How US-based financial provider StoneX’s growth has accelerated its growth thanks to iDeals’ VDR

Overview

“When we, as buyers, can serve our sellers up a data room, immediately, we confidently say, here you go, you can use iDeals to your heart’s content!”

Jonathan Kay, Corporate Development Director at StoneX Group Inc., a Fortune 100 financial services company, has no doubt in recommending iDeals to streamline the process of managing several buy-side M&A deals. 

Since 2018, they have been relying on iDeals, recognizing the platform’s unparalleled capabilities in meeting their requirements with precision, speed and efficiency, “sellers really appreciate our ability to promptly prepare a data room for them that they can use right away.”

The context

StoneX provides a global network offering market access to customers wanting to trade, invest, speculate, or hedge in financial markets across the globe. With a rich legacy spanning almost a century, they have established their presence on six continents through a workforce of over 3,800 professionals. 

In 2018, when they were invited to act for the sell-side on a few deals, they decided to look for a cost-effective and easy to use platform capable of expediting due diligence within a secure environment. 

Key challenges

StoneX’s main objective was to make the transactions more efficient. They were looking for a platform that could provide them with:

• Fast uploads for all file formats
• A secure depository with an intuitive interface
• Controlled granular permissions for different users
• An in-built communications management system
• Real-time tracking of all activities
• Excellent customer care

Solution

Beyond their initial expectations, iDeals proved to be remarkably intuitive “not only for experienced users who want to configure things in great detail, but also for people with limited knowledge of VDRs”, concludes Jonathan.

At each stage of the deal, the StoneX team was impressed by how the platform made the whole due diligence smoother. Using iDeals they were able to:

• Organize the documents with the automated indexation
• Create new folders and invite users to exchange information
• For roadshows, open separate new rooms on the platform for each potential bidder and track potential buyers’ level of interest and monitor the progress of each bid

The attention and timely intervention of iDeals’ customer support was another aspect that positively impressed the team. Jonathan also appreciates the “really useful” chat being available 24/7.

The future

Today, StoneX has 34 projects running on the platform as part of their Enterprise Plan. In the great majority of those projects, the company acts either on the buy-side or as a broker/facilitator. 

In the first case, StoneX stores data for M&A and corporate development and grants sellers access to the data room. In the second case, the company provides confidential space for fixed-income and equity businesses such as roadshows for equity, debt, and convertible offerings.

Jonathan is still amazed by the flexibility of the platform faced with such different use cases: “the two use cases we have are buy-side M&A and sell-side fixed income and equity, yet it can do both of those things equally well.” 

Apart from the benefits already mentioned in terms of added efficiency, StoneX’s other top reasons for continuing to use iDeals are:

• The simple interface – “it makes it very easy to understand and set up”
• The reliability – “knowing you can access time-sensitive and confidential data whenever you need it”
• The flexibility – “being able to serve different use cases, client types, and users.”