Cathay Capital Private Equity has made a put option to the aufeminin group for the acquisition of Smart AdServer, which would subsequently become independent.
With the support of Cathay Capital, Smart AdServer intends to strongly accelerate its development to become a leading advertising platform. This investment would be made by the Cathay Capital II and the Sino-French Fund for SMEs, two investment vehicles dedicated to accelerating the international growth of midcap companies.
Since 2001, Smart AdServer has developed and marketed an integrated advertising management platform, with strong positioning in Europe and significant market share in North and South America. Historically positioned on ad serving, with a recognized leadership on mobile advertising, the company launched its Smart RTB+ and Smart Video solutions in 2013. These two strategic sources of growth are both experiencing an exponential development. In 2014, the company also entered the North American market by opening an office in New York.
Smart AdServer employs a hundred employees across 10 countries and generated a turnover of 14 million Euros in 2014. Every month, the company delivers more than 140 billion advertising impressions (20 billion for mobiles), for more than 450 clients (publishers, marketers and agencies), 300 of which are international leading brands. Among Smart AdServer’s clients are Hi Media, Axel Springer, Le Figaro, Antevenio, Clarin, Le Monde, IQ Digital, Netbook, L’Equipe, aufeminin, etc.
Cathay Capital plans to partner with Smart AdServer with the intention of accelerating the company’s international business development, particularly by leveraging Cathay’s strong experience in cross-border growth strategies and active presence across three continents (North America, Europe and China). In the United States, the company could thus build on its initial success on this market by potentially strengthening its New York office and by shortly opening an office on the West Coast so as to have total coverage of the USA. Then, Smart AdServer would look to develop its activities in Asia in the coming years.
With Cathay Capital’s support and experience, the company could accelerate its development so as to become the leading advertising platform for premium players. The company would be able to undertake significant innovation investments in order to strengthen its leadership position on its historical activities while continuing to build strong positions on the emerging business areas of programmatic and video.
Mingpo Cai, President of Cathay Capital Private Equity, says: “We are delighted at the prospect of welcoming Smart AdServer’s teams, led by its talented CEO Cyrille Geffray, into the Cathay ecosystem. Smart AdServer is a historical actor within a market experiencing strong growth, driven by the strong rise in programmatic investments within advertiser’s budgets as well as the strong business dynamic ongoing in the United States. We therefore expect the market potential of Smart AdServer to rise from 60 million dollars today to over 3 billion dollars by 2017. Provided that the transaction unfolds as planned, our truly global footprint and vast business network spanning three continents should help Smart AdServer to leverage these positive fundamentals by stepping up its international expansion.”
