Ardian exits TimeOne

Christopher Papadopoullos
02 October 2017

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Ardian has sold its stake in digital marketing business TimeOne to Edmond De Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRip).

Co-founder Ralph Ruimy sold his stake, while fellow co-founder Sylvain Gross will become CEO and the group's managers will increase their stake.

TimeOne was formed in 2016 as the result of a merger between Ardian portfolio companies Public-Idées and Place des Leads, with an extra €5m equity injection from the GP. Its consolidated turnover is around €50m. Both firms were initially investments of the FPCI Ardian Croissance fund.

This latest transaction was done via EdRip's ActoMezz investment team, via its eponymous fund, which provides equity and mezzanine funding. LCL, Crédit du Nord, Caisse d'Epargne and BNP Paribas provided a debt package to finance the deal.

Company
TimeOne's activities are structured around content creation, data analysis and new technologies. Its services cover mobile marketing, lead management technology, social media and publishing, among others. The group is present in France, the UK, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Asia and South America.

People
TimeOne – Ralph Ruimy (co-founder); Sylvain Gross (CEO).
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners – Arnaud Faure (ActoMezz deputy director); Christine Martinovic (investment director).
Ardian – Romain Chiudni (senior investment manager); Laurent Foata (head of Ardian Growth).

Advisers
Vendor – DC Advisory (corporate finance); McDermott Will & Emery (legal, tax); KPMG (financial due diligence).
Equity – Hogan Lovells (legal, tax); Neovian Partners (commercial due diligence); ACA Nexia (financial due diligence).