Exponent sells Gorkana for £200m

The deal marks an exit for Exponent's Fund I, which held a final close in August 2004 on £400m, well above its original £300-350m target.

DC Advisory was hired by Exponent in May this year to run a sales process. According to the advisory firm, several private equity bidders and trade players took part in the process.

Cision recently merged with Vocus, another US marketing and PR company, which is owned by Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR.

Gorkana CEO Jeremy Thompson has become part of Cision's executive management team in the role of EMEA managing director.

Previous investment
Gorkana Group was formed through the merger of Durrants, Metrica and Gorkana in 2010. Exponent acquired Durrants in April 2006 for £82m, buying the business from August Equity. According to unquote" data, £46m in debt facilities was provided by Bank of Ireland and Barclays.

Exponent went on to acquire Metrica and Gorkana in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Company
Headquartered in London with an additional office in New York, Gorkana is a provider of media intelligence and services such as marketing and PR campaigns.

The company claims 35,000 PR firms use its service and 100,000 journalists receive its daily news alerts.

People
Jeremy Thompson is the CEO of Gorkana.

Advisers
Company – DC Advisory (Corporate finance).

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• Topics
• Exits
• UK / Ireland
• Media
• Exponent Private Equity
• United Kingdom
• Trade sale