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Darby Overseas Investments, the PE arm of Franklin Templeton Investments,said that its Darby Technology Ventures Fund sold Atvi to Euronet Worldwide. Ativi is a Brazilian prepaid payments processor. Financial terms were not announced.

PRESS RELEASE

Darby Overseas Investments, Ltd. (”Darby”), the private equity arm of Franklin Templeton Investments, announced that its Darby Technology Ventures Fund (”DTV”) sold Ativi, a Brazilian prepaid payments processor, to Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ: EEFT), a leading payments processor headquartered in Leawood, Kansas. Ativi, based in Sao Paulo, distributes electronic prepaid products through a network of over 14,000 retail locations throughout Brazil.

Darby led a buy-out of Ativi in 2005, together with Intel Capital and Santiago-based MiFactory, with the objective of establishing the company as the leading electronic distributor of prepaid products in Brazil under new senior management. The company successfully refocused on its core business of electronic distribution of prepaid cellular airtime. Since Darby’s investment, Ativi’s sales grew by 6500%, its retail distribution network grew 1200%, and it has been consistently profitable since 2006. Ativi recorded net revenues of approximately $44 million over the past 12 months.

Jonathan Whittle, head of Darby’s Latin American technology investments, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ativi, said: “The Company prospered as a result of the strong growth in Brazil’s cellular market and from the transition from physical distribution of prepaid airtime to electronic distribution. The management team did a great job establishing Ativi as a clear market leader, with the highest retailer productivity and profitability in the industry. Ativi is an ideal platform for Euronet’s entry into the Brazilian market, and we look forward to seeing the company continue to prosper under new ownership.”

Darby Technology Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on Latin American early stage technology companies. DTV has backed a number of successful companies in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Central America, helping them to establish strong market leadership in key Latin American countries and develop significant operations internationally. Other DTV investments in Brazil include a leading provider of digital identity solutions and a prominent global provider of mobile enterprise software solutions.

Darby Overseas Investments, Ltd. was founded in 1994 by The Honorable Nicholas F. Brady, who served as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury between 1988 and 1993. Richard Frank joined the firm as CEO in 1997 after his career at the IFC/ World Bank. In 2003, Darby became a fully owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN), a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments. For more information please visit darbyoverseas.com.

Franklin Templeton Investments provides global and domestic investment management solutions managed by its Franklin, Templeton, Mutual Series, Fiduciary Trust, Darby and Bissett investment teams. The San Mateo, CA-based company has more than 60 years of investment experience and over US$602 billion under management as of July 31, 2010. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.com.

Source: http://www.pehub.com

HOUSTON, Sep 01, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — EquaTerra, a global business advisory firm, today announced it has appointed Rick Bertheaud to lead its Finance and Accounting (F&A) Advisory practice, and Sarah Pfaff to lead its Procurement and Supply Chain Advisory group.

Bertheaud has more than 25 years of expertise in process redesign, organization restructuring and change leadership in outsourced, shared services and internally transformed environments. He has redefined and implemented finance and other staff function delivery models for clients including Nestle, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Pearson and Darden Restaurants. According to Bertheaud, “In response to the economic downturn, most organizations in 2009 looked to short-term mandates to retrench finance and other back-office functions. In 2010, we’ve seen many of these same organizations taking a more programmatic approach to transformation to lock in lower costs for the longer term, as evidenced by a resurgence of interest in shared services and outsourcing initiatives. Today’s clients are seeking quicker paybacks, shorter deal terms and less investment in technology and other transformation — in essence, they are looking to quickly reduce and variablize costs as they position themselves for an unknown economic future.”

Pfaff has spent the past two decades helping organizations realign their cost structure, governance and management processes, establish shared services centers, evaluate and transition services to outsourcing arrangements, reengineer business processes and reduce overall cost structure and spend. Before joining EquaTerra she founded eBreviate, an eSourcing firm, and was executive vice president of consulting services and chief marketing officer at FreeMarkets. Said Pfaff, “As a result of the recession, which slashed procurement budgets and teams, today’s chief procurement officers are increasingly leveraging both internal transformation and outsourcing to achieve greater procurement savings. And while there had previously been a focus on just the transactional procurement processes, companies today are expanding their view across the full procurement lifecycle, from strategic sourcing to payment.”

EquaTerra’s F&A Advisory practice helps organizations select the right service delivery strategy, per their unique requirements, to reduce the cost of F&A processes, improve overall business performance, support growth and maintain compliance. Its advisors support clients in all phases of the lifecycle, from F&A strategy and assessment to implementation to operational governance. The firm’s Procurement and Supply Chain Advisory practice helps clients gain an in-depth understanding of their current procurement operations, and then determine the right strategy, implementation approach and operational governance model to boost cash flow and drive improvement across category management, cataloging, ordering and the rest of the procurement cycle.

About EquaTerra

EquaTerra sourcing advisors help clients achieve sustainable value in their IT and business processes. Our advisors average more than 20 years of industry experience and have supported more than 2,000 transformation and outsourcing projects across more than 60 countries. Supporting clients throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, we have deep functional knowledge in Finance and Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Real Estate & Facilities Management and other critical business processes. EquaTerra helps clients achieve significant cost savings and process improvement with internal transformation, shared services and outsourcing solutions. For more information, please contact Lee Ann Moore at +1 713.669.9292; www.equaterra.com.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com