Moravia Joins Forces with RWS to Create a Global Leader in Language Services

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Oct. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Moravia announced today that RWS Holdings plc ("RWS"), a world-leading provider of intellectual property support services, commercial translations and linguistic validation, has signed a purchase agreement to acquire the Moravia IT Group companies ("Moravia"). Previously, the majority interest in Moravia was owned by Clarion Capital Partners, LLC ("Clarion"), a New York-based middle market private equity firm, since their acquisition of the company in February 2015. The transaction is still subject to antitrust approval in the US, which the companies hope to receive in late October/early November.

Moravia will operate as an autonomous division of RWS, continuing to focus on providing specialized globalization services, digital marketing and technology outsourcing services to the world's blue-chip, high-growth companies.

Moravia has built a unique reputation in the market for providing highly customized solutions and has become the first-ever company in the language services market to surpass $150 million in revenues based solely on organic growth. The company has increased revenues by a CAGR of 26.0% from US$100.3m in 2014 to US$159.2m in 2016, and has enjoyed a strong organic growth throughout 2017 as well.

Moravia's Life Sciences language services unit will complement the newly created RWS Life Sciences division, which consolidates RWS's recent acquisitions of LUZ, Inc. ("LUZ") and Corporate Translations, Inc. ("CTi"), to provide a unique breadth and scale of services on the life science translation services market.

"We're excited to become part of the RWS Group and to be able to provide a wider range of talents and services to our clients," commented Tomas Kratochvil, Moravia's CEO. "Our business activities, vertical market focus, geographies and client base are uniquely complementary. In addition, we share much of the same DNA and value system as RWS. Both Moravia and RWS focus on a specific set of values?being human, flexible, creative and determined?and we see our companies' success as a result of these values. Like us, RWS grew over the past decades from a family business to a top 10 provider globally. Their absolute focus on quality to ensure very complex patents are translated so that the intellectual property of its clients can be maintained throughout the world, is very close to the trust our clients have with us."

"We are delighted to announce the proposed acquisition of Moravia which will greatly increase our exposure to the high-growth technology sector, will add a third market leading business of scale to the Group and will extend our global presence," added Andrew Brode, Chairman of RWS. "Its focus on addressing its clients' large, complex and time-critical localization requirements across more than 160 languages and multiple platforms will be an excellent fit alongside our existing market leading intellectual property and life sciences services."

"We have been thrilled to partner with Moravia helping it to expand its customer base and further institutionalize its operations. RWS will be a terrific partner for Moravia as it embarks on its next leg of growth," said Jonathan Haas, Managing Director at Clarion Capital Partners, LLC.

About Moravia
Moravia is a leading globalization solution provider, enabling companies in the information technology, e-learning, and life sciences industries to enter global markets with high quality multilingual products. Moravia maintains global headquarters in the Czech Republic and North American headquarters in California, with local offices and production centers in Japan, China, Latin America, Ireland, USA and throughout Europe. To learn more, please visit www.moravia.com.

About RWS
RWS is the world's leading provider of patent translations and one of the leading players in the provision of intellectual property support services and a market leader in life sciences translations and linguistic validation as well as a high-level specialist language service provider in other technical areas, providing for the diverse needs of a blue-chip multinational client base from Europe, North America and Asia. RWS is based in the UK, with offices in Europe, the USA (New York, Hartford, Broomfield, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago), China, Japan and Australia, and is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L). For further information, please visit www.rws.com.

About Clarion Capital Partners
Clarion Capital Partners, LLC is a New York based private equity firm that focuses on making control equity investments in lower middle market growth companies. Clarion's industry focus includes Business & Healthcare Services, Specialty Financial Services, Media, Entertainment & Technology, and Consumer & Retail. Additional information on Clarion can be found at www.clarion-capital.com.

SOURCE Moravia