should help smart investors begin to understand that the same scientific biotechnologies implemented by Keck Medical Center of USC are also operative in other BioTime therapies. BioTime subsidiary CellCure NeuroSciences is developing retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) stem.

Original Source: Mauldin Economics

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Medimmune Scientists in Global Elite Two MedImmune scientists - one from Cambridge, UK and the other based in Maryland, US - have been recognised in the PharmaVOICE 100, an annual list of the most inspiring people in the life sciences industry.

Tristan John Vaughan, senior director of lead generation, is based in Cambridge and Gail Wasserman - senior vice-president of biopharmaceutical development - in the States.

Established seven years ago by PharmaVOICEmagazine, the PharmaVOICE 100 recognises professionals for their positive contributions to the life-sciences industry. The publication’s readers nominate honorees.

Drs. Vaughan and Wasserman were selected for MedImmune and to their communities, as well as the motivation they provide to colleagues and peers. Peter Greenleaf, MedImmune’s president, said: “We are proud to have the inspiring work of Drs. Vaughan and Wasserman acknowledged by PharmaVOICE, as they exemplify the spirit of innovation that is central to MedImmune’s mission.

“They demonstrate the tireless commitment of our researchers to deliver life-changing products to help patients

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with unmet medical needs.” Among achievements throughout his career, Dr. Vaughan has played a key role in the discovery and development of innovative first-in-class products, including the first fully human antibody to reach the market as well as the first new treatment option for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in more than 50 years.

Dr. Vaughan leads a team of more than 80 employees in MedImmune’s Cambridge, UK facility where he and his colleagues continue to refine the technologies that have successfully delivered drugs that make a meaningful difference to patients.

Dr. Wasserman’s work has also had a significant impact on the health of patients around the world. Her pioneering development work contributed to the introduction of the first monoclonal antibody approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to help prevent an infectious disease.

She leads a team of 700 employees worldwide, enabling new technologies to be developed and delivered to patients.

During her 20-year tenure at MedImmune, the company’s pipeline has grown from just a few molecules to more than 100 drug candidates in development.

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Award-winning Pneumacare targets Europe and U.S. A company pioneering lifesaving diagnostic instruments has fast-tracked its international sales push with a key commercial hire.

PneumaCare has stepped up its European sales push and the appointment of Eric Stewart as commercial director is designed to broaden the company’s global reach as swiftly as possible. Stewart has 14 years experience in the medical device market worldwide.

CEO Ward Hills said: “Our scope is all of Europe with a focus on the UK, Germany and France. We will be focusing on opening up in the US in the autumn.”

Hills said the timing of the appointment reflected PneumaCare’s confidence in its product offering. “This is an exciting time in PneumaCare’s development and expansion,” he said. “In recent weeks we have successfully moved PneumaScan through its regulatory hurdles and achieved initial sales in key clinics around the UK. “Appointing a dedicated commercial director with Eric Stewart’s experience gives us the resource we need to take our instruments smoothly and swiftly to international markets.”

PneumaCare’s first product, PneumaScan, enables clinicians to assess lung function in a more comfortable setting or at the patient bedside, allowing for a broader application including coverage of more frail and vulnerable groups currently excluded from spirometry measurement.

PneumaCare recently won two accolades at the Medical Futures Innovation Awards ceremony in London. It won the respiratory category and was also named as having the best business proposition of all the winners.Clinical trials of PneumaScan are about to start at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and the technology has further applications outside human health. Work is soon to start on a project at the Department of Veterinary Medicine.

spirometer, the existing technology used to monitor lung function.

Ward Hills said: “The existing technology, spirometers, pose problems for many patients with lung problems. For example, small children have problems blowing into standard spirometers, because when they feel resistance, they stop blowing, preventing an accurate reading of lung function.

Additionally, some older patients can actually be harmed due to the physical effort required by current approaches.”

PneumaScan utilises video motion capture technology in order to monitor lung function, producing accurate three-dimensional moving models of a patient’s respiration.

The device is simple to use for both clinicians and patients, accurate, cost-effective, and, as it is noncontact, is less likely to pass on hospital-based infections.

Dr Hills said: “The Medical Futures Innovation Awards are among the most prestigious in the healthcare sector and we are delighted that they have chosen to recognise PneumaCare.”

PneumaScan has been developed by PneumaCare in partnership with the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Cambridge-based design house Plextek Limited.

In 2009, PneumaCare was the first company to receive funding from the University of Cambridge Discovery Fund, one of three seed funds managed by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation group.

Novartis’ fevipiprant hailed a gamechanger in asthma treatment Researchers are hailing Novartis’ fevipiprant (QAW039) as a game-changer in asthma treatment after a Lancet-published trial showed its potential to significantly reduce the severity of the condition.

The research, funded by Novartis Pharmaceuticals, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the EU (AirPROM) and carried out by scientists at Leicester University, demonstrated that the pill significantly decreased the symptoms of asthma, improved lung function, reduced inflammation and repaired the lining of airways.

Lung disease affects one in seven people in the UK, resulting in over 24 million doctor visits each year, at an annual cost of £500 million to primary care providers and £6.6 billion to the broader UK economy.

“Most treatments might improve some of these features of disease, but with fevipiprant improvements were seen with all of the types of tests,” noted lead researcher Professor Christopher Brightling, a NIHR Senior Research Fellow and Clinical Professor in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Leicester.

Over 300,000 specialist lung function tests are carried out each year and yet one in three patients is unable to use a

In the small trial, which involved just 61 patients, one group was given 225mg of the drug twice a day for 12 weeks

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and the other a placebo, given in addition to medication already being taken by the participants.

The study was designed primarily to examine the effects on inflammation in the airway by measuring the sputum eosinophil count. Patients who do not have asthma have a percentage of less than one while those with moderate-tosevere asthma typically have about about five percent.

The rate in asthma patients taking fevipiprant was reduced from an average of 5.4 percent to 1.1 percent over 12 weeks, according to the study results, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

“We already know that using treatments to target eosinophilic airway inflammation can substantially reduce asthma attacks. This new treatment, fevipiprant, could likewise help to stop preventable asthma attacks, reduce hospital admissions and improve day-to-day symptoms making it a ‘game changer’ for future treatment,” Prof Brightling said.

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“This research shows massive promise and should be greeted with cautious optimism,” commented Dr Samantha Walker, Director of Research and Policy at Asthma UK. “The possibility of taking a pill instead of using an inhaler will be a very welcome one among the 5.4 million people in the UK with asthma, particularly as this study focused on people who develop the condition in later life, some of whom we know can struggle with the dexterity required to use an inhaler.”

“We’re a long way off seeing a pill for asthma being made available over the pharmacy counter, but it’s an exciting development and one which, in the long term, could offer a real alternative to current treatments.”

The drug, the first new asthma pill in twenty years, is also currently being evaluated in late stage clinical trials in patients with severe asthma.

Original Source: Selina McKee, Pharma Times

Gamechanging sports science formula around injuries in the NBA As fans and players settle in to watch the 2016-17 NBA season, player and team performance is a constant thread that runs throughout. Debates on television and radio will rage as to which are performing above or below standards. Ultimately it all centers on who is rebuilding, who makes the playoffs, and finally, who will win the NBA Finals.

The back-story centers on contracts and injuries, a constant that is a critical part of the front offices throughout the league.

Investments are made, and with it, risk has to be taken on.

Unlike other investments, even with understanding medical history, the chaotic, and oftentimes randomness of player injury can derail plans for not only a season, but alter direction for how a roster is constructed over multiple years and watch careers end. This variable can have ownership direct general managers to assume extra risk, be risk neutral, or seek risk aversion depending on where the other pieces of a roster are at and where they are on the projected win curve.

With the increased risk and escalation in contract dollars, accessing quantitative data around injuries has become more important. To that, Kitman Labs has released a metric around it. The Injury Impact Index (i3) – showcases how injuries directly relate to team performance and a team’s chances of making the playoffs.

It also introduces two new key metrics – Salary Available to Win and Games Lost to Injury (see the infographic at the end of this article) While it is not always indicative given that salaries are based on prior performance, not always future performance, the formula by Kitman looks to salary as a driver. The logic is that the higher the salary, the better performing the player should be. Yes, there are all the gyrations around the cap system, but it is a point to work from.

Kitman created a metric called Salary Available to Win (SAW) for each team that uses data from the last five years. From there, they calculate the team’s base salary and subtracted the athlete salary lost for each day an athlete is unavailable for selection as well as the number of wins to reach the playoffs over the five year period. From that, the cost “spent” due to injuries can be calculated. For an NBA team team, $12.9M in SAW is lost to injured player salaries each season (from all injuries). A breakdown of NBA injuries reveals that 63% of all injuries are ruptures/strains & sprains, commonly believed to be potentially avoidable. This means that $8.1M in SAW is lost to potentially avoidable injuries each year.

Take that data and apply it to wins and that translates to 9 games Lost to Injury (GLI) and therefore 3 places on the conference win ladder. The data – especially around preventable injury through proactive measures – can be calculated. Looking at the Kitman Labs analytics around injuries, clubs can start to budget accordingly, use the historical information to see where increased budget around medical staff makes the most sense, and work toward having roster construction and development more inline with what general managers envision.

Below is an infographic showing how the Kitman Labs Injury Impact Index works:

Original Source: Maury Brown, Forbes

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The Most Influential People in Healthcare 2016

A report from “The 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” awards & recognition program, a program set in place to honour individuals in healthcare who are deemed by their peers and the senior editors of Modern Healthcare to be the most influential individuals in the industry, in terms of leadership and impact.

Knocking John Roberts off from first place, Barack Obama takes the lead with ObamaCare. Gamechangers takes a closer look at the Top 10.

President | United States Washington, DC Age: 55 Compensation: $400,000 (House Press Gallery) Years on list: 10

1. Barack Obama, President, United States

The new president was facing America’s biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Key advisers urged him to keep his focus on economic recovery. The opposition party signaled it would wage an all-out fight to block healthcare reform.

And his own party was divided. But President Barack Obama charged ahead. “Now is the time to deliver on healthcare,” he told Congress in September 2009. First, he pushed through a huge expansion of electronic health records as part of his 2009 economic stimulus package. Then, with stalwart help from congressional Democratic leaders, he won passage - barely, after a titanic political battle - of a healthcare overhaul that moved the country toward universal coverage.

Chairman and CEO | Kaiser Permanente Oakland, CA Age: 57 Compensation: $4,687,312 (2014 IRS 990) Years on list: 3

2. Bernard Tyson, Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Permanente

Tyson leads an integrated delivery system that is often cited as the healthcare model of the future, and it’s one without a true peer. Kaiser provides health insurance to 10.6 million people in eight states and Washington, D.C., owns 38 hospitals and has almost 19,000 physicians across the $61 billion enterprise. His voice rang loudly this summer following the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile by police officers, prompting his call to revisit race relations: “This moment calls for unity, for listening and for empathy as we seek to understand what communities of color are facing and the assumptions that the broader society is working from.”

President and CEO | Ascension St. Louis, MO Age: 66 Compensation: $14,325,063 (2014 IRS Form 990) Years on list: 12

3. Anthony Tersigni, President and CEO Ascension

Tersigni, head of the nation’s largest Catholic healthcare system, measures decisions and results against a simple premise: are they aligned with the system’s mission of caring for the poorest and most-vulnerable people in Ascension’s 21 major markets?

With that guidance, Ascension this year became the first giant hospital system to waive deductibles for all patients with incomes of less than 250% of poverty level.

And it launched its biggest marketing campaign ever to attract veterans to its 125 hospitals and thousands of doctors under the $10 billion Veterans Choice program that provides an option for veterans to seek care outside of the Veterans Affairs system.

Chairman and CEO | Aetna Hartford, CT Age: 60 Compensation: $17,262,879 (2016 proxy statement) Years on list: 5

4. Mark Bertolini, Chairman and CEO, Aetna

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Bertolini, Aetna’s CEO since late 2010, was one of the biggest winners from 2015’s health insurance merger hoopla as he bested his competitors’ pursuits for the highly desired Humana and its Medicare Advantage heft - a move that would greatly expand Aetna’s $63 billion of revenue. He’s made it a mission to challenge the federal government and obtain approval for the Humana deal, and he’s also pushing Medicare Advantage as “the solution to entitlement reform around health benefits.” He recently joined the board of Thrive Global, the new health and wellness company founded by media mogul Arianna Huffington.

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Secretary | HHS Washington, DC Age: 51 Compensation: $199,700 (Federal executive schedule) Years on list: 3 Burwell’s focus in the past year can be summed up in one word: quality.

She and her team have been aggressively working to move Medicare away from its fee-for-service to a model that focuses on reimbursing for quality of care via alternative payment models. Last year, the agency set the goal of tying 30% of Medicare payments to quality or value through alternative payment models by the end of 2016, and 50% by the end of 2018. The agency has already announced or launched experimental pay models that will change the way it pays for primary care, nursing home services, cardiac procedures and hip and knee replacements.

5. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Secretary, HHS

Chairman and CEO | HCA Nashville, TN Age: 59 Compensation: $17,764,761 (2016 proxy statement) Years on list: 3 Johnson’s drive for steady, consistent growth at HCA reflects his conservative rise from accountant and tax department manager to treasurer and CFO. The company - known for its high-flying past of hospital acquisitions and leveraged buyouts - today provides one of the best returns on investment among healthcare providers by focusing on building out clinics and free-standing emergency rooms around its hospital hubs in Dallas, Houston, Miami and elsewhere. Johnson took the helm of HCA in January 2014.

6. R. Milton Johnson, Chairman and CEO, HCA

President and CEO | UnitedHealth Group Minnetonka, MN Age: 63 Compensation: $14,518,164 (2016 proxy statement) Years on list: 7 Hemsley became CEO in 2006, replacing Dr. William McGuire, who was ousted over a stock options backdating scandal. Since taking over, UnitedHealth Group has grown from $71.5 billion in revenue to roughly $180 billion, making it the 17th largest company in the world, according to Fortune’s rankings. His company’s financial and political reach is almost unmatched - from Medicare Advantage to managed Medicaid to small and large employers - although it was Hemsley’s decision to abandon most of the Affordable Care Act’s individual exchanges that created shockwaves throughout the industry this past year.

7. Stephen Hemsley, President and CEO, UnitedHealth Group

President and CEO | American Hospital Association Chicago, IL Age: 66 Compensation: $1,483,925 (2015 IRS 990) Years on list: 4 For nearly 25 years, Pollack was the top lobbyist in Washington, D.C., for one of the nation’s most-effective lobbying organizations, the American Hospital Association. Then in September 2015, he succeeded Richard Umbdenstock to become the 11th president of the 117-yearold organization. The Brooklyn native has stayed in the trenches, fighting for higher reimbursement for hospitals under Medicare and opposing the proposed mega-mergers between health insurers Aetna and Humana, and Anthem and Cigna.

8. Rick Pollack, President and CEO, American Hospital Association

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President and CEO | America’s Health Insurance Plans Washington, DC Age: 65 Compensation: NA Years on list: 5

9. Marilyn Tavenner, President and CEO, America’s Health Insurance Plans Association

As administrator of the CMS during the early years of implementing the Affordable Care Act, Tavenner is arguably America’s foremost authority on the ACA. She’s taken that expertise to AHIP, where health insurers big and small are struggling to make money on exchange patients while the industry argues over the merits of consolidation. In the year that Tavenner has led AHIP, giants Aetna and UnitedHealthcare Group have left the association. Meanwhile, Aetna is trying to beat back a U.S. Justice Department challenge to its merger with Humana and exchange losses mount for Aetna and United alike.

Acting administrator | CMS Baltimore, MD Age: 49 Compensation: NA Years on list: 2

10. Andy Slavitt, Acting administrator, CMS

After decades in the private sector with healthcare technology and consulting companies, Andy Slavitt joined the CMS in 2014 as principal deputy administrator before being appointed acting administrator last year. Philosophically, Slavitt believes CMS’ promotion of bundled payments is consistent with a team approach to medicine that requires communication, data and smooth patient handoffs. The CMS touches the healthcare needs of about 140 million Americans. “We all want our payment system to pay for what we value. At the highest level, it’s all the things we want from our own healthcare experiences—high quality coordinated care that ties the fragmented system together for us and allows us to get back to our lives.”

Top 10 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders 2016: Change Agents Charge to the Top

Robert Califf, Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration

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Modern Healthcare’s 12th annual ranking of the “The 50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders” honors physicians working in the healthcare industry who are deemed by their peers and an expert panel to be the most influential in terms of demonstrating leadership and impact.

These physician leaders are innovators, excel in community services, and demonstrate reputable executive authority.

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As conversations in healthcare continue to focus on quality, patient safety and a system shifting to value over volume, “50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders” increasingly reflects the industry players charged with making it happen.

While physician-CEOs at some of the nation’s most prominent health systems continue to dominate the top of the chart, quality experts and regulators are moving up the list.

as editor-in-chief of the journal Neurology, which he has expanded in scope and frequency during his tenure. Mayo has continued expanding on and beyond its Rochester campus since Noseworthy took the helm, including the 2011 launch of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, which now has affiliate healthcare organizations across the country.

Among his activities outside of Mayo, Noseworthy serves as a member of the healthcare governors for the Geneva, Switzerland-based World Economic Forum.

No. 1 this year is Dr. Robert Califf, the newly confirmed commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, followed closely at No. 3 by another top-level agency executive, Dr. Patrick Conway, chief medical officer at the CMS.

3. Dr. Patrick Conway Deputy administrator for innovation and quality, chief medical officer CMS

Systems on the front lines of executing change remain near the top. They include Dr. John Noseworthy, CEO at Mayo Clinic, No. 2; Dr. Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, No. 5; Dr. David Torchiana, CEO at Partners HealthCare, No. 7; Dr. Benjamin Chu, newly named CEO at Memorial Hermann Health System, No. 8; and Dr. David Feinberg, CEO at Geisinger Health System; and No.9 Dr. Gary Kaplan, CEO of the Virginia Mason Health System.

Dr. Patrick Conway is used to juggling duties in his roles at the CMS. He serves as deputy administrator for innovation and quality while also holding the title of the agency’s chief medial officer. The 41-year-old pediatrician leads the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality as well as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. The clinical standards center oversees all quality measures, value-based purchasing programs, quality-improvement programs, clinical standards, and survey and certification of Medicare and Medicaid providers nationally. The innovation center is the agency’s learning lab, charged with testing new payment and delivery models, including accountable care approaches, bundledpayment programs and medical-home models. Before joining the CMS in 2011, Conway was director of hospital medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, as well as an associate professor of medicine.

Kaplan says one of the roles he’s most proud of involves his work outside of Virginia Mason to “change the conversation” from a healthcare system focused on physicians and care teams to one that’s centered on patients and their families. He cited gains in quality and patient safety across the industry, but noted that “we’re nowhere near as good as we can be.”

Gamechangers takes a closer look at the Top 10...

1. Robert Califf Commissioner Food and Drug Administration The winds of change blowing through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—with the arrival of newly confirmed Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf—come at a time when the agency faces a host of challenges. Addressing the opioid drug abuse epidemic and preparing for the possibility of new rules that will redefine its approach to regulating medical products are among the issues the former clinical researcher must make his top priorities while trying to improve a workforce that has been under-resourced and understaffed for years. “The FDA must evaluate increasingly complex information to make good decisions on behalf of the public,” Califf said. “So we need the best people, and that includes keeping the pipeline full but also keeping people happy when they work here.” A cardiologist by training, Califf, 64, served as founding director of Duke University’s Clinical Research Institute.

2. Dr. John Noseworthy President and CEO Mayo Clinic Dr. John Noseworthy has been synonymous with Mayo Clinic since he took the helm at the world-renowned organization in 2009. But his relationship with Mayo dates to 1990, and he has played many roles over the years. A neurologist, he’s held many clinical leadership posts, including chair of the neurology department, where he still holds the title of professor. He’s well-respected in the specialty, especially for extensive research into multiple sclerosis. He also serves

4. Dr. Robert Wachter Professor and interim chairman, Department of Medicine University of California at San Francisco As an enthusiastic challenger of the status quo, Dr. Robert Wachter, 58, has been shaking things up in the healthcare industry for just over two decades. He has delved into prickly policy concerns and elucidated the hidden ways in which the healthcare system harms patients. His charismatic persona, including a willingness to dress in costume, has helped spark conversations on these difficult topics. Wachter was an innovator behind the hospitalist movement in the mid-1990s, which completely revamped existing concepts of patientcare management. In his recent book, The Digital Doctor, he warns that hype over medical technology could cause an El Niño of electronic despair and anxiety. Besides being a professor and interim chair of the University of California at San Francisco department of medicine, where he directs the hospital medicine division, Wachter is also a patient-safety leader, public speaker, blogger and Bruce Springsteen fan.

5. Dr. Toby Cosgrove President and CEO Cleveland Clinic The organization that Dr. Delos “Toby” Cosgrove leads might be named the Cleveland Clinic, but the enterprise extends far beyond northern Ohio. And he’s certainly one of the masterminds behind the growth. Although he’s been CEO since 2004, Cosgrove has been with the system since 1975, when he joined as a surgeon, and he became chairman of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery in 1989. As CEO, he now leads an organization with more than $8 billion in annual revenue with nine regional hospitals, 21 family health and ambulatory surgery centers, a brain-health facility in Las

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Vegas, a hospital campus in Florida and the newest entity, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, a multispecialty facility that opened in 2015. Early in his career, Cosgrove was a surgeon in the U.S. Air Force. He’s a Vietnam War veteran, serving as the Air Force’s chief of casualty staging flights. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service.

6. Dr. Richard Migliori Executive VP of medical affairs and chief medical officer UnitedHealth Group Dr. Richard Migliori’s playbook for changing health insurance comes down to how well medical data can be analyzed and how well patients can use that data. The top medical executive for UnitedHealth Group routinely sings the praises of technology in today’s healthcare system, believing mobile apps and other means can help patients embrace preventive treatments. That would theoretically lower the cost of care, an issue that has grabbed the attention of nearly every lawmaker, economist and employer. “By taking an aggressive stance on prevention, we could mitigate a lot of the healthcare expenditure and adverse health consequences,” he said at an industry conference in 2014. Migliori, 59, has held his current roles since 2013. Previously he was UnitedHealth’s executive vice president of health services.

7. Dr. David Torchiana President and CEO Partners HealthCare Dr. David Torchiana has served as president and CEO of Boston-based Partners HealthCare since early 2015, succeeding Dr. Gary Gottlieb. He took the reins at a tough time for Partners, which was undergoing intense criticism for an expansion plan that drew antitrust scrutiny.

The system was also suffering losses from its fledgling insurance business. Before taking the top job at Partners, Torchiana was chairman and CEO of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, a Partners subsidiary and the largest physician group practice in New England, with more than 2,000 participating doctors. Torchiana, a cardiothoracic surgeon, practiced at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, eventually becoming chief of cardiac surgery in 1998 before being named CEO of the medical group in 2003. Under Torchiana’s leadership, Massachusetts General began the Care Management Program, one of six demonstration projects established nationwide. The three-year demonstration allowed the hospital to design new strategies to improve the delivery of care to its most vulnerable patients, those with multiple health conditions and chronic disease.

8. Dr. Benjamin Chu Incoming president and CEO Memorial Hermann Dr. Benjamin Chu clearly likes the challenges of leading large healthcare systems. In early March, Chu, 64, was named incoming president and CEO at Memorial Hermann, one of the largest provider organizations in Houston. The move follows more than 10 years of service at Kaiser Permanente, most recently as group president for Kaiser’s Southern California and Georgia regions since 2014. He first joined Kaiser in early 2005 as regional president of Southern California and earned multiple promotions over the years, gaining responsibilities for larger markets as well

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as systemwide roles. Before coming to Kaiser, Chu served for three years as president of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp.- now NYC Health & Hospitals - the nation’s largest public hospital system. Chu also has received broader industry recognition, including serving as chairman of the American Hospital Association in 2013 and being elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.

9. Dr. David Feinberg President and CEO Geisinger Health System Dr. David Feinberg has served as president and CEO at Geisinger Health System just since May 2015, but he’s already making his mark at the integrated organization.

He’s tested a warranty program that offers a money-back guarantee to patients for some healthcare services if the system doesn’t meet their expectations. And he’s doubleddown on the system’s approach emphasizing the patient experience, telling Modern Healthcare last year that “we want to take patient-centeredness to the next level We want to make our transitions in care remarkably smooth.

We want patients to understand their bill.” Before joining Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger, Feinberg was CEO of the UCLA Health System in Los Angeles for four years. He is boardcertified in psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry and addiction psychiatry.

10. Dr. Jonathan Perlin President of clinical services and chief medical officer HCA Dr. Jonathan Perlin’s healthcare experience has been broad and varied, with a resume touching industry, government and advocacy. As president of clinical services and chief medical officer at Nashville-based HCA, Perlin, 55, brings strong research credentials to the publicly traded hospital chain, tackling issues ranging from MRSA prevention to reducing the number of early elective deliveries. While at HCA, he took a 2014 assignment as a special adviser to the Veterans Affairs Department at a time when the agency was facing allegations of mismanagement in its healthcare services, including long waits to receive care. “I think it’s fair to say the VA has lost the trust of the American public and of the veterans themselves,” Perlin said during his time there. “I’m working on not only reducing the waiting times for veterans, but also ensuring transparency in all aspects of performance.” Perlin last year served as chairman of the American Hospital Association and in October was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

New drug regulator confronts major challenges An opioid abuse epidemic fueled by prescription drugs.

Public outcry over high drug prices. A huge backlog of generic drug applications. Industry stakeholders pressing for faster approvals.

Former clinical researcher Dr. Robert Califf recently took over a U.S. Food and Drug Administration that is heading into an era of unprecedented challenges and change. The decisions he will make over the next few years - assuming he holds on to his job in the next administration - will redefine how drugs, medical devices, tobacco, food safety and controlled substances are regulated in the 21st century. President Barack Obama’s appointee got off to a rocky start.

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Though his nomination received bipartisan support, several Democratic lawmakers For that reason, Dr. Califf was selected to top the list of the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders. attempted to block his confirmation in an effort to get the FDA to take a more active role in trying to curb the widespread use of prescription opioids. These regulated products are the major driver behind a growing abuse epidemic responsible for killing well over half the 48,000 people who died from drug overdoses in 2013.

Some consumer groups challenged his connections to regulated industries while at the Duke University School of Medicine, where he served as a clinical researcher and adviser to numerous drug companies. They expressed doubts about how he will use his power to shape and eventually implement the 21st Century Cures Act, the House-passed overhaul of the rules for approving drugs and devices that is designed to get medical breakthroughs to market sooner.

To face these challenges and more, Califf inherited a shorthanded agency whose workforce was already struggling to keep up with the rapid changes taking place in the sciences of drug and device development. “If you want to actually get results from a 21st Century Cures, you have to get the most qualified people,” said Dr. David Gortler, a former FDA senior medical officer and drug-safety expert at the consultation site FormerFDA.com. “You have to poach those people from academia and you have to poach them from industry. Right now, they’re waiting for those people to knock on the door.”

In an interview with Modern Healthcare, Califf said strengthening the FDA workforce is his No. 1 priority. That requires attracting top talent to the agency, as well as retaining current employees by making the agency a more appealing place to work.

“The FDA must evaluate increasingly complex information to make good decisions on behalf of the public,” Califf said.

“So we need the best people, and that includes keeping the pipeline full, but also keeping people happy when they work here.”

Complaining about the adequacy of the FDA workforce is a constant refrain in Washington. But the job of protecting the public from unsafe or ineffective drugs and devices will only get tougher should Congress create a regulatory environment that generates less-definitive clinical trial data for new drug and device applications, and asks the agency to make its decisions more quickly. Among the proposed provisions is a change that would allow a drug to be approved with a “breakthrough therapy designation,” based on evidence from its early-stage testing. Another provision would allow manufacturers to get accelerated approval for a drug based on its effect on a surrogate endpoint - a lab test result like lowered cholesterol that predicts health benefits, but hasn’t yet been shown in clinical trials to improve patient outcomes.

Given the prospect of greater scientific uncertainty, critics wonder whether Califf will remain impartial and hold the line on safety and efficacy standards. They cite his long-standing financial ties with drug companies while directing the Duke Clinical Research Institute. “The attitudes he’s formed will lead him to make decisions that weigh in favor of industry

Robert Califf, Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration

instead of public health,” charged Dr. Michael Carome, director of the Health Research Group for the advocacy organization Public Citizen.

Critics of some of the reform measures proposed by Congress, including former FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg and her former top deputies, are more concerned about the agency’s ability to simply keep up with changed regulatory standards. The agency will need additional resources to train existing and new personnel to keep up with evolving regulatory science if it is going to play its traditional role of guiding the industry through the process of developing new drugs and devices without causing unexpected harm.

“It’s important for people to understand the FDA is not an obstacle to progress but really can help progress come about,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, an associate dean at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a former deputy FDA commissioner. “FDA is sometimes the agency people love to hate - but usually that comes out of a place of not understanding.”

Given the election year uncertainty, Califf will probably use the next six months to chart future plans. The one exception is an initiative on opioid abuse, which has become a major issue on the campaign trail. With the Obama administration ending in less than a year, experts say Califf will move cautiously on other issues, in hopes of maximizing his chances of being retained by the next administration - by whoever wins the election.

“I would be surprised if there were many groundbreaking positions that could be controversial politically,” said Marc Scheineson, a partner at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Alston and Bird, who previously served as associate commissioner for legislative affairs at the FDA.

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Bridgepoint to sell Oasis Dental Care to BUPA for £835m Bridgepoint, the European private equity group, is to sell Oasis Dental Care, the UK’s leading private dental services provider, to Bupa in a transaction valuing the business at £835million.

Acquired by Bridgepoint in 2013, Oasis is the leading branded operator of scale in its market with 380 practices and over 1,800 dentists, serving both the private and public sectors in equal measure. Under Bridgepoint ownership, Oasis: • completed 191 practice acquisitions as part of its consolidation strategy • entered the Republic of Ireland market • made significant investment in marketing and clinical infrastructure • offered longer and more convenient opening hours • introduced transparent online and practice pricing • ran the first national dental chain TV campaign which led to a 12% rise in appointments • tripled EBITDA during the period.

Bridgepoint partner and head of healthcare investment Jamie Wyatt said: “Oasis’ performance has been impressive. With its robust clinical platform and a commitment to quality and innovation, it has become the leading branded dental operator of scale in the UK. It will continue to lead future consolidation of the UK dentistry market as it extends its brand in the market.”

Justin Ash, Oasis CEO, said: “Our growth is accelerating and enthusiasm is building amongst dentists and customers.

We now believe that as part of the Bupa family that we can really develop the business further and that we can continue to transform the UK dentistry market. Bridgepoint has been very good at asking us what our world will look like and how we can make sure we’re winning in five years’ time. It’s been a very motivating way to run a business.”

“Above all, the success of Oasis is built on the talent and commitment of our clinicians and staff and the loyalty of our 2 million customers. We will continue to focus on their need every day” he concluded.

UK dentistry is a £7bn market with underlying long-term growth driven by structural factors including favourable demographics (such as ageing and a growing population), government policy trends (as dentistry becomes a higher profile public service) and the growth in cosmetic dentistry.

This is also reflected in the widening product offering from Oasis and in the strong private pay like-for-like growth in the business.

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Bankrolling the biotech gamechangers A venture capitalist firm dedicated to supporting industries transforming our world has just raised $616 million dollars for the next generation of biotech pioneers.

The fund from Third Rock Venture will back innovative biotech startups and build on the company’s “strategy of creating innovative healthcare companies to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients and their families”.

“We appreciate the ongoing support from all the investors participating in Fund IV. Over the years, we have continued to build a leading investor base that is supportive of our unique model – a hands-on, team-based approach of discovering, launching and building great companies based on bold ideas that meet at the intersection of science, strategy, business and medicine,” said Robert Tepper, M.D., partner at Third Rock.

“Our investment has always been shaped by the ongoing tremendous innovation in science and medicine. We aim to be both the preferred partner to scientific innovators from academia, and the preferred provider of innovative programs in important disease areas to address the bio-pharma industry’s pipeline needs.”

Leapfrog announces move into healthcare with the largest direct investment in East African retail pharmacy sector to date • Leapfrog announces first healthcare investment with a $22m majority stake in GoodLife Pharmacy – the largest direct investment in East African retail pharmacy sector to date • Michael Fernandes and Dr. Felix Olale, Partners, to serve as Global Co-Leaders for Health Investments • Investments will focus on increasing access, quality and affordability of consumer-centred healthcare services in Africa and Asia LeapFrog Investments, a leading specialist investor in emerging markets, announced its acquisition of a USD 22m majority stake in Kenya’s GoodLife Pharmacy, the largest direct investment in the East African retail pharmacy sector to date.

LeapFrog will now build on its financial services specialism by diversifying its private equity investments into a closely linked sector – healthcare. This will develop a platform that combines both payers and providers, thereby bringing consumers greater access to affordable, quality healthcare.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over 150m people fall into poverty annually due to catastrophic healthcare events and an inability to pay out-of-pocket for healthcare services.

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• Leapfrog announces first healthcare investment with a $22m majority stake in GoodLife Pharmacy – the largest direct investment in East African retail pharmacy sector to date • Michael Fernandes and Dr. Felix Olale, Partners, to serve as Global Co-Leaders for Health Investments

to deliver consumer-centric models,” said Michael Fernandes “By focusing on bridging the gap in products and services that are most relevant within emerging markets, we can bring health services closer to the consumer and improve patient outcomes, while making top returns for our investors.”

LeapFrog Investments, a leading specialist investor in emerging markets, announced its acquisition of a USD 22m majority stake in Kenya’s GoodLife Pharmacy, the largest direct investment in the East African retail pharmacy sector to date.

The Goodlife transaction was led by Dr. Olale who added that “The future of healthcare in emerging markets is about looking at a model that will endure for the 21st century.

At the center of this is a focus on consumer-centric and integrated healthcare. Goodlife’s business model delivers on this imperative. It is a pharmacy, a wellness outlet, a diagnostics centre, and in the future will also be a place where you can access clinicians through telemedicine. This is a model that markets like East Africa are ripe for, particularly as we see a dramatic increase in chronic lifestyle diseases.”

LeapFrog will now build on its financial services specialism by diversifying its private equity investments into a closely linked sector – healthcare. This will develop a platform that combines both payers and providers, thereby bringing consumers greater access to affordable, quality healthcare.

Goodlife provides trusted pharmaceuticals and wellness products to over 600,000 customers from 19 different convenient locations across East Africa. With LeapFrog’s investment, Goodlife plans to expand its footprint to more than 100 stores over the next five years.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over 150m people fall into poverty annually due to catastrophic healthcare events and an inability to pay out-of-pocket for healthcare services.

Co-founded by Dr. Josh Ruxin in Nairobi in 2013, the company has quickly grown to over 200 employees under the leadership of its CEO, Tony McNally. Ruxin, said, “LeapFrog is not just a provider of capital. We also appreciate their healthcare expertise, and look forward to partnering closely with them to accelerate growth. This investment will benefit the people that really matter – our customers.

• Investments will focus on increasing access, quality and affordability of consumer-centred healthcare services in Africa and Asia

LeapFrog’s approach is aimed at partnering with companies in Asia and Africa that are addressing this challenge. The Goodlife investment follows LeapFrog’s 2014 investment of $18.7m in leading Kenyan health insurer Resolution Insurance.

Dr. Felix Olale and Michael Fernandes, Partners, will serve as Global Co-Leads for health investments. They will be supported by a team of eight specialists with deep healthcare investment expertise, and experience of African and Asian markets. Leapfrog’s wider global network will support origination and execution.

“Low health insurance penetration, coupled with an increase in utilisation of services has an enormous impact on the ability of consumers to access and afford quality health care.

By moving into health, we are taking a unique approach and addressing the challenge from both sides – investing in both health insurance companies and health service providers,” said Dr. Olale.

A leading healthcare expert in emerging markets, Dr. Felix Olale was previously the Chairman of the Excelsior Group, a US-Kenyan-based advisor and investor in healthcare, finance and technology companies in Africa. Prior to that he was an Associate Partner with McKinsey & Company in New York.

Michael Fernandes, Global Co-Lead responsible for Asia, has an extensive track record in health investments. He previously served as Country Head for India for Khazanah Nasional Berhad, leading a global healthcare team responsible for over $7bn of investments across the platform. Michael also served on the Boards of the Indian-based Infrastructure Development Finance Company and Apollo Hospitals, the leading healthcare provider in India. “Our focus is on investing in companies that are re-thinking traditional approaches to solving health problems by finding new ways

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Healthcare booking platform, Doctify, closes seven-figure round led by Amadeus Capital Partners Doctify, a fast-growing healthcare technology platform that allows patients to search for specialist doctors and book appointments simply online has closed a seven-figure Series A round led by global technology investor, Amadeus Capital Partners.

Founded in 2015, Doctify is a user-friendly platform that allows patients to search, compare reviews and prices, and book appointments with medical specialists across the UK. The company focuses on the rapidly-expanding private healthcare market and currently puts patients in touch with doctors qualified in 47 different specialisms, including cardiology, oncology and paediatrics, as well as dentistry and dermatology.

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Doctify chief executive officer Oliver Thomas commented, “We are excited to announce our partnership with Amadeus Capital Partners and this round of growth funding.

Amadeus’s investment will enable Doctify to improve the platform, scale-up UK operations and realise our aim of becoming the largest online medical appointments booking service.” Doctify co-founder Stephanie Eltz added, “Amadeus has significant experience and resources in the digital healthcare sector in the UK and beyond, which we will put to good use as Doctify develops plans to access international markets next year.”

“Since its launch last year, Doctify has quickly become the most popular patient platform for booking specialist medical appointments in the UK. With healthcare systems the world over still principally paper-based and appointments made over the phone, Doctify is at the forefront of digitising patient bookings and is well-positioned to become both the market leader in the UK and an established player in Europe,” said Pierre Socha, Principal, Amadeus Capital Partners.

Doctify is free to patients with clinicians paying a monthly fee to list on the platform. The system helps specialists re-fill appointments that have been cancelled at short notice and manage their schedules better. There are an estimated 25,000-30,000 consultant doctors who operate within the private sector, as well as the publicly-funded National Health Service, in the UK. In addition, there are some 35,000 dentists, as well as tens of thousands of allied health professionals including chiropodists and physiotherapists.

Cavendish advises SG Court Pharmacy Group on its acquisition by Paydens Ltd to create a leading pharmacy chain in the South-East of England Transaction showcases the strength of Cavendish’s Healthcare Group Cavendish Corporate Finance, the UK’s leading sell-side mid-market M&A firm, has advised the shareholders of the SG Court Pharmacy Group (SG Court), a privately owned chain of pharmacies located in the South East of England, on its acquisition by Paydens Ltd (Paydens). Also located in the South East, Paydens is a leading, independently owned pharmacy group that also includes a pharmaceutical

wholesaler and a small care home group within its portfolio.

Established in 2004, SG Court has grown strategically through acquisition, and now runs a chain of 21 pharmacies in key locations predominately across Kent, Sussex and Surrey. SG Court has a highly attractive pharmacy footprint, and dispenses approximately 2.7m prescription items each year, significantly higher than average script levels and operates modern premises from strategic locations, with an established and loyal customer base. The SG Court pharmacies will continue to provide comprehensive healthcare services to the communities they serve, supported

by Paydens’ wider geographical reach and distribution channels across the region.

Growing competition among pharmacy groups, combined with recently announced Government funding cuts, has encouraged recent consolidation amongst pharmacy groups. The combined business will have a total network of 129 pharmacies, enabling further economies of scale and allowing distribution to be centrally controlled in one geographical location.

Cavendish Corporate Finance, which advised the shareholders of the SG Court Group, has considerable experience in advising pharmaceutical and healthcare businesses. Recent high profile transactions include advising on the sale of Kent Pharmaceuticals to DCC plc and the sale of off-patent pharmaceuticals provider DB Ashbourne Ltd to Ethypharm.

Michael Jewell, partner at Cavendish Corporate Finance, which advised SG Court on the transaction commented: “We are delighted to have advised the shareholders of SG Court and to have found in Paydens the right buyer to continue to develop the network and continue its reputation for customer focused service. This acquisition will see SG Court and Paydens unlock significant synergies from their complementary geographical reach, improve pharmacy efficiency and deliver high quality patient services.

SG Court and Paydens are both recognized names in the pharmacy industry and the acquisition by Paydens presents an exciting opportunity for continued growth.

The competitive landscape of pharmacies has changed over the past decade, and we believe that further cuts to NHS funding will result in further consolidation in the industry.”

Dennis Pay, Managing Director, Paydens Pharmacy Group, commented: “We are very pleased to have found such a complementary match in SG Court, a company we have long admired. The firm operates a successful chain of pharmacies and has a strategic geographical presence in the South East that complements our own. SG Court has an impressive track record and has successfully grown the business against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment and Government funding pressures on community pharmacies.

We look forward to welcoming SG Court to the Paydens family and to integrating its business operations into our growing network of pharmacies.”

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Health Axis Europe launches Funding Initiative

Dr. Christian Tidona (right) with the founders of the start-up company Cogitars during the HAE Summer Camp

Cambridge’s life sciences collaboration with Leuven and Heidelberg - Health Axis Europe (HAE) - has opened up a route to crucial new funding.

mid-October 2011, depending on the topic). Anyone who wants to get involved should act now in order to meet those deadlines.

HAE has launched the “Access to EU funding” initiative. It is aimed at making it easy for companies to access FP7 and IMI European Union funding for research & development - by providing expert advice as well as access to a pool of businesses and researchers looking for partners to build or join consortia.

There are a number of possible options open to Cambridge companies. They can participate in a consortium led by either Heidelberg or Leuven - these clusters are already well advanced in building their consortia - or they can initiate the formation of a consortium and, through HAE, access help to identify partners.

The project was launched at a workshop at St John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge UK. It was hosted by Alex Smeets (pictured left) of Cambridge Funding Solutions and Cambridge healthcare ambassador Alan Barrell with support from Jeanette Walker of lets cell it.com

The aim of the collaboration is to make it easier for participating companies and research organisations to do business with one another, identify research partners and share resources.

Christian Tidona, CEO of the Heidelberg cluster organisation BioRN, and a former EU grant assessor with an in-depth knowledge of these grants, demonstrated a bespoke on-line system that makes it easy for companies to register their interest in specific calls and identify partners.

Smeets explained: “These EU funding calls require participants from at least three EU Member States, so through the HAE initiative we can offer immediate access to a range of potential partners in Germany and Belgium.

“Given the number of people we’ve met over the years who have struggled with the administrative burden of applying for and administering EU grants, we are happy to do whatever we can to facilitate participation by Cambridgebased companies and research organisations in this initiative.

“Where possible, we will engage with the East of England Understanding Finance for Business programme managed

by St John’s Innovation Centre in order to make support available free of charge.”

The deadlines for submission of proposals are: FP7-HEALTH (September 27, 2011); IMI (between late September and

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Alex Smeets is happy to field enquiries whether companies want to bid for funding through HAE or via Understanding Finance for Business. He is also the contact if companies want to know what else HAE is planning.

Professor Alan Barrell said: “We see the Axis as being able to organise a day when investors meet the cream of our new, early stage companies. We intend to enhance the connections between entrepreneurs and funders Europewide to intensify the payback from medical innovation.

“By mapping and matching the crucial areas of medical science resident in our three centres of excellence we can bring to market more significant life saving medicines and devices than could possibly be made available without the synergy and symbiotic nature of three of the world’s great centres of clinical excellent joining forces,” he said.

Jeanette Walker commented: “The Health Axis Europe Initiative is a great way for us to help raise the profile of the Campus in Europe and beyond. “The biomedical research in the clusters in Leuven and Heidelberg is very synergistic with that taking place on the Campus - especially in the field of personalised medicine, regenerative medicine and connected health.”

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Antitrust Suits Aim to Block Two Health Care Mergers The Obama administration announced it would seek to block two giant health care mergers, citing concerns that the deals could drive up health care premiums, undermine innovation and reduce competition. The Justice Department filed lawsuits challenging Anthem’s $48 billion acquisition of Cigna and Aetna’s $37 billion takeover of Humana, threatening to put an abrupt stop to the insurance industry’s rapid consolidation.

vital and healthy through continuous innovation,” Rick Pollack, the association’s CEO, said in a statement.

Eleven states and the District of Columbia joined the attempt to block the Anthem deal, which would combine the nation’s second- and fourth-largest insurers. Eight states and D.C. joined the suit to block the Aetna deal, which would combine the third and fifth largest. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told reporters the mergers would “drastically” curb competition in the insurance industry, including by reducing the number of options for people who buy insurance on public exchanges.

Waging a fight against the insurance deals reflects another mark left by the Obama administration on the contours of an industry already dramatically reshaped by the president’s sweeping health care overhaul.

“If these mergers were to take place, the competition among these insurers that has pushed them to provide lower premiums, higher-quality care and better benefits would be eliminated,” Lynch said.

In a show of unity, Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna and Louisville-based Humana immediately issued a joint statement vowing to “vigorously” contest the government’s suit, saying their deal would improve the quality of care and lower costs while increasing insurance options for many Medicare patients. The Anthem-Cigna alliance appears to be on shakier ground. Cigna said in a statement that the deal would no longer close in 2016 “and the earliest it could close is 2017, if at all,” adding that it is “currently evaluating its options.”

Indianapolis-based Anthem called the challenge an “unfortunate and misguided step backwards for access to affordable health care for America” and pledged to fight the suit in court, though it signaled an openness to a settlement, which could involve divestitures.

Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation at the University of Michigan, said that although the deals would likely reduce prices paid by insurers to health care providers, patients wouldn’t necessarily see lower bills.

“That doesn’t always get passed on to consumers,” UdowPhillips said in an interview, adding “it will be challenging for them to succeed in court.”

A federal judge will decide whether the mergers are anticompetitive. Although there is no guarantee the Justice Department will prevail, corporations often choose to give up instead of waging an uncertain, lengthy and costly fight against the government. The American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association hailed the suit as critical to preserving accessible health care and fostering innovation among insurers.

“Fewer coverage options for consumers also would undermine the hospital field’s goal of keeping communities

The suits mark the latest in a series of steps taken by the Justice Department’s antitrust division to block corporate consolidation. The division prevented oilfield services giant Halliburton’s acquisition of Baker Hughes and blocked retail and supplies company Staples’ purchase of Office Depot.

Udow-Phillips, director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation, said there’s a risk of less competition in the Obamacare exchanges if the deals are approved.

“More health plans are questioning whether they’re going to stay in the exchange market, and the government is very concerned because that individual market only works when there’s enough competition,” she said.

Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Bill Baer, a former antitrust chief, said the health care mergers are unnecessary.

“These insurance companies are already some of the largest, most sophisticated companies in the country,” he told reporters. “They are thriving as independent firms, they do not need these deals to survive and consumers deserve to benefit from their continued competition.”

Still, insurers have been aggressively pursuing consolidation sparked by the onset of Obamacare, which insurers have blamed for increasing regulatory costs.

If the deals collapse, the insurers “may take a break from mergers and acquisitions but will resume with smaller-scale transactions in the future,” S&P Global Healthcare analysts said in a research note.

The government said a merger of Anthem and Cigna would reduce head-to-head competition in at least 35 major metropolitan regions and give the combined company too much bargaining leverage over health care providers such as hospitals and doctors.

The Aetna-Humana deal would combine two of the four largest providers of Medicare Advantage plans, threatening to drive up costs for certain seniors, and would undermine competition in public exchanges in Florida, Georgia and Missouri, the government said.

A combination of the two companies would create the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, Udow-Phillips said.

Anthem and Cigna collectively serve 54 million people with combined 2015 revenue of more than $117 billion. Aetna and Human collectively serve 37 million people with $114 billion in revenue.

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MARKABLES Global Top 20 Brands 2015 MARKABLES released its annual listing of the most expensive brands that changed hands in M&A during 2015. Here are the highlights:

online in April last year. Now, brands are seemingly back in the focus of M&A investors, and 2015 could mark a turning point.

• Top 2 most expensive brand acquisitions of all times, with Kraft Foods (by Heinz) and Newport (by Reynolds American)

2015 was a remarkable year for acquired brands in all aspects. The average brand value of the Top20 2015 reached $ 5,611 million, more than 2.5 times more than last year.

Moreover, the portion of brand value within enterprise value reached 41% for the Top20 brands. Both figures mark a new record high since we started the Top20.

• Average value of the Top20 brands increased to $ 5.6bn, up from $ 2.1bn in 2014.

• Top20 brands account for 41% of the value of the enterprises to which they belong, up from 34% last year.

• 2016 could be an even better year for brands in M&A, with some landmark acquisitions in the books (SABMiller, Time Warner, LinkedIn, Monsanto, Chubb, Starwood Hotels, and other).

It goes without saying that brands create value. Strong brands help customers to find orientation and satisfaction.

Strong brands also make customers pay higher prices and stay loyal, thus creating financial value for the brand owner.

Sometimes such brand value can be even huge, accounting for large parts of the total value of the related business.

Numerous brand value rankings and league tables are published ever year, most notably by firms like Interbrand, Millward Brown and Brand Finance. Brands like Apple, Google and Microsoft – among others - fight for the top spot on the podium. All brand values on these rankings have one thing in common: they are no more than personal opinions expressed by the analysts of the issuing firms. None of these brands is ever sold or acquired, and the purported values remain untested by a market transaction. The MARKABLES Top20 is different. It is the only listing where brand values are real values paid for brands in a transaction.

Undoubtedly, the amount an acquirer or investor is willing to pay for a brand best describes its real value. Looking at real transactions of brands is therefore more insightful for the understanding of brand value and its drivers. Since 2010 MARKABLES® releases the annual Top20 most expensive brands that changed hands, according to the financial statements of all public companies worldwide. With these listings, MARKABLES® provides most meaningful insights into brand valuation parameters, multiples and value drivers.

Here come the MARKABLES® Global Top20 Brands for 2015.

I. Value Trends 2015 was a good year for brands, after a long-term downward trend of decreasing importance of brands in corporate M&A reported by Binder and Hanssens in HBR

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The list of the most expensive brands ever acquired (Top10 Ever) was quite flat after the financial crisis in 2008.

Between 2009 and 2014, only three transactions made it on that list. Now, the two largest brand acquisitions in 2015 reached the first and second place of the most expensive brands ever acquired - Kraft Foods by Heinz, and Newport/ Lorillard by American Reynolds (see exhibit 2), both topping longtime frontrunner Gillette in 2005. Moreover, two more acquisitions in 2015 made it in the Top20 Ever – Novartis’ OTC consumer business by GSK, and a US cigarette portfolio (Winston, Salem, and others) by Imperial Tobacco.

A detailed list of the Top20 2015 brands is set out further below in appendices A (data) and B (business descriptions).

Kraft Foods with its portfolio of brands (Kraft, Philadelphia, Oscar Mayer and others) reported brand value of $41.3 billion, representing not only best in class of 2015, but of all times, and surpassing the acquisition of Gillette by Procter & Gamble in 2005 by far. The second place in 2015 goes to the Lorillard brands acquired by Reynolds American (Newport, Kent, True, Maverick, Old Gold, blu eCigs) with $27.2 billion. Third place finisher was Novartis’ OTC brand portfolio (including Voltaren, Excedrin, Otrivin, Theraflu, among others) acquired by GlaxoSmithKlein and valued at $9.2 billion.

Exhibit 3 illustrates how the Top20 2015 is positioned in a matrix of brand margin (premium) and brand importance (portion of brand in enterprise value). In contrast to previous years, all four top brands are positioned at the top right of the matrix. In other words – the 2015 brand acquisitions stand for premium brand-centric strategies; unlike in 2014, mass brands at the low left of the matrix played a minor role only.

The 2015 Top20 brands account for an average portion of 41.3% of the total value of the enterprise to which they belong. A remarkable increase from 33.8% in the last year (see exhibit 1). In other words, as much as 41.3% of the future profit of these enterprises is expected to come from their brands. Novartis OTC brands are best in class this

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year with brands accounting for 96% of enterprise value.

Surprisingly, the Newport brand of premium cigarettes holds second place with 95%; in spite – or just because – of the advertising ban on tobacco products and a decreasing percapita consumption, the only source of future profits of this business is its brand.

Newport Another important ratio is the brand profit margin or brand premium on revenues. The average brand premium of the Top20 brands was 11.75% in 2015. This means that an average profit margin of 11.75% of revenues is directly attributable to the brand. This figure is down from 13% in 2014. In 2015, the highest brand premium was - again found to be 35% for Newport premium cigarettes.

II. Sector Trends Valuable and important brands typically operate in stable and relatively mature environments. They exist since long, and they have achieved leading market positions. Looking at the businesses of the Top20 brands, the overall rationale of the acquisitions is rather conservative which is in the nature of their business. The large majority of the Top20 brands are rather “old school”. More than half of the acquisitions (12) were made primarily for synergies and consolidation; less than half (8) are growth stories.

Like in the previous years, consumer staples are the most important sector with five brands (Kraft, Newport, Winston, Big Heart Pet Brands and Iglo). Interestingly, these five brands have a particular strong weight with positions between numbers one and ten. Many of these brands are more regional than global. Often, successful brand value concepts are found in packaged foods, beverages, tobacco and personal care products.

Digital business models continue to play a minor role in brand transactions. This year, no more than three brands (down from five last year) represent the digital era. Out of the three, two are internet based brands (online travel booking site Qunar.com and online retailer zulily.com), and one is digital television (DirecTV). No telecom brand made it on the 2015 listing; transactions with telecoms focused more on infrastructure and customer assets than on brands, which are often replaced after acquisitions.

Strong growth stories can be found in the health care and life science sector with four brands in the Top20. The OTC brand portfolios of Novartis and Omega Pharma achieved positions three and seven respectively. Moreover, SigmaAldrich (laboratory biochemicals) and Allergan (Rx drugs including Botox®) made it in the Top20.

Brick and mortar retailers faced a backdrop, with only two entries in 2015 (down from four in 2014). Discount retailer Family Dollar placed sixth, Safeway supermarkets eleventh.

Even including the one internet retailer (Zulily, see above)), 2015 was a particularly flat year for investments in retail brands.

The consumer services sector is represented this year with two hospitality brands (Center Parcs UK and Cara’s full service restaurants in Canada), down from three last year.

Like in 2014, luxury and fashion brands have been flat,

illustrating both structural problems of the sector and a lack of large brands for sale. At least, one fashion brand made it on the list in 2015 (Ann Inc. with Ann Taylor and Loft).

Before 2014, an average of three brands from luxury and fashion made their yearly appearance in the Top20.

And finally, the concept of brand value is not limited to consumer brands alone; an increasing number of B2B businesses are acquired (in parts) for the value of their brand names. In 2015, four brands belong to the B2B sector (Pall filtration solutions, Sigma-Aldrich laboratory chemicals, Sikorsky aircrafts and Capital Safety fall protection products).

III. Regional Trends If – after all – the various developments in 2015 mean a rebound of the importance of brands in M&A, this is fully attributable to the US. Fourteen of the 20 most valuable brands have their headquarters (and most of their business) in the United States. Even more, the two landmark acquisitions of Kraft and Newport are both US based.

Similarly, on the side of the acquirers thirteen out of twenty have their headquarters in the US (including Actavis which has its operative headquarters in the US). Other countries play only minor roles in that game, including China, which is often said to buy up Western brands on a large scale.

IV. Outlook Is 2015 a nine days’ wonder, or a sustainable turnaround?

Only time will tell, and it is too early to resume the 2016-reporting season. However, there are strong signs for a lasting recovery. Some of the large acquisitions completed during 2016 convey an idea of the Top20 for 2016. In terms of brand value size and importance, it could look similar to 2015, if not better. Some important 2016 acquisitions of branded businesses include SABMiller, TimeWarner, Monsanto, Linkedin, Chubb Insurance, Starwood Hotels or St. Jude Medical, and we are looking forward to seeing their final brand valuations reported in the financial statements.

Depending on the final structuring of the deal in compliance with regulators’ requests, the beer brand port- folio acquires with SABMiller could even top the all-time high of Kraft Foods.

Epilogue The figures and ratios describing the 20 top brands and their value contribution are impressive indeed. However, it must be clear that the Top20 represent the very top of a huge pyramid of brands – the 20 most expensive brands out of many thousands that are valued and reported in transactions every year. So, what is the nature of the brands that come further down and at the bottom of the pyramid? As for the 8,800 brands listed in MARKABLES® from real transactions, they account on average for 13.5% of enterprise value and generate a brand premium of 3.3% of revenues. Thus, from a look at the entire pyramid the conclusion is that brands are often valuable assets of an enterprise but there can be other important assets like customer relations or technology.

Trademark Comparables AG Trademark Comparables AG is a privately held, Swiss based company engaged in the valuation and capitalization of IP, notably brands and customer relations.

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Trademark Comparables AG develops valuation methods and provides input data for valuation algorithms to appraisers, auditors and investors all over the world. Trademark Comparables AG operates MARKA- BLES®, the leading and unique source for trademark values worldwide. MARKABLES® contains the results of over 8,800 reported and audited trademark valuations resulting from acquisitions and transactions.

Appendix A.

MARKABLES® Global Top20 Brands 2015

MARKABLES 2015 BRAND RANKING THE 20 MOST VALUABLE BRANDS THAT CHANGED HANDS IN 2015 #

Brand

Country Sector

Brand Value

in USD mn

1.

Kraft Foods

2.

US

Brand Value

Brand Premium

Acquiror

Country

in % of implied brand enterprise royalty rate value in % of revenues

Food

46,772

75.9%

25%

Heinz

US

Newport/Lorillard US

Tobacco

27,193

94.8%

35%

Reynolds American

US

3.

Novartis OTC brand portfolio

OTC drugs

9,177

95.8%

30% GlaxoSmithKline

GB

4.

Lorillard cigarette US brand portfolio

Tobacco

6,196

87.9%

15%

Imperial Tobacco

GB

5.

DirecTV

US

Digital television

4,287

6.8%

1.75%

AT&T

US

6.

Family Dollar Stores

US

Discount retail

3,100

33.3%

3%

Dollar Tree

US

7.

Omega OTC brand portfolio

NL

OTC drugs

2,427

54.4%

15%

Perrigo

US

8.

Big Heart Pet Brands

US

Pet food

1,720

29.2%

8%

J.M.Smucker

US

CH

Appendix A.

9. #

MARKABLES® Global Top20 Brands 2015

Pall

US Filtration Country Sector

10.

Iglo Foods

GB

Food

11. © MARKABLES

Safeway

US

Grocery retailer

1,458

15.7%

0.5%

Albertsons

5 11

12.

Qunar

China

Online travel booking

1,432

18.5%

20%

Ctrip.com

China

13.

Center Parks

UK

Holiday parks

1,099

27.3%

20%

Brookfield

Canada

14.

Sigma-Aldrich

US

Biochemicals

1,069

7.2%

7%

15.

Zulily

US

e-commerce

870

45.5%

7%

16.

Sikorsky

US

Aircrafts

816

9.0%

17.

Ann Taylor

US

Fashion

815

4.0%

3%

Ascena Retail

US

18.

Allergan

US

Rx drugs

690

9.7%%

3.5%

Actavis

Ireland

548

93.4%

4%

Fairfax

Canada

546

21.9%

12%

3M

US

5,661

41.3%

11.75%

Brand

19.

Cara

Canada

Full service restaurants

20.

Capital Safety

US

Safety equipment

Average Top20 2015

© MARKABLES

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1,512 Brand Value

in USD mn

1,484

10.8% Brand Value

6% Brand Premium

in % of implied brand 53.4% 7.5% enterprise royalty rate value in % of revenues

Danaher Acquiror

US Country

Nomad Foods

Virgin Islands

US

Merck Germany Liberty Interactive

US

1.5% Lockheed Martin

US

6 11

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To coinside with this months healthcare focus, Gamechangers takes a closer look at the healthcare companies that topped the rankings…

Novartis OTC

the fifth largest player within the European OTC healthcare market and the largest or second largest player in four individual European markets. Omega owns many leading cough & cold, skincare, pain relief, weight management, and gastrointestinal treatment brands, among its portfolio of roughly 2,000 products. Omega Pharma markets health and personal care products to which the end-consumer has access without a medical prescription (Over-The-Counter/ OTC).

Omega Pharma owns about 2,000 brands that are supported by approximately 10,000 brand registrations across the regions where it operates. The Company profiles itself as the pharmacist champion thanks to its extensive network to pharmacists and its impressive track record since its inception in 1987. On a total of approximately 2,500 employees, there are about 1000 sales representatives who visit approximately 5 to 10 pharmacists a day, thus ensuring strong in-store visibility of the Omega Pharma brands.

The Novartis OTC Business comprises the OTC medicines business carried on by Novartis’s OTC division; including OTC pipeline products and its related manufacturing network. The Novartis OTC Business is a leader in offering products designed for self-care and prevention of common medical conditions and ailments to enhance people’s overall health and well being. The Novartis Group in more than 50 countries conducts it. The Novartis OTC portfolio has many well-known, widely recommended brands such as Voltaren, Excedrin, Otrivin, and Theraflu. Novartis OTC covers the areas of pain management (Voltaren, Excedrin), respiratory health (Otrivin, Theraflu), smoking cessation (Nicotinell), gastro intestinal (Benefiber, Maalox, Gas-X, Prevacid), nutrition (Calcium Sandoz), and skin health (Lamisil, Fenistil). The business operates on a global basis.

Novartis focuses on a group of strategic global brands in leading product categories that include treatments for cough/cold/respiratory ailments and pain relief, as well as products for digestive health, dermatology, and smoking cessation. The Novartis OTC Business operates in most major markets (including the US, Europe and emerging markets) and the business distributes its products through various channels such as pharmacies, food, and drug and mass retail outlets. The focus of research and development activities is primarily on pain relief and cough/cold/respiratory treatments, and the development of line extensions to leverage brand equities is of high importance.

Omega Pharma

Omega Pharma NV, headquartered in Belgium, generated approximately $1.6 billion of revenue during the twelve it

Leading brands include Bodysol/Galenco, ACO and Lactacyd (cosmetics), Dermalex (repair), Septivon, and Wartner (skin care), Bittner/Aflubin, Prevalin/Beconase, Physiomer/Libenar and Phytosun (cough and cold), Paranix and Jungle Formula (anti-parasites), Davitamon/Etixx, Biover/Abtei and Granufink/ Bional (vitamins, minerals and supplements).

Sigma-Aldrich

Sigma-Aldrich, a leading Life Science and Technology company focused on enhancing human health and safety, manufactures and distributes 250,000 chemicals, biochemical, kits and other essential products to more than 1.4 million customers globally in research and applied labs as well as in industrial and commercial markets. With three distinct business units - Research, Applied and SAFC Commercial - Sigma-Aldrich is committed to enabling science to improve the quality of life.

The Company operates in 37 countries, has approximately 9,700 employees worldwide and had sales of $2.79 billion in 2014. Sigma Aldrich’s significant trademarks are the brand names: Sigma-Aldrich, Sigma, Aldrich, Fluka, Riedel-de Haën, Supelco, SAFC, SAFC Biosciences, SAFC Hitech, Genosys, Proligo, Pharmorphix, Cerilliant, Vetec, BioReliance and Cell Marque.

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Allergan

Allergan is a multi-specialty health care company focused on developing and commercializing innovative pharmaceuticals, biologics, medical devices and over-the-counter products for the ophthalmic, neurological, medical aesthetics, medical dermatology, breast aesthetics, urological and other specialty markets in more than 100 countries around the world.

The specialty pharmaceuticals segment produces a broad range of pharmaceutical products, including: ophthalmic products for dry eye, glaucoma, inflammation, infection, allergy and retinal disease; Botox® for certain therapeutic and aesthetic indications; skin care products for acne, psoriasis, eyelash growth and other prescription and over-the-counter skin care products; and urologics products.

The medical devices segment produces a broad range of medical devices, including: breast implants for augmentation, revision and reconstructive surgery and tissue expanders and facial aesthetics products. Revenues break down into eye care pharmaceuticals (46%), Botox and neuromodulators (31%), skin care (7%), breast aesthetics (7%) and facial aesthetics (9%). Products are sold directly through own sales subsidiaries in approximately 40 countries and, supplemented by independent distributors, in over 100 countries worldwide.

US accounts for 63%, international for 37% of revenues.

Marketed products include – among others - Restasis®, Refresh® and OptiveTM, Lumigan®, GanfortTM, Alphagan®, Combigan®, Acuvail®, Acular®, Zymaxid®, Lastacaft®, Elestat®, Ozurdex®, Botox®, Aczone®, Tazorac®, Latisse®, Vaniqa®, SkinMedica®, Natrelle®, Inspira®, BRSTTM and CUITM, Seri®, Juvéderm®.

Visualising 30 Years Of Acquisitions: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook The data wiz’s over at Geckoboard decided to map the acquisitions of the big five tech companies in the last 30 years.

Explore their visualisation to see how the top tech giants, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook have shaped their products and services with acquisitions, which CEO’s have made their mark and what industries saw the greatest activity. The below infographics are filtered by the takeovers by acquirer, cost, year, CEO or industry to find out which of these billion dollar companies spend, what emerging trends they are investing in and which CEO’s have been key in determining their success. Tech giants spent at least $128.5 billion on acquisitions, half of which was spent in the last three years. Microsoft spent nearly as much on acquisitions, as other tech giants combined ($62 billion vs. $66 billion). The Big Five have made a total of 617 acquisitions to date, one-third of those acquisitions made by Google who are by far the most active acquirer, averaging 12 acquisitions per year- that’s at least one every month.

Apple has been the quietest, acquiring an average of 2 companies a year. 2014 was the most prolific year in terms of acquisitions and saw 68 companies acquired by the tech giants and was also a year when Apple, Facebook, and Amazon made their biggest acquisitions (Beats, Whatsapp, Twitch). 2016 has been dominated by Microsoft’s acquisition

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of LinkedIn but media has been the most popular industry for acquisitions, as Apple bought Carpool Karaoke and both Google and Microsoft acquired media streaming platforms.

Google’s newly appointed CEO Sundar Pichai snapped up 13 companies this year already, while Microsoft’s Satya Nadella bought 8.

It’s no wonder they dominate the AI sector, 1 in 10 of Google’s acquisitions are Artificial Intelligence companies, but the last 5 out of 10 acquisitions made by Apple have been in AI with rumours of their own AI-for-home device growing stronger.

Interestingly, Apple made the most acquisitions in hardware than any other tech giant, mostly buying up semiconductor companies. Google’s attempt as social networking hasn’t been for the want of trying, buying 18 social networking companies, more than any other tech giant. Most of Google’s acquisitions are in mobile (29, or 1 in 5), as its Android OS grew to rival Apple’s and the company now makes top end smartphones.

A fast growing battleground will be AR / VR and Facebook is showing the greatest intent here with 4 acquisitions including their second biggest acquisition when buying Oculus for $2bn. Google and Apple also seem to be following Facebook into this battle with 2 acquisitions each.

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Whilst Microsoft’s Xbox means they’ve been most active in gaming with 13 acquisitions, Amazon’s activity with 4 acquisitions (3 since 2014) including their biggest ever acquisition of Twitch for $970 million suggests they see a future in this field. Most aggressive of the tech tycoons is Larry Page, averaging a whopping 21 acquisitions a year in his 2nd term as Google’s CEO between 2011 and 2015.

Larry page acquired 35 companies in 2014 – that’s nearly 3 acquisitions a month. Satya Nadella is the 2nd most active CEO, averaging 12 acquisitions per year since he has been put in charge of Microsoft – that’s 1 acquisition per month!

Steve Jobs, known for his view of acquisitions as failures to innovate, acquired companies reluctantly at a rate of 3 a year.

Explore the visualisation to see how tech giants shaped their products and services with acquisitions, what industries saw the greatest activity, and how the rate of acquisitions has changed over time.: https://goo.gl/NQr92W

What’s on the horizon in knowledge management?

The future of knowledge management solutions is evolving, but what is certain is that the proliferation of content, information, data, and more knowledge to be collected, deciphered, stored, and referenced anew will not wane.

That means the outlook for knowledge management tools as the answer for best-practice, streamlined workflow and productivity is positive. To help understand the future Thomson Reuters spoke with a number of leaders in the knowledge management sector in law firms across the country, in the below article, they outline how they have learned a variety of new thoughts and techniques on how knowledge management tools are incorporated into the fabric of the law firm, and the challenges and opportunities each firm faces as they strive for greater utilization to ensure efficiency that supports the practice of litigation and transactional law.

As we look ahead to what may come, here are some thoughts from their panel of experts in research services, business intelligence, knowledge management, and information services. Marlene Gebauer, Director of Knowledge Solutions at Greenberg Traurig, LLP in Miami, suggests that the future of knowledge management will include a hybrid, multidisciplinary model. This will consist of technology professionals and information professionals taking spots with project managers and legal professionals to create a blend between groups. “Law firm librarians are perfect examples of how professionals need to morph and stay ahead of changes technology brings,” said Gebauer.

“Skill and competency will be the next indicators of accountability versus titles in the law firm. Librarians have a vast skill toolbox at their disposal and if they embrace the opportunities change offers, they can continue to develop their role in the knowledge management space.” Librarians have had to adjust with the times and adopt new skills or be a dying one-trick pony. With the additional competency, the new knowledge services professionals can partner with other teams and be more effective at offering a breadth of services in problem-solving roles.

“Previously, a member of my team migrated over to be a SharePoint® developer and we have a solid relationship with her and her new department,” added Gebauer. “It makes workflow more streamlined and people are quickly realizing it’s no longer about siloing work, but whether we’re all working together to get the job done.” There’s still more on the horizon for the changing face of knowledge management and the professionals who are its biggest champions. Because the industry is in constant flux, those who recognize and embrace looming changes in job descriptions, roles, titles, and opportunities to build on success will stay ahead of the curve.

A conference by Ark Group in October 2015 at New York Law School called “Knowledge Management in the Legal Profession” cited 50 new registrants who had not previously attended. More such topics are expected on the horizon as demand throughout the industry creates the need for education and best practices. To earn higher utilization of knowledge management solutions throughout the firm, some are looking to practice support lawyers or knowledge management attorneys as the ticket for more word-of-mouth marketing of West km®, for example.

“We recently hired our first-ever professional support lawyer in the U.S. who is embedded in a practice group,” said Julie Bozzell, Chief Research and Knowledge Officer of Hogan Lovells, LLP in Washington, D.C. “We believe this could be the missing component to help push more users to adopt knowledge management practices for greater and enhanced productivity.”

Dan Pelletier, Director of Legal Information Services of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, New York, wants to see more librarians and knowledge services professionals in a centralized library. He suggests there may be pushback on staffing from the corner office as larger libraries are not the norm. Kimberly Stein, National Manager, Knowledge Management Solutions of Thomson Reuters, sums it up nicely, “The Knowledge Management Services department is the heart of a law firm. It is where the pulse of enterprise research resides and where information emanates. We could not partner with law firms without this critical partnership from professionals who truly understand the underbelly of large law firms from information services and enterprise software to the practice and back office of law. Respectfully, we hold the formerly titled librarian in the highest regard, and they are the champions and advocates for firms’ software solutions for research, efficiency, and productivity.”

One thing is certain; the future of knowledge management resides squarely with what’s approaching on the horizon.

The legal industry will soon feel the effects of artificial intelligence, big data, pricing and profitability, cognitive learning, and machine automation. To ensure competitive positioning, the need for technology adoption is clear. The large law firm that is proactive, flexible, and leads change will also eliminate technology complacency to become the decisive winner down the homestretch. West km is a trusted knowledge management system for legal professionals.

It integrates knowledge management software with your organization’s work product while incorporating Thomson Reuters Westlaw enhancements and legal research technology. It’s a sure way to maximize productivity and efficiency.

Original Source: Thomson Reuters

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The Global 100: The Richest Law Firms In The World

The new Biglaw rankings are in! The American Lawyer just released its latest edition of the Global 100, a ranking of the world’s 100 largest law firms by total revenue.

the financial crisis caused drops in 2008 and 2009, and the first time that Global 100 RPL has fallen without the United States economy being in recession.

How did these firms do in the year that was?

What could have caused this decline in revenue per lawyer?

American Lawyer 100 rankings showed that a slow and steady approach to growth seems to be winning the race, even for the planet’s top-grossing law firms.

Here is some analysis from the American Lawyer:

We’ll refer to this as the Dentons dip. As noted by Am Law, thanks to the firm’s mega-merger with Dacheng - a firm 4,000 lawyers strong - RPL for the entire Global 100 sank like a stone. But for the Dentons Dacheng merger, the Global 100’s RPL would have increased by 0.2 percent, to $841,346.

The world’s 100 top-grossing law firms continued a postrecession trend of slow and steady growth in 2015, with revenue hitting a new high after a sixth consecutive year of top- and bottom-line gains, according to our latest survey.

However, while 23 firms saw an increase in RPL of over 5 percent, more than a third experienced declines in 2015 - the most since the Great Recession. This could be a trend worth watching over the course of this year.

Revenue for The Global 100 increased 3.1 percent in 2015, to $96.6 billion, a record for this group. And average profits per equity partner rose 4.9 percent, to nearly $1.6 million. At current growth rates, total Global 100 revenue in next year’s survey will almost reach $100 billion.

Here are the top 10 firms of the 2016 Global 100 (i.e., the top 10 firms ranked by 2015 revenue). Take a careful look, because this time around, there’s a tie:

Despite these gains, average revenue per lawyer (RPL) - a key measure of a law firm’s health and efficiency - dipped 2.1 percent, to $812,701. It is only the third decline in group RPL this millennium, after

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1. Latham & Watkins: $2,650,000,000 2. Baker & McKenzie: $2,620,000,000 (verein) 3. DLA Piper: $2,543,000,000 (verein) 4. Skadden Arps: $2,410,000,000 5. Kirkland & Ellis: $2,305,000,000 6. Dentons: $2,120,000,000 (verein)

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7. Clifford Chance: $2,118,500,000 8. Freshfields: $2,028,000,000 9. Allen & Overy: $2,002,500,000 9. Linklaters: $2,002,500,000 There was a bit of disruption in this year’s rankings due to the rise of Dentons. Last year, Dentons was ranked #19, and its cash ascension not only inspired a rousing game of musical chairs among the top 10, but also forced Jones Day out of the top 10 entirely.

As for Latham, the firm was able to hang on to the number one spot due to the fact that it generated the most revenue ever recorded for a single law firm in a fiscal year, with a 1.5 percent increase over last year’s numbers.

After falling from #1 to #3 last year, Baker & McKenzie climbed back over DLA Piper with a revenue increase of 7.8 percent.

What about the closely watched profits per partner rankings?

Flip to the next page to see which firms produce the world’s richest partners, plus the firms with the most lawyers.

Here are the top 10 firms of the 2016 Global 100, ranked by profits per equity partner: 1. Wachtell Lipton: $6,600,000 2. Quinn Emanuel: $4,420,000 3. Paul Weiss: $4,085,000 4. Sullivan & Cromwell: $3,870,000 5. Kirkland & Ellis: $3,605,000 6. Slaughter & May: $3,590,000 7. Cravath: $3,555,000 8. Simpson Thacher: $3,470,000 9. Davis Polk: $3,305,000

10. Gibson Dunn: $3,185,000 This list is quite similar to last year’s, with Wachtell, Quinn, Paul Weiss, SullCrom, and K&E all remaining in the same spots.

Things go off kilter after that thanks to Slaughter & May’s reemergence on the list, knocking Simpson Thacher down to #8, and Davis Polk down to #9. What happened to Cleary?

The firm now finds itself at #12 ($3.08 million PPP), below Skadden at #11 ($3.125 million PPP).

Finally, here is the top 10 of the 2016 Global 100 when ranked by headcount: 1. Dentons: 6,568 2. Baker & McKenzie: 6,045 3. Yingke: 4,929 4. DLA Piper: 3,756 5. Norton Rose Fulbright: 3,372 6. CMS Legal Services: 2,610 7. Jones Day: 2,562 8. Hogan Lovells: 2,516 9. Clifford Chance: 2,503 10. King & Wood Mallesons: 2,250 Baker & McKenzie was unable to cling to the top spot thanks to the Dentons merger with Dacheng. Fifty-eight percent of Dentons’ lawyers are now located in China. It’s also worth noting that only 46 lawyers separate Jones Day from HoLove, and only 13 lawyers separate HoLove from Clifford Chance.

If any of these three firms conduct mass hiring sprees or mass layoffs, their placement in the rankings could change by next year.

Orginal Source: Staci Zaretsky, Above the Law

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Fortune's 40 Under 40 List launched - we take a closer look at the Top 10

Fortune released its annual list of the 40 most influential young people in business: an annual ranking of the 40 most influential business people less than 40 years old.

The list includes a mix of entrepreneurs, CEOs, creatives and politicos. People are ranked based on power, influence and success, and the list cannot contain repeats from the year before.

Brendan Bechtel tops the list as the CEO of the Bechtel Group, a construction and engineering company, while Chairman and Executive Director of CEFC China Energy Ye Jianming and Hillary Clinton senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan follow in the second and third spots, respectively.

The list has 16 women this year (up from 14 last year), including Bozoma St. John, head of consumer marketing for Apple Music and iTunes, and Payal Kadakia, CEO and co-founer of Classpass. Big names on the list include James Corden, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jake Sullivan and Marie Kondo.

1. Brendan Bechtel, 35, CEO of Bechtel Group

On Sept. 1, Bechtel took the helm of his family’s century-old dynasty, one of the largest engineering and construction companies in the world (heard of the Hoover Dam or the Channel Tunnel?). The fifth-generation leader now commands one of the biggest privately held companies in the U.S., with $40 billion in 2015 revenue. It falls on Bechtel, formerly president and COO, to steer the company through challenges like a collapse in commodities prices and new competition from Chinese contractors. He’s been preparing for the role since 2010, but he has a lifetime of experiences to draw from: His first stint at a Bechtel construction camp was when he lived in a trailer in the jungle in Borneo while his father worked as a supervisor on a liquefied-natural-gas plant. He was 3 years old.

Ye runs a $42-billion-a-year oil business in China, (No. 229 on the Fortune Global 500), yet few in China know much about the mysterious tycoon or the firm he created, CEFC. Ye bought a collection of oil ­assets in his twenties and ­secured loans from state-owned banks to expand abroad, a privilege for a private company. CEFC has oil agreements in Kazakhstan, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Chad and has gone into ventures with state-owned giants to transport oil to China, making him a rare powerful private player aligned with the Chinese government.

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2. Ye Jianming, 39, Chairman and Executive Director of CEFC China Energy

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The Minnesota native earned Hillary Clinton’s trust as an ­adviser to her 2008 presidential campaign, and at the State Department, where he was the youngest-ever director of policy planning. After she left, Sullivan stayed on to see through the Iranian nuclear deal he was instrumental in launching. He rejoined ­Clinton for her second run, expanding his foreign-policy portfolio to include domestic affairs and outreach to businesses. If Clinton wins, look for Sullivan to take a senior White House post, possibly deputy chief of staff.

3. Jake Sullivan, 39, Senior Policy Advisor at Hillary for America

The boyish maverick sparked outrage by ­challenging France’s ruling Socialist government to ditch cherished welfare-state orthodoxies and embrace wealth creation. He stepped down in August, ­fueling speculation that he’s running for President; tens of thousands have already joined his new movement, En Marche! There are ­doubters aplenty, but Macron is accustomed to breaking the mold: He married his high school teacher, who was 20 years his senior, then made a fortune as a Rothschild banker.

4. Emmanuel Macron, 38, Former French Economy Minister China Energy

When the ­German multibillion-dollar enterprise software company tapped Saueressig as its new chief information officer, it made the native of Lobbach, Germany, the youngest-known CIO at a Fortune Global 500 company. ­Saueressig, who ­began coding at 6, started at SAP while still a student and rose quickly up the ladder. Now the millennial CIO - who’s a fan of U2 and The Big Bang Theory - is charged with implementing the ­company’s digital trans­ formation strategy from within and shaping IT’s role in that strategy.

5. Thomas Saueressig, 31, CIO of SAP Minister China Energy

Twilio became Wall Street’s knight in shining armor after a massively successful 2016 IPO, the first and so far only U.S. “unicorn” to brave the public markets this year. A former Amazon Web Services and StubHub engineer, Lawson founded Twilio in 2008 to create a simpler way to add messaging or calls to websites and apps. Now it has almost 31,000 customers, including Salesforce and Uber (which uses it to deliver texts from passengers to drivers); since the IPO, Twilio shares have quadrupled. CEO he most admires: late Intel chief executive Andy Grove.

6. Jeff Lawson, 39, Cofounder and CEO of Twilio

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In March, General Motors showed how important self-driving cars are to the future of the auto industry, shelling out $1 billion to acquire Cruise Automation, a small, yet-to-launch self-driving software startup founded

by Vogt and Kan (read more about them here). The deal marked the second billion-dollar exit for CEO Vogt, a robot-­obsessed MIT dropout who competed in two seasons of ­BattleBots. It’s a first for COO Kan, who has entrepreneurship in his blood - his mother and brother have each founded multiple companies.

7. Thomas Saueressig, 31, CIO of SAP Minister China Energy

Atlassian, based in ­Sydney, is an anomaly in modern-day techland: The enterprise software firm is 14 years old yet had one of 2015’s most successful IPOs. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar, who met in college in their native Australia, colead the company, which provides collaboration software to 60,000 customers (Tesla, Amazon, P&G, and Coca-Cola among them). Farquhar heads ­engineering and research; Cannon-Brookes, product design and sales and marketing.

8. Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, 36 and 36, Cofounders and Co-CEOs of Atlassian

Uber’s efforts in China may have grabbed headlines this year, but back at home the ride-sharing giant has continued to grow, largely thanks to Holt, who was elevated to run the company’s North American operations. A Stanford MBA who worked at Bain and Clorox - where she oversaw Hidden Valley vinaigrettes - Holt joined Uber in 2011 when she was hired to set up the then-fledgling startup’s Washington, D.C., operations: “I love finding solutions to problems and doing whatever it takes to get the best end result.” Quirkiest habit: Falls asleep watching Frasier on her iPad.

9. Rachel Holt, 33, Regional General Manager for U.S. and Canada of Uber

Ready, who grew up in rural Kentucky and did not know how to use a computer until he got to college, landed at the $46 billion payments giant in 2013 when it acquired the company he ran, Braintree, for $800 million. He’s since been credited for ­turning millennial favorite Venmo into the next billion-dollar payments app. With mobile payments expected to soar, Ready’s task is to help PayPal take on Apple, Google, and Samsung in the mobile wallet wars. Secret to his success: “I’ve always been willing to jump in the deep end of the pool before knowing how to swim.”

10. Bill Ready, 36, SVP, Global Head of Product and Engineering of PayPal

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How Apple is different now, 5 years after Steve Jobs death?

Tim Cook has maintained and changed the Apple legacy

It’s a different Apple without Steve Jobs.

October 2016 marks five years since Jobs died after a long battle with cancer. He was 56.

The simultaneously charismatic and controversial Apple leader served as chairman of the board until his death. For better or worse, Apple and innovation ran through Jobs’ blood and carried him to his last day. And many Apple fans and detractors alike can’t help but wonder what the company would look like today if Jobs, who died young, was still alive.

Over the last five years, Tim Cook, a decidedly different chief executive, has led Apple. Cook, unlike Jobs, is reserved and quiet. Apple’s current CEO prides himself on Apple’s charitable impact and has, at times, been willing to accept responsibility for mistakes and apologize, like when his company released the error-ridden Apple Maps.

Under Cook, Apple has taken a softer (and perhaps nicer) tone, and has shed some of the winner-take-all competitiveness that defined Jobs’ reign as the company’s chief executive.

But differences between Jobs and Cook aren’t major. In fact, Cook, who learned the Apple Way from Jobs, might be more similar to his predecessor than some think.

Cook, like Jobs, has championed Apple’s obsession with secrecy, and has been able to generate billions in profits by making high-priced (and exceedingly profitable) products that people want. In his own way, Cook pushes his employees the way Jobs once did and, like his predecessor, isn’t afraid of a fight. Cook’s willingness to fight has been on full display in his company’s ongoing battle with Samsung

over smartphone dominance and his desire to carry out a protracted patent battle to its bitter end in the U.S. Supreme Court.

He was arguably at his most decisive earlier this year when he declined requests by the Justice Department to help the FBI unlock San Bernardino attacker Syed Farook’s iPhone.

Cook said he’d be willing to take his fight to the Supreme Court and in one fell swoop, became a privacy and security champion.

Like Jobs, Cook has also turned his back on conventional wisdom. He has transitioned Apple’s iPhone business from one that requires major updates every other year to one that delivers those upgrades every three years. More importantly, Cook has eliminated components like the headphone jack, that, for generations, have been viewed as must-have features in electronics.

Meanwhile, Cook has followed Jobs’ example of seeking groundbreaking innovation. While his reign so far has been one defined by safe updates to hardware, he’s made moves to improve Apple’s business in healthcare, in music streaming, and in the cloud.

He’s also hinted that more innovation will come in similarly burgeoning markets like virtual reality and augmented reality.

And although he hasn’t confirmed any plans, the talk of an Apple Car and the company’s desire to break into the automotive industry in the coming years is one that could define Cook’s tenure.Still, some are left wondering what Apple and the world might look like today if Jobs were still alive and running the show in Cupertino.

Jobs had a unique ability to get employees to do the seemingly impossible. Is it possible that under Jobs, we would have seen that once-vaunted and now-forgotten Apple television?

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Would we already have a car that would compete with the likes of Tesla?

Would the iPhone already come with an all-glass face and organic lightemitting diode (OLED) technology next year’s model will reportedly offer?

Would Apple have made major acquisitions to position itself more effectively in expanding industries?

Possible answers have been left to pundits and those who want to speculate about what might’ve been. But even his biggest detractors have admitted in recent years that Jobs was a visionary and someone who, in his own brash and perhaps overly aggressive way, would have pushed the envelope of what was possible. After taking over as Apple’s CEO on an interim basis in 1997 (he turned it into a permanent role in 2000), Jobs turned the company around.

Apple was crippled under a corporate structure that had too much bureaucracy and too many products to sell. Jobs eliminated those silos, discontinued product lines, and got down to the business of building high-quality products. Once Apple was stable, Jobs focused on innovation and delivered historically important upgrades to computers. He’s also credited with starting the latest smartphone craze with 2007’s iPhone launch, and showing that tablets could be viable with the iPad. Jobs might not have always been first in delivering products, but he was arguably the best at showing the world what the technology industry could do. And he’s the person who put Apple on a path to Earth-shattering profitability.

Cook, meanwhile, served as Jobs’ COO, apprenticing under Apple’s master.

Cook learned the art of hype, how to hone in on innovation, and when to cut loose popular but outmoded features. He also learned, in his own way, how to inspire employees. “Steve was in your face, screaming, and Tim is more quiet, more cerebral in his approach,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, in an interview with Fast Company earlier this year. “When you disappoint Tim, even though he isn’t screaming at you, you get the same feeling. I never wanted to disappoint Steve, and I never want to disappoint Tim. [Other than them,] I have that feeling with, like, my dad.”

Still, despite the similarities, Cook learned the most important lesson of all: he’s not Steve Jobs.

Countless times in the last five years, Cook has been unwilling to remember Jobs as someone he could call a colleague, an equal in an industry where unfairly judging another chief executive’s accomplishments has long been fair game.

And try as he might to be on the same level as Apple’s co-founder, Cook has resigned himself to the idea that there has never been and indeed might never be - another Steve Jobs.

“To me, Steve’s not replaceable - by anyone,” Cook said in an interview in August with The Washington Post. “He was an original of a species.”

Now, five years later, Jobs’ Apple is Cook’s Apple. The profits are still there, the iPhone is ubiquitous, and Macs are still popular. Apple - a company Jobs built, saved, and rebuilt - is now a global force with enough cash to do anything it wants.

Jobs might not be here to enjoy the fruits of his labor, but his influence looms large in every product Apple sells. And it’s hard to imagine what the technology industry, let alone Apple, might look like today had Steve Jobs and all the good and bad that went with him - had not been a part of it.

Original Source: Don Reisinger, Fortune

Steve Jobs, Co-founder, and former Chairman and CEO, Apple

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How the internet economy killed inflation Despite its best efforts, the Federal Reserve has been unable to push the economy to its targeted 2% annual inflation rate. For four years now inflation has stayed resolutely below that target even as the Fed deployed an unprecedented program of bond buying and low interest rates in an effort to push prices up.

While the analysts that predicted the Fed’s actions would lead to significant inflation probably overstated the power the central bank has on the economy, the most significant cause of low inflation has had nothing to do with monetary policy.

Trends in U.S. inflation Since the early 80’s, the end of the “Great Inflation,” increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) have been steadily getting smaller and smaller. Compared to the wild swings of the rest of the 20th century, this trend represents a dramatic change.

This new trend coincides with a couple of major technological innovations that have had a long-term impact on prices: • In the mid 1970’s, shortly before inflation peaked, Honeywell developed the first Distributed Control System (DCS) in the U.S., a tool that drastically increased the capability of factories to automate parts of the manufacturing process.

• In 1994, when we see a flattening of the inflation trend-line, Netscape Navigator was released. Netscape was the first web browser that made the internet accessible to the broader public and presaged the internet takeover of so many facets of the economy.

These technologies and the subsequent innovations they inspired have combined to hold down inflation by putting pressure on wages, increasing productivity, and encouraging competition.

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Automation puts long-term cap on wages

Automation puts pressure on wages by providing a substitute for low-end human labor. Industrial robots have replaced human workers in the manufacturing sector, self-service checkouts have replaced retail employees, and pretty soon more traditional white-collar workers will find themselves under pressure from technology.

At most organizations, human costs represent around 70% of total operating expenses. In the past, this structure made it hard to avoid a wage/inflation spiral, where higher wages pushed up costs, which pushed up prices, which necessitated even higher wages, and so on.

Today, it’s much harder for such a spiral to occur. In an increasing number of industries, companies can substitute technology for human labor when wages rise too fast and avoid raising prices. An increasingly educated population means that there will be high competition for the jobs that can’t be automated.

Technology increases productivity Much has been made recently about slowing productivity growth, but the longer-term view in Figure 2 shows that the U.S. has become radically more productive over the past several decades.

Technology has contributed to increasing U.S. total factor productivitygrowth in many ways.

• Machines have automated many low skilled tasks, allowing workers to focus their efforts on areas where human intelligence and creativity can add more value.

• Improvements in communication technology have led to a more rapid transmission of ideas and reduced many of the frictions that impeded productivity growth and innovation.

• Our technology is constantly improving to be more energy

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efficient and use fewer raw materials.

• The rise of big data has yielded insights into ways to improve processes and weed out inefficiencies.

These are just some of the factors that have made the economy more productive and allowed American corporations to enjoy record profit margins even as prices stay steady.

The internet fosters competition While the effect of technology on wages and productivity have been discussed many times before, less attention has been paid to the role of the internet in fostering competition.

The internet has reduced many of the traditional barriers to entry that protect companies from competition and created a race to the bottom for prices in a number of categories.

Consider the impact Amazon has had on the retail sector.

Before the rise of e-commerce, many brick and mortar retailers enjoyed local monopolies or oligopolies based solely on geography. If you’re the only bookstore in the area, there’s not much pressure on you to keep prices low.

By circumventing the need for a physical location, Amazon was able to undercut retailers all over the world and rapidly achieve a scale that few others could rival. Now, every seller is competing with Amazon on price.

Moreover, all the tech giants that took advantage of the first wave of the internet to disrupt existing markets are

competing with each other to dominate new categories.

Google, Apple, Tesla (and now Ford) are building self-driving cars.

Netflix has to compete in streaming video with Amazon, HBO, Hulu, and others. Every big tech company seems to be making bets on mobile payments, the Internet of Things, and virtual reality.

It’s easier than ever for a company with a great product to reach a wide range of customers and rapidly scale. It’s also easier than ever for dozens of copycats to immediately create their own competing versions of that product and try to undercut the prices of the original innovator.

Adjusting to the new reality As Jessica Rabe from Convergex points out in her “Memo From Millennials To Janet Yellen,” millennials are used to the idea of long-term low inflation.

“We live in a tech-based economy, where transparency relentlessly pressures prices. For millennials, lower prices show the economy is working well, rather than dampen consumption,” Rabe writes.

Whereas baby boomers grew up with the high inflation of the 1970’s, millennials have seen prices rise less than 2% annually since 2000. The generation that just become the largest segment of the population is comfortable with the idea of perpetually low inflation and expects more disruptive innovations that will lower costs for the broader population.

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This trend towards lower prices through innovation could become even more pronounced in the future. Over the past twenty years, entertainment and luxury items have become much cheaper, but the costs of necessities such as food, housing, healthcare, education, and childcare have grown steadily.

Many in-process innovations hold the promise of bringing down the costs for these necessities. Here are a few: • The increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence and robotics could automate some of the work done by doctors, teachers and nannies.

• Best practices in medicine, teaching and childcare can be broadcast globally at very low cost (e.g. MOOC’s and Khan Academy).

• 3D-Printed homes are already happening and could become more economical to build before too long.

• A wide array of innovations ranging from self-driving tractors to artificially created meat hold the promise of a radically cheaper food supply.

In fact, we’re already seeing some evidence for costs falling in these areas. Food prices in the U.S. have nearly set a 50-year record for the longest declining stretch. Housing inflation is starting to slow down in major cities. Numerous public and private universities are putting a freeze on tuitions.

Many business leaders are already predicting that technological innovation will have a radical impact on our daily lives. Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom tycoon and fourth richest man in the world, believes we’re headed towards a three-day workweek.

While he acknowledges that this development may be still a ways away, it makes sense in a world of improved productivity and an increasing amount of automation.

Businesses can afford to higher multiple employees with productivity so high, employees can afford to work less with a lower cost of living, and if robots keep doing more jobs there might not be enough jobs available for humans to work five days a week.

Impact on economic policy The internet economy may be in the early stages of transforming our daily lives, but it’s already wreaking havoc on economic policy. As mentioned at the top of this piece, the Fed cannot manage to hit its 2% inflation target no matter how hard it tries, so maybe it should stop trying.

Historically, the Fed has had the “Dual Mandate” of maximizing employment and encouraging stable prices.

If significant inflation is no longer a major worry for the economy, then all of a sudden the Fed has a very different outlook.

Original Source: David Trainer, Forbes

How to lay the foundation for an employee-owned business The evidence continues to mount that employee-owned companies simply perform better than their peers. They create more jobs, generate more wealth for their employee-owners, and then give back impressive amounts to the communities they operate in.

So why doesn’t every business operate this way?

in some cases, paving the way for a successful transition can take years.

Consider the path that the team at Top Value Fabrics, an international fabric supplier based in Carmel, Indiana, took to become a company that is now 100% owned by its more than 60 employees.

One potential barrier for any company becoming employeeowned is that, for most businesses, it involves more than just flipping a switch or filling out a lot of paperwork. Sure, the founder of a business could technically sell the company to their employees tomorrow. But what would happen next? If a founder has kept their employees in the dark about, say, the company’s finances and then, voila!, pulls up the curtain for the first time, how do you think things will turn out? Or, if the founder has made every key operational decision inside the business since its start, what happens when they hand over that responsibility to someone else out of the blue?

Two entrepreneurs founded the company back in 1974; eventually one of the partners bought out the other in 2001.

The point is that there are steps every business can take to better prepare their workforce, and their company culture, to make the transition to becoming employee-owned. And,

In 2010, the company’s CFO, Chris Fredericks, who is now the company’s president, asked the owner about the possibility of selling to an ESOP. After a short due diligence

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A few years later, the new owner began thinking about his long-term succession plans and, with that in mind, he more fully empowered his executive team to run the business, including additional P&L responsibility and strategic decision-making authority. He continued to progress under that mindset, reducing his presence in the office more and more as time went on even though he was still the sole owner and didn’t have a clear succession plan.

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process, the founder sold 100% to an ESOP later that same year. Along with that transaction, a professional board was put in place and the leadership team began a new effort to increase transparency and broad based decision-making throughout the organization.

“It’s amazing to see how much more interested and engaged team members can be in an ESOP that really leverages an ownership culture,” says Fredericks. “Building an ownership culture is not easy even in an ESOP; it requires a management team willing to let go of top down thinking, which is sometimes still very prevalent in older businesses and industries.”

Most companies that are 100% owned by an ESOP also rely on a board with some, or even a majority of, independent directors, which “opens up the management of the company to a more professional approach, along with more perspectives rather than just one leader,” says Fredericks.

Fredericks also points out that ESOPs don’t have to be an all or nothing solution. He says that private businesses that are contributing in some way to employee retirement accounts – such as through a 401(k) match or profit sharing program – are already great candidates for ESOP, even if being 100% employee owned isn’t their end goal. “They just have to establish a minority ESOP and shift the retirement expense to ESOP from what they are already doing,” says Fredericks.

So how do you know if your company might be a great candidate to becoming an ESOP? Fredericks suggests asking yourself the following questions: 1. Can this business run without you on a daily basis? If not, it might be time to start building out a management team that can shoulder the load of everything from solving

problems to finding new customers to setting the long-term strategic direction of the business.

2. Do you share what Jack Stack, the CEO of SRC Holdings and the founder of open-book management calls a “Stake in the Outcome?” If not, it might be a good time to explore the notion of building a bonus or profit sharing program that explains to your team what they can win – and how they can win it.

3. Are you willing to let an “ownership culture” take hold? In other words, are you willing to empower team members to make decisions and impact the results to the fullest?

4. Are you willing to add independent board members now to help professionalize the company?

5. What do you want your legacy to be? If your goal is to sell for market value, but also for your business and its culture to live on beyond you while also rewarding the people who helped you build it, it might just be the perfect time to start laying the foundation for employee ownership in your company.

“Some company founders inadvertently limit the future success of their business by letting it become too dependent on them,” says Fredericks. “The most impressive thing to me about our founder was his ability to recognize that well in advance of his desire to actually retire. He knew the type of legacy he wanted to leave for his market-leading company, and for the employees that worked hard to help him build it. The things he did well in advance of selling to an ESOP created an organization that was extremely well prepared to transition to employee ownership.”

Original source: Darren Dahl, Forbes

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10 Tips to avoid massive data breaches - don't be the next Sony!

Staff are a significant risk to their employer’s cyber security according to research by specialist global executive search and interim management company Norrie Johnston Recruitment (NJR).

The research, which forms part of NJR’s cyber security report: how real is the threat and how can you reduce your risk, shows that 23 per cent of employees use the same password for different work applications and 17 per cent write down their passwords, 16 per cent work while connected to public Wi-Fi networks and 15 per cent access social media sites on their work PCs. Such bad habits and a lack of awareness about security mean that employees are inadvertently leaving companies’ cyber doors wide open to attack.

This research is supported by a report, which incorporates the advice from fifteen experts in the field. Here, Benny Czarny, OPSWAT, discusses the top tips to avoid massive data breaches: With Sony recently setting aside $15M to investigate the reasons for, and remediate the damage caused by, last year’s data breach, many of our customers—from large enterprises to small business—are wondering what they need to do to make sure they aren’t the next big data breach headline.

The good news is that most data breaches can be prevented by taking a common sense approach, coupled with some key IT security adjustments.

1. Employee security training is an absolute necessity. I cannot emphasize this point enough as your network is only as safe as your most gullible employee. Even the most sophisticated security systems can be compromised by human error - the Sony breach started with phishing attacks and people still use USB devices from unknown sources, which is allegedly how the Stuxnet worm was delivered.

2. Access to executable files should be limited to those who need them to complete their duties. Many threats are borne via self-extracting files, therefore limiting the number of employees who are allowed to receive this file type limits your exposure. Your IT department absolutely needs the ability to work with executable files. Bob in accounting? Not so much!

3. MSOffice documents and PDFs are common attack vectors.

Vulnerabilities are identified in MSOffice and Adobe Reader on a regular basis. While patches are typically released very quickly, if the patches are not applied in a timely fashion the vulnerability can still be exploited. As an everyday precaution, document sanitization is recommended to remove embedded

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threats in documents.

4. Data workflow audits are essential. Data can enter your organization through many different points—email, FTP, external memory device, etc. Identifying your organization’s entry points and taking steps to secure them is a critical step in avoiding data breaches. At a minimum, scanning incoming and outgoing email attachments for viruses and threats and implementing a secure file transfer solution should be considered.

5. Store sensitive data in separate locations. Simple data segregation could have mitigated the impact of the Sony breach. The hack exposed both internal communications and unreleased video files. Had the videos and emails been stored on two separate systems some of the damages may have been prevented.

6. Internal and external penetration tests are critical. Internal testing is a valuable tool, but hiring an outside party to attempt to breach your network will identify security holes your team may have missed.

7. Keep your security architecture confidential. You may be excited about your innovative networking solution or new cloud-based storage system, but think twice about making any of that information public!

8. Remember that traffic generated internally to your security system may still be suspect. For example, the Sony malware connected to an internal security system to impersonate legitimate traffic to disguise its malicious nature.

9. Multilayer defence is needed. Defence can be described in depth by comparing it to the defence systems you might see at a castle; it could be defended by a large stone wall, followed by a deep moat, followed by a draw-bridge, followed by an iron gate, etc. A single layer of defence is not sufficient for your data – it must be protected by multiple systems working in parallel. That way if one layer is breached your data is not exposed.

10. Finding your weakest security link is your top priority.

Every office has one, and it will vary wildly from organisation to organisation. It might be the employee with their passwords taped to their monitor. It might be the deprecated Linux server everyone seems to have forgotten about. You might not be looking for those weak links—but rest assured that cyber attackers are. The question is: “Who will find them first?”

Original Source: Norrie Johnston Recruitment

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What's on the horizon in knowledge management?

The future of knowledge management solutions is evolving, but what is certain is that the proliferation of content, information, data, and more knowledge to be collected, deciphered, stored, and referenced anew will not wane.

That means the outlook for knowledge management tools as the answer for best-practice, streamlined workflow and productivity is positive.

To help understand the future we spoke with a number of leaders in the knowledge management sector in law firms across the country, we have learned a variety of new thoughts and techniques on how knowledge management tools are incorporated into the fabric of the law firm, and the challenges and opportunities each firm faces as they strive for greater utilization to ensure efficiency that supports the practice of litigation and transactional law.

As we look ahead to what may come, here are some thoughts from our panel of experts in research services, business intelligence, knowledge management, and information services.Marlene Gebauer, Director of Knowledge Solutions at Greenberg Traurig, LLP in Miami, suggests that the future of knowledge management will include a hybrid, multidisciplinary model.

This will consist of technology professionals and information professionals taking spots with project managers and legal professionals to create a blend between groups.

“Law firm librarians are perfect examples of how professionals need to morph and stay ahead of changes technology brings,” said Gebauer.

“Skill and competency will be the next indicators of accountability versus titles in the law firm. Librarians have a vast skill toolbox at their disposal and if they embrace the opportunities change offers, they can continue to develop their role in the knowledge management space.”

Librarians have had to adjust with the times and adopt new skills or be a dying one-trick pony. With the additional competency, the new knowledge services professionals can partner with other teams and be more effective at offering a breadth of services in problem-solving roles.

“Previously, a member of my team migrated over to be a SharePoint® developer and we have a solid relationship with her and her new department,” added Gebauer.

“It makes workflow more streamlined and people are quickly realizing it’s no longer about siloing work, but whether we’re all working together to get the job done.”

A conference by Ark Group in October 2015 at New York Law School called “Knowledge Management in the Legal Profession” cited 50 new registrants who had not previously attended. More such topics are expected on the horizon as demand throughout the industry creates the need for education and best practices.To earn higher utilization of knowledge management solutions throughout the firm, some are looking to practice support lawyers or knowledge management attorneys as the ticket for more word-of-mouth marketing of West km®, for example.

“We recently hired our first-ever professional support lawyer in the U.S. who is embedded in a practice group,” said Julie Bozzell, Chief Research and Knowledge Officer of Hogan Lovells, LLP in Washington, D.C. “We believe this could be the missing component to help push more users to adopt knowledge management practices for greater and enhanced productivity.”

Dan Pelletier, Director of Legal Information Services of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, New York, wants to see more librarians and knowledge services professionals in a centralized library. He suggests there may be pushback on staffing from the corner office as larger libraries are not the norm.

Kimberly Stein, National Manager, Knowledge Management Solutions of Thomson Reuters, sums it up nicely, “The Knowledge Management Services department is the heart of a law firm. It is where the pulse of enterprise research resides and where information emanates.

We could not partner with law firms without this critical partnership from professionals who truly understand the underbelly of large law firms from information services and enterprise software to the practice and back office of law.

Respectfully, we hold the formerly titled librarian in the highest regard, and they are the champions and advocates for firms’ software solutions for research, efficiency, and productivity.”

One thing is certain; the future of knowledge management resides squarely with what’s approaching on the horizon.

The legal industry will soon feel the effects of artificial intelligence, big data, pricing and profitability, cognitive learning, and machine automation.

To ensure competitive positioning, the need for technology adoption is clear. The large law firm that is proactive, flexible, and leads change will also eliminate technology complacency to become the decisive winner down the homestretch.

Original Source: Thomson Reuters

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Gamechanger changes the way that something is done, thought of or made; they transform the accepted rules, processes, strategies and management of business functions. They shift behaviour, shape culture and make clever happen.â&#x20AC;?

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Six practical points to consider when undertaking M&A

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5 minutes with with Craig James, CEO of Neopay

Neopay

ABL, Independent Growth Finance

Expanding a lending business in 2016: learning from experience

Willis Towers Watson

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Expanding a lending business in 2016: learning from experience Earlier this year, Independent Growth Finance underwent a management buy-in buy-out with private equity firm Spring Ventures, undoubtedly causing a number of developments within the business.

The most prominent of these is the addition of an Asset Based Lending (ABL), to complement the historic invoice finance offering which made up the bread and butter of the business to date.

With a number of senior level regional appointments in Scotland, the North West, Midlands, London and South East, North London and the Home Counties, in addition to new offices in London, Glasgow and Manchester, it is clear that 2016 is marking a time of change for the firm.

Business confidence is increasing once again following the announcement of Brexit earlier this year, meaning that the level of M&A and expansion activity in the UK is back on the rise. Other firms in the lending sector considering being involved in this growth cycle should take certain elements into account when planning an expansion programme.

Knowing your strengths Selecting the right organisation and the best people to manage the process is a crucial first step for a business of any size considering an expansion programme, merger or acquisition. For lending businesses more specifically, it is essential to appoint senior level directors who are familiar with the business and appreciate its commercial strengths to play a key role in the deal negotiations from the outset. For IGF, these strengths included a robust operating platform and a reputation for always treating customers fairly.

These existing strengths, in consideration with the longer term business aims, will play a key role in determining what skills any incoming employees could bring to the table. Bringing on board employees with a mixture of ingrained industry knowledge and a willingness to drive growth forward means they will listen to what the business aims are, and see the strong opportunity that this ‘new’ organisation can offer. For the existing staff who were part of the legacy business, an influx of new talent, fresh investment and an opportunity for personal development will clearly demonstrate the prospect for business growth.

Selecting the right backers Finding the right partners is a continuous theme with any expansion or M&A activity for a business, and financial backers are no exception to this. Expanding a business rapidly without disruption to its existing clients requires an incredibly close relationship between the management team and investors.

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In the same way that lenders must take the time to understand the needs of their customers, so must financial backers take time to understand the business they are funding. Investors are more likely to invest in areas where they have a robust level of expertise, so look to networking with other lenders who have recently grown to understand how they went about searching for ‘the one’.

Investing in people, and vice versa It is vital for all members of the existing business to be able to reap the benefits of this upcoming growth, whether that is an opportunity to step up the career ladder, personal development or investment in training.

Just as a business must invest in its people, so must its people be invested in the business.Good change management is important to ensure that existing employees want to come on the journey, understand the nature of any challenges the expansion process will bring, and feel that they can have a positive impact in the ‘new’ organisation.

An issue for many firms bringing on board new staff in growth scenarios is the creation of an “us versus them” culture, which will undoubtedly cause problems for the business in the future.

The key is to be sensitive to the needs of not just individuals, but separate teams or departments within the wider business. Legacy staff will be familiar with existing processes and culture, whereas those joining the organisation will come up with fresh, new ideas. The team, existing and new, must be engaged around a single goal: to grow the business.

Listening to your gut One final tip is to listen and have confidence in any ‘gut feelings’ that may come up during the course of the expansion programme.

These feelings are actually a physiological reaction to a situation, based on years of experience. It is crucial to bring these to the table for discussion, not just in the planning and due diligence stages, but throughout the process as a whole.

What is abundantly clear with any growth activity is that the people make the business. Listening to the needs of existing staff and new joiners, and combining this with finding the right people to manage and invest in the deal from the off will be essential for implementing a successful growth programme.

Original Source: Jon Hughes, Commercial Director ABL, Independent Growth Finance

ARISE

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Jon Hughes, Commercial Director - ABL, Independent Growth Finance 121 Gamechangers

ARISE

5 minutes with with Craig James, CEO of Neopay Q. As an e-money and payment regulatory specialist, what is the typical process Neopay follows in order to obtain compliance for your clients? What does the service it delivers to clients generally entail?

The process we follow depends hugely on the age of the business i.e. whether it’s existing or brand new.

For existing businesses, we perform what’s known as a ‘Diagnostic Analysis’ of their operations and compliance documentation – a process really valued by our clients. This analysis highlights any gaps, as well as potential improvements to their current practices, along with an indication of the priority for each. This works to give clients a sound understanding of, and the reasoning behind, the absolute imperatives through to ‘nice-to-have’s’. We then talk clients through the results to ensure they have an understanding of our findings and the subsequent options available to them.

For new businesses, we instead look at their business plans and models. We advise them on the options available to build the appropriate compliance framework from scratch – as opposed to amending an existing one.

The most important thing for us is ensuring the client has a solid understanding of what’s needed and why, what the priorities and impacts are, and what options they have. This means they are in control of their business, whilst we act as navigator throughout the journey to compliance.

Q. The financial services industry is constantly changing and we’re seeing more and more fintech firms crop up here in the UK, even in spite of the recent EU referendum. What is it about the UK that is so attractive to these firms and how has Neopay been capitalising on this?

The vast majority of e-money issuers and payments institutions operating in Europe are based in the UK and licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in London. Those that are operating elsewhere in Europe are often not directly licensed in those countries, instead they have passported the rights from another EU member state, primarily the UK.

The right regulatory environment It’s important to note that the popularity of the UK as a destination to set up isn’t only due to language. In fact, many of the firms that get licensed in the UK aren’t originally from English-speaking countries. The reason why so many of them are attracted to the UK is the encouragement of innovation and competition, particularly in payments. This, and the UK’s approach to implementing European legislation, which is highly collaborative with the industry.

The FCA is very experienced in dealing with innovative business models that may challenge current regulatory thinking – it recently launched its innovation hub to act as further support for such firms. In my experience, this regulatory body has historically been encouraging towards innovative businesses and open to looking at the principles of regulation, and how these should be applied in unique and individual cases. What’s more, the FCA is quite pragmatic in its approach – working to ensure regulation does not act as an unnecessary barrier to genuine innovations that will benefit the industry and consumers.

Timescales and red tape are also an important consideration for most firms, and the UK government attempts to make it easy for businesses to set up here. In the UK, it takes on average 13 days to set up a company; a new company can be registered in just 24 hours. The process of authorisation for a payments or e-money firms with the FCA is, on average, the fastest in Europe.

We have helped several businesses become fully operational in less than three months and are seeing a six-month average across most of our clients.

Responsive regulator The FCA has statutory requirements for responding to applications within 12 months and, because the volume of applications is high, it has developed a much more refined review process compared with other European regulators. Most applications are usually processed within six months; many have been authorised in under 20 weeks, with one payments license processed within just five weeks. Overall we are seeing the timetable of submission to decision steadily dropping.

The FCA is also keen to act if businesses are finding themselves in a catch-22 situation between the regulator and a third party.

There are cases where authorisation is required before an applicant can enter a relationship with a third party but, due to the necessity of the third party relationship, policies would prevent authorisation until the relationship has been established. The FCA wants to ensure that this sort of situation is resolved and does not prevent a firm entering the market. Similarly, the regulatory body has been known to step in if there are delays within government departments, for example company registrations etc., which could negatively affect an application – actions you don’t often see from regulators.

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ARISE

Craig James, CEO of Neopay

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At Neopay, we work to ensure our clients’ authorisations are as quick and pain-free as possible. And, as I’m the chairman of the Prepaid International Forum (PIF), we also have the added bonus of having the ability to influence the implementation of regulation. This means we have a say in helping ensure regulation remains balanced but able to remove any unnecessary barriers to market growth and innovation.

Q. Obviously the Brexit outcome was a shock to the system for many, has there been any other major incidents over the past nine years that Neopay has had to deal with? Any significant challenges that you’ve worked hard to overcome?

One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced has been the withdrawal of accounts to payments and e-money firms by the banks.

Existing accounts were closed with little or no warning and new entrants to the market were refused.

Through my chairmanship of PIF, Neopay has been able to raise the issue with the FCA and HM Treasury – discussing issues and results on the industry, competition and consumer choice and protection.

Bank access is now a key focus for the PSR (Payment Systems Regulator), and FCA, and other regulators are taking steps to ensure that bank policies won’t create unnecessary barriers to competition and growth in the market.

For our clients directly, we’ve helped by introducing them to potential banking partners. We made it our mission at this time to ensure that clients addressed the issues of required bank accounts very early on in the project (in the past this was something that could be left until close to launch). We’ve also ensured AML and other compliance processes were appropriate and would not cause problems with the bank.

Q. Neopay recently launched a report – ‘Are banks losing the innovation game’? which investigated the biggest frustrations of UK customers with traditional banking and which identified the potential for new and innovative firms to monopolise on these shortfalls. Where do you see the future of banking? Do you think traditional banks will lose relevance in the years to come?

The UK’s financial services industry is flourishing as it continues to cement its reputation as the world’s fintech leader – the number of new innovative businesses setting up base here is rising.

These fresh, young fintech firms are coming at a time when consumers are growing more and more frustrated with the traditional big banks and are turning to alternative ways of managing their money. In fact, our research found that as many as half of UK consumers are reporting frustrations with their current bank. These firms are filling a gap in the market by offering consumers a real alternative.

I think traditional banking is here to stay, but it does need to reassess certain processes if it wants to fulfil the changing needs of consumers. Generally speaking, people don’t like to switch bank accounts as it can be a lengthy process and therefore inconvenient. However, a growing number of people are already using alternatives for specific services so who’s to say that down the line this couldn’t grow into people becoming more likely to switch accounts?

And, the government, along with the regulators, are doing a lot more to encourage new banks and increase competition – as demonstrated by the recent Competition and Markets Authority banking reforms package.

These reforms seek to ensure banks work harder for consumers and do more to utilise new innovations within the financial services industry. It’s also important to bear in the mind the recent increases in new banking licences and widened offering of incentives to switch. It isn’t just the shortfalls of traditional banking creating opportunities – we also have a government that is proactive in its efforts to create more competition within the banking sector. This is to ensure our economy isn’t so reliant on a few large banks.

1Q. The business is constantly growing and you’ve now helped over 50 businesses become compliant. Is there anything exciting or interesting in the pipeline coming up for Neopay? Are there any exciting businesses you’re helping to get off the ground? Any plans for an expansion – European or otherwise?

It’s quite an exciting time at the moment at Neopay HQ – we are actually going to be expanding into the USA, where our clients have traditionally struggled.

The US system is a lot more cumbersome than the UK – there are a greater number of licences, higher costs and bigger risks, so many end up wasting a lot of money and resource in applying for compliance but are still unable to launch.

Across the Atlantic there are a lack of firms like Neopay so clients have been asking us to help. On account of this, we will be launching Neopay US later this year to do just that. It’s great to see so much interest already from clients who know we are able to provide practical, cost-effective solutions for them. So we’re saying – watch this space!

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ARISE

Six practical points to consider when undertaking M&A Following 2015, a record year marked by many mega-sized transactions, 2016 is ending as another high activity year for M&A deals, despite the threat of political and economic uncertainty. Not only have we seen some of the largest deals in history but the M&A market showed strength and depth with records broken for both the number of deals and the total volume of activity by many measures as well as highest number ever seen of mega deals (those in excess of $10bn deal value).

Looking forward to 2017, M&A remains an important aspect of corporate growth strategy. The focus is predicted to be on smaller more strategic acquisitions to gain market share or technology, which will result in an upturn in M&A in the first half of 2017.

As more companies look to drive growth through M&A activity and engage in more volume of deals, the key is to plan carefully, learn from the past and execute well.

Companies who are less acquisitive or embarking on M&A for the first time, can learn from others.

It is well documented in M&A research that the M&A deal team’s experience is a key indicator of the future success of integration and longer term increase in shareholder value.

Learning from the experiences of serial acquirers can help companies build repeatable processes and models to help achieve their M&A objectives.

Willis Towers Watson supported research at the M&A Research Centre (MARC) at Cass Business School, analysing the activity of serial acquirers. The paper, ‘Serial Acquirers in Modern Times: How to Handle the Assembly Line?’, by Mats Stenerson Kallum, is based on research with corporate M&A professionals in serial acquirers.

It makes a number of observations about what serial acquirers do well and the lessons they provide for other companies.

Based on our own perspective of supporting over 1,000 deals a year, working with serial and occasional acquirers, we have drawn out six core observations from the Cass research which resonate as practical lessons for occasional or firsttime acquirers. These can usefully supplement the ‘textbook’ advice about due diligence and integration planning.

1. Target identification: Look at what you’re doing and why: Successful serial acquirers underline the importance of a strong investment thesis with specific investment criteria to ensure strategic fit and to ease deal screening. They identify early on several potential acquisitions which could be fit for

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strategic purpose and do not get emotionally attached to any one. Serial acquirers with a dedicated M&A team with deal screening and negotiation experience have developed a repeatable process and continuously build their expertise.

The use of standardised toolkits for target identification know when to walk away if things are moving in the wrong direction.

Whilst for occasional acquirers, a dedicated team may not be available or practical, it is important to bring in the necessary expertise at this early stage to ensure you have the right building blocks for identifying and pursuing the right target, to ensure the early warning signs are identified and therefore ensuring the best chance of future success.

2. Due diligence I: Communicate what you’re doing and why: The process of identifying targets and doing due diligence can be lengthy. Our experience, echoed by serial acquirers, is that even when the objective of the acquisition is well understood at the target identification stage, as the M&A team grows, the core objectives may not be communicated fully to those who join the process later.

Without a common understanding of the objectives, important elements of the deal can be over looked causing issues further down the line, so it is fundamentally important that objectives be understood by everyone involved at all stages of due diligence.

3. Due diligence II: Don’t neglect the people part Many times deal failure can be linked back to poor understanding of the people aspects such as culture of the two organisations and leadership. Serial acquirers know when to bring in HR and typically do so early on. Successful M&A can be as much about integrating people as about financial engineering, and HR-related issues (both financial and non-financial) must be incorporated into the valuation.

4. Post-merger I: Minimise information loss A common issue with acquisitions, again highlighted by the experience of serial acquirers, is that one team handles the pre-closure aspects such as due diligence while another team handles the subsequent integration – this two-team approach risks major information loss at handover.

To avoid this, there should be adequate touch points between the due diligence and integration teams, with the different deal stages managed as a single continuous process.

ARISE 5. Post-merger II: Better use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): The Cass paper underlines the importance of building success metrics into the integration plan. For example, documenting and measuring progress and performance of the integration and retention of key talent, if those have been identified as criteria to measure success. In this respect, two practices from successful serial acquirers are worth borrowing: • Make sure the KPIs connect to the original deal purpose (see point 2), and that all those involved post-deal know what that purpose was.

• Hold people accountable to achieving the KPIs. It is surprising how many companies don’t measure against them.

6. Post-integration: As the dust settles A common issue we see, which is also highlighted by the Cass research, is that most acquirers could improve their knowledge management.

We recommend that after any acquisition of any size, companies do a thorough post-deal review, with participants encouraged to be open about what could be done better next time. The lessons should be codified in M&A playbooks and toolkits to ensure organisational learning.

All these observations will improve M&A performance, but if there is one point to underline, it is the importance of engaging HR well before key deal decisions are made. Successful M&A t eams involve HR expertise in the early stages of due diligence, and they build HR risks (from both financial and integration-execution perspectives) into the deal process. This new Cass research reinforces Willis Towers Watson’s own extensive experience in M&A: that deals are more successful when HR are involved early.

Original Source: Jana Mercereau, Head of Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions for Great Britain, Willis Towers Watson

Jana Mercereau, Head of Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions for Great Britain, Willis Towers Watson

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gamechanger: A visionary strategist bringing fresh and unique ideas to the table, an individual or business that stands out from the crowd with ideas that inventively change the way a situation develops.â&#x20AC;?

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REPORTS A PRESENTATION OF FACTS OR FINDINGS

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EVPA releases The State of Venture Philanthropy and Social Investment (VP/SI) in Europe| The EVPA Survey 2015/2016

132.

Dow Jones VentureSource 3Qâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;16 Europe Venture Capital Report

135.

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions fewer but larger in third quarter

2016 likely to be a record year for M&A announcements; strong Q1 2017 expected

empea evpa intralinks Dow Jones VentureSource Silverfleet Capital Baker & McKenzie Equiteq

Private Equity and Health Care in Emerging Markets

133.

European Buy & Build activity in the first half of 2016 reaches highest level since 2008

Research finds that market dynamics are driving premium M&A valuations for consulting firm owners

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In many ways, health care exemplifies EMPEA’s belief that emerging markets (EM) private equity provides investors the opportunity for outsized returns, as well as positive social impact. Demand for health care products and services has grown faster than overall EM economic activity, and the needs of consumers have outstripped the capacity of public sector options. Many governments, faced with budgetary pressures and preoccupied with ensuring macroeconomic stability in a volatile global landscape, have recognized the need for increased private investment in the sector.

It’s therefore no surprise that health care private equity investment activity in emerging markets has reached the highest levels ever recorded by EMPEA. Yet delivering on the promise of health care in emerging markets requires not just an opportunistic mindset, but patience, creativity and operational insight into what is ultimately a very complex sector.

Key findings in this Special Report include: • Overall private investment in health care reached US$2.7 billion in 2015 across 131 deals—the largest year-end investment totals (both in terms of capital deployed and number of deals) reported for the sector since EMPEA began tracking investment figures in 2008. This year is on track to set a new high, with US$1.7 billion

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invested across 79 deals in the first half of 2016 alone.

• Health care-specific specialist funds are gaining traction in emerging markets, having raised more than US$1 billion in 2015. This is largely a regional phenomenon, however, as the vast majority of health care-specific fundraising is taking place in Emerging Asia.

• Investors in private equity are keen to increase their exposure to health care in emerging markets, ranking the sector more attractive than any other in EMPEA’s 2016 Global Limited Partners Survey. However, LPs express concern about rising valuations (brought on, in part, by the uptick in investor interest).

For investors seeking exposure to health care in emerging markets, private equity is a well-suited strategy through which to access and reap returns from the sector.

Public markets offer very few options for EM health care investment—there are just 34 health care companies in the FTSE Emerging Index and seven health care companies in the FTSE Frontier Index.

Report: https://goo.gl/0xkcdx

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EVPA releases The State of Venture Philanthropy and Social Investment (VP/SI) in Europe | The EVPA Survey 2015/2016

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The European Venture Philanthropy (VP) and Social Investment (SI) sector is a dynamic and evolving sector focused on providing more effective and measurable support for social purpose organisations and tackling the major issues facing our societies today.

For 2015-2016, the sector is reporting growth overall, stabilising budgets, rapidly evolving best practices and a strong increase in co-investment among peers.

These latest trends and key data on this entrepreurial approach to philanthropy can be found in The EVPA Survey 2015/2016.

The survey polled social investors and grant makers based in Europe, of which 69% seek a societal return over a financial one, and 31% consider societal and social return equally important.

The survey had 108 responding European Venture Philanthropy Organisations (VPOs). Interesting key data and trends include: • 72% are structured as not-for-profits (such as foundations, charities or companies with a profitable status).

• Governments, own endowment and trusts are the main sources of VP funding/SI funding, representing, alone, almost half of the total resources made available to VPOs.

in the past and 19% said they are interested in doing so. 51% of those that have co-invested did so with foundations engaged in other forms of philanthropy.

• The majority adapt the funding they offer to their investee/ beneficiary; 59% of respondents always or often do so.

• Grants remain the primary financing instrument in terms of € spend (42%).

• The most commonly targeted social impact themes are economic and social development (receiving 24% of funding), ahead of financial inclusion (19%), education (15%) and environment (14%).

• The main beneficiaries are youth and children, and people in poverty.

• The most common way to strengthen their beneficiaries/ investees organisational capacity is through strategic support (85%), assistance on their revenue strategy (77%) and financial management (73%).

• The majority is focused on outcomes. 96% of VPOs surveyed indicated to measure societal performance of their beneficiaries/investees.

• Social enterprises and non-profits without trading revenues are the main target of investment, receiving 37% and 35% of total funding respectively.

Bernard Uyttendaele, CEO at EVPA, commented: “We’re really excited to see this rise in co-investment, which, to us, indicates more collaboration, a pooling of resources, expertise and best practices to ultimately see more impact.”

• Co-investment is a key component of their investment strategy. 63% of respondents have co-invested

Report: https://goo.gl/Fo9oe1

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Continued strong growth in European M&A, despite UK’s “Brexit” vote Despite the uncertainty created by the UK’s “Brexit” vote in June to leave the European Union (EU), the Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region is showing the strongest growth globally in early-stage merger and acquisition (M&A) activity at 13 percent compared to the same period last year.

This is according to the latest Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor report released by Intralinks Holdings. The Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor also predicts that the global number of announced deals in FY 2016 will be around 3 percent higher than FY 2015. This would make 2016 the new peak for the number of global deal announcements, surpassing the previous peak year of 2007.

“EMEA, despite the uncertainty created by the UK’s socalled “Brexit” vote in a June referendum to leave the EU, is easily the best-performing region this year to date for early-stage M&A activity, driven by continued strong levels of asset disposals in Italy, France, Spain and Germany”, said Philip Whitchelo, Vice President of Strategy & Product Marketing at Intralinks. “Even the UK, where forecasts of a sharp economic slowdown in the aftermath of the Brexit vote failed to materialize in Q3, is showing increased levels of early-stage M&A activity (up 8 percent year-over-year in Q3) after a lacklustre Q2,” he added.

According to Intralinks, the leading global provider of software and services for managing M&A transactions, EMEA’s strong growth in early-stage M&A activity is across the board, with almost all countries in the region, except the UK, posting double-digit gains in Q3. Year-over-year growth in early-stage M&A activity continues to be particularly strong in the Nordics (+57 percent), Benelux (+53 percent), Italy (+50 percent), Spain (+34 percent), France (+13 percent) and Germany (+10 percent).

In the UK, early-stage M&A activity has bounced back, increasing by 8 percent – the UK’s fastest rate of growth so far this year – following the 1 percent YoY decrease in

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Q2 2016, when dealmaking activity stalled in the run-up to June’s Brexit referendum.

The report also reveals that EMEA deal pipelines are increasing fastest in the Real Estate, Energy and Power and Technology, Media/Entertainment and Telecommunications (TMT) sectors.

Other highlights from the Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor report include: 1. In APAC, M&A announcements in Q1 2017 will increase YoY, with the strongest levels of growth coming from India and South East Asia. The top three APAC sectors for YoY growth in Q1 2017 will be TMT, Industrials and Healthcare.

2. In LATAM, M&A announcements in Q1 2017 will decrease YoY, with the strongest declines coming from Mexico and Brazil. Argentina and Chile will show increased levels of M&A announcements. The only LATAM sector that will show YoY growth in Q1 2017 will be Energy & Power. The LATAM sectors with the strongest YoY declines will be Healthcare, Consumer & Retail and TMT. 3. In NA, M&A announcements in Q1 2017 will increase YoY, with Canada contributing stronger growth than the US. The top three NA sectors for YoY growth in Q1 2017 will be Real Estate, Energy & Power and Materials.

The Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor forecasts the number of future M&A announcements by tracking early-stage M&A activity – sell-side M&A transactions across the world that are in the preparation stage or have reached the due diligence stage. These early-stage deals are, on average, six months away from their public announcement.

The Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor has been independently verified as an accurate predictor of future changes in the global number of announced M&A transactions, as reported

by Thomson Reuters.

Report: https://goo.gl/Bs3C9y

r epo rt

Dow Jones VentureSource 3Q'16 Europe Venture Capital Report

Venture Capital Report Europe | 3Q | 2016

VENTURE CAPITAL REPORT

The following report presents Dow Jones VentureSource’s quarterly findings for European venture capital fundraising, investment, valuation, and liquidity. The included charts and graphs offer a comprehensive view of the trends currently affecting the venture capital market.

Highlights for 3Q 2016 include: • European venture capital fundraising declined noticeably from the prior quarter and just slightly compared to the same quarter in 2015; • Venture capital investment into European companies decreased significantly from 2Q 2016; • The number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) was one deal lower, but the total amount raised in M&As experienced a significant increase from the previous quarter; • The number of initial public offerings (IPOs) remained stable and the total amount raised increased significantly from 2Q 2016.

Report: https://goo.gl/FN13Je

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European Buy & Build activity in the first half of 2016 reaches highest level since 2008

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• Silverfleet’s H1 2016 Buy & Build Monitor reported 325 add-ons, up from 250 in H2 2015 • Average deal size increases to £53 million, up from £45 million in H2 2015 • The UK & Ireland was the most active region • Add-on activity in Nordic Region nearly doubled while Spain & Portugal more than halved • Consistent level of add-on activity outside of Europe European Buy & Build activity in the first half of 2016 reached its highest level since 2008 with the largest number of deals in the UK and Ireland, according to Silverfleet Capital’s latest semi-annual European Buy & Build Monitor.

The Buy & Build Monitor, which tracks global add-on activity undertaken by European headquartered companies backed by private equity, identified a provisional total of 325 add-ons in the first half of 2016 compared to the 204 and 250 add-ons recorded in the first and second halves of 2015 respectively.

In the first half of this year the average disclosed value of add-ons was £53 million, up from the average of £45 million in the second half of 2015.The findings show that add-ons by European private equity-backed companies have risen much faster than the buyout market, which has been almost flat. Historically the volume of add-on deals has been strongly correlated with the volume of private equity funded buyouts in Europe and has broadly tracked the trend in the mid-market M&A index.

The two largest add-on acquisitions were both in financial services; Permira-backed Tilney Bestinvest acquired Palamonbacked Towry in a £600 million transaction while Nordic Capital’s Norway-based Lindorff entered the Spanish property non-performing loans market by adding-on Centerbridge’s Aktua in a deal worth £246 million.

Geographic trends The UK and Ireland was the most active Buy & Build region in Europe with 57 transactions in the ‘pre-Brexit’ first half of 2016. The biggest increase in Europe took place in the Nordic Region, which saw 53 add-ons; almost double the

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28 recorded in the second half of 2015. Sweden was by far the largest contributor to the Nordic figure with 25 add-ons followed by Denmark (14), Finland (eight) and Norway (six).

The largest drop in add-ons took place in Spain and Portugal with only seven transactions in the first half of 2016 compared to 20 in the second half of 2015 and 31 for the whole of last year.

Outside Europe, North America continued to be the favourite target for add-ons with 22 deals recorded, over double the number for Asia Pacific (ten).

Despite having Latin America’s largest economy and hosting this year’s Olympic Games, only one add-on was completed in Brazil from a total of five in the entire region, a probable reflection of its current political and financial problems.

Buy & Build value creation Silverfleet partnered with a team from INSEAD to investigate the contribution made by add-on acquisitions to the growth of a business and the investment returns generated.

Its research suggests that while multiple arbitrage is often greater for the add-ons than the original platform, it is however less significant than the add-ons’ potential for EBITDA growth. Less comfort should therefore be taken from any discount in terms of the entry multiple of an add-on.

Commenting on the findings, Neil MacDougall, Managing Partner of Silverfleet Capital said: “The first six months of 2016 have seen a continued increase in Buy & Build activity both in terms of the number of deals completed and their average size.

“In an increasingly expensive but flat buyout market, it’s clear that private equity firms are strongly encouraging their portfolio companies to make add-on acquisitions to help average down high entry prices, drive EBITDA growth and generate investment returns. The benign debt markets over the period no doubt helped to facilitate this increase.

“The UK has been a major contributor to Buy & Build activity so it will be interesting to see what impact the Brexit vote will have on add-on deal flow in the second half of this year.”

Report: https://goo.gl/NBwfHB

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Cross-border mergers and acquisitions fewer but larger in third quarter

CRO B O R SS M& DER Q3 2 A I N 016 DEX

Political and macroeconomic uncertainty as a result of tightening US monetary policy, Brexit, and the upcoming US Presidential election have continued to stifle cross-border M&A activity, according to Baker & McKenzie’s Cross-Border M&A Index for Q3 2016. Buyers announced 1,275 crossborder deals worth US$373bn, dropping 22% in volume and 5% in value compared to Q3 2015.

However, large multinational strategic buyers’ focus on growth through acquisition pushed cross-border valuations up 64% from Q2 2016. As a result, Baker & McKenzie’s Cross-Border M&A Index, which tracks quarterly deal activity using a baseline score of 100, increased to 238 for Q3 2016, up 23% from the prior quarter but down 10% from Q3 2015.

“The dip in deal volume this quarter was not a surprise for many as mid-market M&A volumes traditionally dip around US elections and we continue to experience political and macroeconomic uncertainty globally,” said Michael DeFranco, Chair of Baker & McKenzie’s Global M&A Practice.

“On the flip side, while still down from a year ago, we are beginning to see a re-emergence of the megadeal.”

The increase in deal value was largely driven by renewed confidence at the upper end of the market with several blockbuster deals being announced. While deals above US$1bn were down 25% when compared to Q3 2015 they were a regular occurrence, particularly for inbound deals into the US.

volume was 290, an increase of 27% year-over-year.

Cross-regional deals with South African buyers reached their second largest value since the Baker & McKenzie Cross-Border M&A Index began, hitting US$4.8bn.

Chemicals and materials, energy and utilities, and technology were the drivers of high value M&A, with deal totals of US$77bn, US$73bn and US$60bn respectively.

A Focus on Luxury The luxury goods market has been a diamond in the rough for M&A in 2016. With an M&A market that is failing to live up to its blockbuster standards of the past two years, luxury cross-border deals have seen a 53% rise in volume in the first nine months of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015. Despite a 21% drop in value year-over-year, the sector is up 27% compared with the first nine months of 2014.

“The top 5% of the luxury market was not as materially affected by the economic downturn as the rest of the industry,” said Marc Levey, Co-Chair of Baker & McKenzie’s Luxury & Fashion Industry Group. “And there is a major drive among those big luxury companies to build up or round out their portfolios.”

In 2016, over half of all deals targeted EU-based companies and the most targeted countries by volume were the UK, US and Italy. The most targeted country by value was Germany, with three deals worth US$3.3bn.

Regions and Sectors

Spotlight on Warranty and Indemnity Insurance

Despite shockwaves sent through the EU M&A market in Q3, due to the results of the UK referendum, EU outbound deals accounted for 44% of all cross-regional M&A value in Q3. Deals from the EU into North America saw record values with US$105bn from 121 deals, an increase of 32% yearover-year. Cross-regional EU inbound deal volume slumped by 30% when compared to Q2 2016 and 24% compared to Q3 2015.

The use of warranty and indemnity (W&I) insurance has continued to increase its presence in M&A deals around the world. Initially prevalent in certain domestic markets, such as the UK, US and Australia, it is now seen in a growing number of jurisdictions including Central Europe and Southeast Asia.

Asia-Pacific buyers carried out 174 cross-regional deals in Q3 worth a record high US$86bn, an increase in value of 30% on Q3 2015 and 67% on Q2 2016, representing 32% of all cross-regional activity. Japan was the most active Asian buyer by value, with 69 deals worth a total of US$44bn, sparked in part by negative interest rates and strong corporate balance sheets. China is on pace for a record year in outbound M&A deal value and volume. Through the first nine months of 2016 the total outbound deal value was US$165bn, an increase of 129% year-over-year, and total outbound deal

“In our experience, warranty and indemnity insurance helps buyers and sellers allocate risk in a way that is commercially acceptable to both parties,” said DeFranco.

“Even in jurisdictions that have long been accustomed to warranty and indemnity insurance, we’ve seen a noticeable surge of interest in its use over the past 12-18 months.”

The increased usage of W&I insurance is a result of decreased premiums, an increase in principal and adviser experience and an increase in successful claims.

Report: https://goo.gl/6rSUgI

135 Gamechangers

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Research finds that market dynamics are driving premium M&A valuations for consulting firm owners

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Equiteqâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2016 survey of global buyers of knowledge-intensive services businesses, found that strong acquisition demand coupled with fewer opportunities coming to market is creating increased competition for assets, leading to robust valuations for business owners. With an average budget for consulting acquisitions of $70m and an expectation to make nearly 4 acquisitions in the next 2-3 years, the research found that strategic buyers have significant propensity to buy.

Private equity respondents, not only show a willingness to pay a higher price but have an interest in Intellectual Property rich consulting businesses and appetite for businesses with a financial services or healthcare sector focus. This independently conducted research of Management consulting, IT consulting, Media and Marketing, Engineering consulting and HR consulting buyers, found convergence as a key buying trend. Notably, Human resources buyers are looking to acquire in Management consulting and there is convergence in demand between Management consulting, IT consulting and Media buyers as well as across IT consulting and Engineering consulting buyers.

David Jorgenson, CEO at Equiteq comments, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our key takeaway from the report is that sellers should take advantage of the current conditions. Demand for acquisitions remains very strong, and the momentary slowdown in new opportunities mean that sellers may be able to extract a scarcity premium through a carefully managed sale process.â&#x20AC;?

Report: https://goo.gl/22ys0a

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