For immediate release 17 January 2019
RWS Holdings plc
Acquisition of Alpha Translations Canada Inc.
RWS Holdings plc ("RWS", "the Group"), a world-leading provider of intellectual property support services, localization and life sciences and commercial language services, today announces the acquisition of Alpha Translations Canada Inc. ("Alpha Translations"), a leader in expert legal and financial translations, for a cash consideration of US$6.0m ("the Acquisition").
Based in Alberta, Canada, Alpha Translations provides rapid delivery of high-quality legal and financial translations to multinational law firms and corporations, with a client base principally located in Germany. The company supports clients by helping them to achieve their international business goals and prides itself on its ability to deliver across multiple jurisdictions, typically to short deadlines, on business-critical matters. Clients include many of the world's top 100 law firms and Fortune 500 companies.
The acquisition will be highly complementary to RWS's existing Language Solutions business and will strengthen its specialist legal and financial translation offering. In particular, the acquisition will enhance RWS Language Solutions presence in its key growth areas of North America and Germany, significantly enhancing its legal client base.
Alpha Translations achieved revenues of US$4.4m for the year ended 31 July 2018 and an adjusted EBITDA1 of US$0.9m.
Andrew Brode, Chairman of RWS, commented:
"The acquisition of Alpha Translations is a natural fit to strengthen our existing specialist legal and financial translation services, while providing a strong roster of clients in Germany, a key area of focus for our Language Solutions business.
"We see a number of opportunities for Alpha Translations to benefit from RWS's scale and global presence, particularly the prospect of developing sales opportunities across the Group's full suite of services and technology platforms to new and existing clients."
1 EBITDA - profit before tax adjusted for interest, depreciation, amortization and other non-recurring costs.
For further information, contact:
RWS Holdings plc
Andrew Brode, Chairman 01753 480200
Richard Thompson, Chief Executive Officer
MHP
Katie Hunt / Simon Hockridge 0203 128 8100
Numis
Stuart Skinner / Kevin Cruickshank (Nominated Adviser) 0207 260 1000
Michael Burke (Corporate Broker)
About RWS
RWS is the world's leading provider of intellectual property support services (patent translations, international patent filing solutions and searches), a market leader in life sciences translations and linguistic validation, a leading localization provider, and a high-level specialist language service provider in other technical areas, providing for the diverse needs of a blue-chip multinational client base spanning Europe, North America and Asia.
RWS is based in the UK, with offices in Europe, the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Australia and Argentina, and is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L).
For further information, please visit: www.rws.com.
