Cohen & Company is a full-service Investment Bank, spanning across 12 global offices. Bilal Mir, an Analyst within the Sales Advisory & Trading department, recently ran a successful sale process for a €350m Ukrainian Corporate and CRE Loan Portfolio on behalf of a Western European Bank.

At the insistence of the client, the project began using a different data room platform. However, problems began to manifest almost immediately: Bilal’s team and the investors struggled to understand which files had been uploaded or updated, whilst users complained the software was difficult to use, thus slowing progress.

Bilal acted quickly, mirroring the data room on the Projectfusion platform. When users complained about the functionality of the old data room, they were advised to utilise the Projectfusion site.

“Everything was just easier,” Bilal says, “easier to navigate and monitor changes, the layout of Projectfusion made it very easy to follow.”

Migrating the project was achieved quickly and painlessly. “The support is the stand out feature of the service.” he continues. “At first, I was skeptical about in-app chat, but I was soon receiving quick responses and assistance from the help desk, from within the data room. As it was my first use of the permissions module, they helped me set up the folder and file permissions. This screen shows all the folders in the data room, as well as useful colour coded permission blocks.”

Users were so satisfied with the service, they naturally migrated to Projectfusion to complete the transaction.

Using reporting to help investors

Cohen & Company use their global reach and investor database to deliver clients the best price for distressed assets and non-performing loans (NPLs).

As part of their sale process, investors can be cautious about specific details of a proposed deal, but Projectfusion helps to resolve issues quickly.

When an investor has a concern about the repayment history of a NPL, for instance, advisors are able to see exactly which files have been viewed by the investor – and which haven’t – allowing them to direct the client to additional, pertinent information. Equally, if nothing has been overlooked, it is quickly apparent where further clarification or investigation is required.

“Easy on the eye, easy to use, no issues for clients. Speedy help desk and permissions mean efficient administration.”

Multiple deals, fast setup

Projectfusion is now Cohen & Company’s preferred data room and there are usually around 50 data rooms and collaboration sites running, for a range of projects from equity raising to NPL sales and debt restructuring.

As a result, Cohen & Company chose to run their own branded service. It is white-labelled as a Cohen & Company service, and has its own Cohen & Company web address, which helps promote their brand and provides users with a familiar, reassuring experience.

A typical Cohen & Company data room will have 10 or so top level folders, each with 3 or more sub-folders. However, Bilal’s team can set up and structure a new data room in less than 90 minutes. Their familiarity with the platform, combined with its ease of use, means they can act efficiently when setting up and managing projects on behalf their clients.

Bilal concludes, “Easy on the eye, easy to use, means no issues for clients and investors. A speedy help desk and easy permissions mean efficient administration.”

About Bilal Mir

A Philosophy, Politics and Economics graduate from Swansea University, Bilal has a background in Investment Banking (Sales and Trading), Investment Management (Equity Funds), Commodity Derivatives Trading and Insurance Sales.

About Cohen & Company

Cohen & Company is a full-service investment bank with the experience and capital base necessary to provide trusted advice, intelligent solutions and superior execution to financial institutions as well as middle-market and small-cap companies.

Projectfusion

Projectfusion setup the first European data room service in 2001. They continue to innovate with published transparent pricing, fingerprint secured iPad clients and a unique threaded Q&A service for deals.