Investment corporation Alpha Dhabi closed two billion-dollar deals in the UAE using the efficiency of an Ideals data room
Real Estate
Industry
Real Estate
Overview
Alpha Dhabi Holding PJSC (ADH) is one of the fastest-growing investment conglomerates in the UAE. Listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, it operates across multiple business sectors with a focus on supporting local companies as the country transitions from an oil-based to a knowledge-based economy.
After comparing several Virtual Data Room (VDR) providers for M&A and financing deals, the company chose Ideals for its accessible interface and customer service. Investor Relations Manager Archana Koka said: “Ideals is the best VDR solution, so we signed up.”
ADH has now completed 10 deals using Ideals, including debt financing and two billion-dollar M&A transactions.
The context
Founded in 2023 by the merger of two flourishing local investment firms (Alpha Dhabi and Trojan Holding), ADH has a portfolio of leading Abu Dhabi-based companies in healthcare, renewable energy, petrochemicals, real estate, construction, and hospitality. Overall it encompasses more than 250 companies, employing more than 95,000 people.
ADH planned several more strategic M&A deals in the public domain and needed a secure platform where the financial, legal, and investment teams could safely share documents.
“Ideals comfortably provided everything we wanted from a data room,” said Archana.
Key challenges
ADH needed to share highly confidential information among their own teams and with third-party consultants involved in deal negotiations. “It was mainly financial and legal,” said Archana. “But also information related to tax and commercial contracts. Everything we needed for an M&A deal.”
Their key requirements were:
- User-friendly, centralized document and data storage
- State-of-the-art security features
- Different permission levels for each type of user
- Granular reporting to track deal progress
Solution
ADH was pleased with the excellent user experience and customer service from Ideals, eventually using the VDR for 10 projects that included two billion-dollar M&A deals.
As well as M&A, ADH used the platform for debt financing and strategic partnerships, with up to 50 users on the bigger projects. Thanks to Ideals, the teams could:
- Set up a new room and organize the folder structure in less than a day
- Use the redaction tool to control who saw what
- Find files easily using the project index
- Receive instant notifications when new documents were uploaded
- Access customer support 24/7
- Archive each finished project onto a USB
Archana was most impressed by the speed of response from the Ideals team: “We experienced a small problem during one deal, and when my colleague reached out to customer support it was resolved within 30 minutes.”
The future
ADH intends to continue its rapid rate of expansion in the UAE and expects to use Ideals again for future deals. Archana says that the VDR’s user-friendly document index makes it really easy for everyone to locate the files they need and that the customer support is second to none.
“We could reach out to the Ideals team at any time that we wanted,” she explained. “Everything Ideals did was on time; there were never any delays.”
As ADH invests in ever more companies, Archana promises: “Whenever one of our future subsidiaries needs a data room, I will introduce them to Ideals.”
