Greater international drive and stronger service offering for H&H with Sage Holdings as new owner

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Hallvarsson & Halvarsson (H&H), one of the Nordic region’s leading corporate communications consultancies, is being acquired by Sage Holdings, the transatlantic financial communications and stakeholder management firm. “Sage will give us greater international drive, making us an even stronger partner for our clients within key global expansion areas such as transactions, shareholder services, investor relations and online communication,” says Anders Halvarsson, Chairman of the Board for H&H.

Since the company was established in 1995, H&H has grown faster than the market and its competitors. H&H now has 100 employees. Taking the Nordic region’s leading core competence within financial communications and web services as a starting point, its operations have evolved into a complete corporate communications offering.

In an increasingly globalised world, growing companies need to invest more and more resources in communicating professionally with all their stakeholders, whilst strengthening their brand within an international context. With Sage as its owner, and with executive management roles, H&H’s employees will help to build up a leading international group of companies with a sharp focus on financial communications. H&H will be specifically responsible for the group’s global web offering and Northern Europe. The group already includes one of the foremost US shareholder services consultancy businesses, D. F. King as well as Europe’s fastest growing financial communications firm, M:Communications. Its growth strategy includes additional acquisitions on both sides of the Atlantic and in Asia.

“We are delighted to welcome H&H to Sage,” says Dr Oliver Niedermaier, President and CEO of Sage Holdings. “H&H is a real success story. It has grown rapidly, and boasts a large number of heavyweight clients. With its core competence within strategic and financial communications, backed up by a sophisticated, complete and internationally-successful web offering, H&H’s service model is a close fit with Sage’s ambitions, making this a logical acquisition. Our business concept has proven popular with clients and potential partners alike, and there are excellent growth synergies with D. F. King and M:Communications.”

“After more than 13 years of rapid growth in Sweden, our growth strategies now feature an increasingly international focus,” adds Martin Petersson, CEO of H&H. “We have worked alongside D. F. King and M:Communications, and have found them to be highly professional organisations. Joining Sage’s growing international family will enable us to enhance our offering to current and potential clients, as well as providing exciting new challenges for our employees. With additional resources at our disposal and the full backing of both management and our consultants, the continued growth of our Swedish and Nordic client base is assured.”

Enquiries:

Martin Petersson, CEO of H&H, +46 709 71 12 91

Anders Halvarsson, Chairman of H&H, +46 709 71 12 50

Dr. Oliver Niedermaier, President and CEO of Sage Holdings, +1 212 493 6954

Sage Holdings LLC (www.sageholdings.com) is the leading transatlantic stakeholder management and financial communications firm.  Formed in 2007, with Private Equity backing from Riverside (www.riversidecompany.com) Sage companies include leading proxy solicitation company D.F. King (www.dfking.com) and Europe’s fastest growing financial communications firm M:Communications (www.mcomgroup.com).  Sage Holdings employs over 900 professionals, with offices in New York, London, Dubai, Munich and now Stockholm.