How and why Euronext Corporate Services is leading the industry behind the industry

In 2016 the Euronext Group instigated a strategic plan to diversify and augment its exchange business beyond volume-driven activities. As part of this initiative, Euronext Corporate Services was established in order to provide clients with a range of services aimed at helping them thrive in capital markets.

Today, Euronext Corporate Services supports over 4,000 organisations including Allianz, Siemens, and KLM in 25 countries with services ranging from investor relations to communications to compliance and governance, alongside a professional development academy. 

I sat down with Head of Euronext Corporate Services Pierre-Edouard Borderie to learn more.

Building Through Buying

Launching a new business is no easy feat by any measure, but when that business is a subsidiary of one of the most recognisable names in Europe, and able to leverage its strengths, certain advantages are bound to occur.

“We are like a scale-up, but one of the benefits of being backed by a group the size of Euronext is that as long as you have meaningful projects, people trust you to deliver, and access to funding is an issue, but it’s not an issue,” said Borderie.

This backing can be seen clearly in the origins of Euronext Corporate Services, where a series of strategic acquisitions helped drive the company from zero to hero at breakneck speed.

“We mostly grew by acquisitions. Between 2017 and 2018 we acquired four businesses in four different verticals,” explained Borderie. “With the acquisition of iBabs, we were able to offer governance services. Online, hybrid and in-studio communication via webcast and webinars services were added through the acquisition of Company Webcast. In the compliance products area, we acquired InsiderLog, now part of our ComplyLog suite of products. And then IR.Manager, an investor relations CRM that complements our existing IR advisory services.”

At the time of acquisitions, combined revenues generated by these four companies equated to approximately €10 million. Demonstrating the acceleration capacity of the Group, that number quadrupled just four short years later.

“We put a lot of muscles at work across the organisation, and sales and marketing in particular as Euronext Corporate Services acquired very good products in domestic countries. We took them internationally; iBabs was a company founded in the Netherlands, operating only in the Netherlands, now they have sales in 7 different countries and has grown fourfold since we acquired it,” elaborated Borderie.

The organisation has since gone on to make further acquisitions, snapping up Helsinki-based compliance firm Ticker Software and French webcast and corporate events specialist 3sens in 2020. Additionally, Euronext Corporate Services’ newest offer, Academy, is an integration of an asset obtained through Euronext’s acquisition of Borsa Italiana.

Local Expertise, Global Connections

By default, Euronext Corporate Services has access to a pan-European network at its fingertips, but that doesn’t mean that it’s tailoring its offer as a one size fits all.

I asked Pierre-Edouard about Euronext Corporate Services’ entry into the Italian market following the Group’s acquisition of Borsa Italiana in 2021 and how the organisation he oversees goes about crafting nuances.

“We developed all our solutions there. We grew Italy in under 6 months, hiring local staff for all of our existing solutions. We learn the ropes, the ways of doing business in each local market. Once we’ve combined this knowledge with our experience and the full capacity of Euronext Corporate Services, we present an offer no one else can match.”

Doubling Down on Studios

One particular focus for Euronext Corporate Services is on expanding the geographic footprint of its webcast offer, which is already the largest webcast studio network in Europe. In April of this year, the organisation opened a new broadcast-quality studio in London, and is currently in the process of replicating this model in Milan and Frankfurt.

In a post-pandemic world this might seem counterintuitive, but according to Borderie, due to the nature of repeat business and an overall acceptance that streaming is now “normal”, Euronext Corporate Services is doubling down on its video offer.

“We do a lot of work with listed companies and stream their quarterly results, for example. This is repeat business. We did lose some one-off business post-covid, but the hybrid way of doing business now presents a tremendous opportunity, as evidenced by our opening of these new studios.”