Intracto, a digital agency offering consulting services for all digital needs of its clients, has agreed to acquire Prophets. The acquisition fits entirely within the prospects of both companies. On the one hand, Prophets will be able to further spur its internalization focus and increasing profitability as part of a larger entity. On the other hand, with its perceptible growth potential, Prophets will continue its success story by serving international companies with superior financial performance.
Prophets is an Antwerp-based firm with an additional office in Brussels, which assists firms in embracing the ever changing digitalization of society through, for example, digital marketing campaigns, creative production innovation, CRM and social media management. Founded in 2004 as a digital marketing consultancy company, Prophets has already worked for an extensive client base including big names such as Mobistar (now Orange), Nokia, De Lijn and many more. In 2014, Prophets noticed an increasing amount of companies had communication issues arising from the increasing digitalization of society. Therefore, the company decided to broaden its scope and provide answers to these issues. By doing so, Prophets has advised clients such as Audi, Q8, Barco, among others, who by now have become “full communication” clients. Since this extension of Prophet’s activity, the company grew from an annual turnover of 7 MEUR in 2015, to 10 MEUR in 2019.
On the other side of the takeover was Intracto, one of the largest digital agencies in Belgium, and Waterland, a large private equity firm. The acquisition was made as part of the Buy & Build strategy, in which Prophets will play an integral part.
The M&A team of BDO Corporate Finance Belgium assisted the management of Prophets throughout all steps of the transaction process. Besides, BDO Belgium’s Transaction Services team executed the Vendor Assistance as part of the due diligence phase. The acquisition, led by investment fund Waterland, related to 100% of the shares previously owned by the founders Björn Joos and Tom Willemkens.