Datenschutzbestimmungen

Last updated: 30 November 2021

1. About us and our privacy policy

Oaklins International Inc. consists of member firms (each a “member”) operating around the world. Our members are separately constituted and regulated investment banking and/or financial advisory firms that provide M&A, corporate finance, debt advisory, growth equity and ECM services in accordance with the relevant laws of the jurisdictions in which they respectively operate.

Our websites (www.oaklins.com and valuations.oaklins.com) are operated by Oaklins International Inc. (“we”, “our” or “us”) on behalf of our members.

Each of our members collects various personal information (also referred to as personal data) about individuals in the course of their business activities, for example information about business contacts, individuals working for or investing in clients and other individuals connected with the transactions in which our members are involved, or who interact with our members in the course of their business. Each of our members is a separate data controller of any such personal information, and is responsible for holding and using such personal information in accordance with the relevant data protection laws applicable to such member. As such, the privacy practices of our members may vary among the countries in which they operate. This privacy policy gives you an overview of what information our members may collect and for what purposes. Regarding personal data held by our members where there is any conflict between this privacy policy and the privacy policies of our members, the policies of our members will prevail. Please contact the relevant members for more details about how they collect and process personal information, and about the rights you may have concerning your personal data under the relevant local laws.

We are not responsible for and disclaim all liability with respect to compliance by our members with any applicable data protection laws.

Our websites collect certain limited information about visitors to our websites or those that interact with us through our websites, for example by contacting us or booking an event. For such individuals, this privacy notice will inform you about your privacy rights and how we look after your personal data as well as how the law protects you. Oaklins International Inc. is a data controller with respect to any personal data collected via our websites.

This privacy policy also applies to those who apply to work with Oaklins International Inc., whether as an employee, worker or contractor, but it does not apply to any individuals working for our members. This privacy policy has been written in accordance with the data protection legislation applicable in the European Union, namely the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

2. What information do we and/or our members collect and for what purposes?

If you are a visitor to our websites, we may collect certain technical information about your visit, such as your internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our websites. We collect such data for administrative and statistical purposes and to help us operate and improve our websites.

If you make an inquiry by email or telephone, we or the relevant member will collect your name and contact information, which will be used to respond to your inquiry. We or our members may also keep records of such communications and/or add your contact details to our business database if we (or the relevant member) believe we may have a good reason to contact you in the future.

If you register or are invited by a member to attend an event organized by us, we will use your name, contact details and the name of the organization you work for in connection with organizing the event. We will store such information in our database and our members will be able to access it.

If you are applying to work with Oaklins International Inc., for example as a contractor or consultant, we will collect, store and use the information you provide to us in your application and any information you provide to us during your interview to assess your suitability for the role, to communicate with you about the engagement process, to make a decision as to whether to enter into a contract with you and to keep records of our hiring process. We may also carry out background and reference checks, if applicable.

Similarly, if you are an individual working for a client or business contact of our members, the relevant members will keep your contact details and the name of the organization you work for as well as any other information about you that they may come across in the course of their business. This information will be used by such members in order to manage and maintain their relationship with you and/or the organization you work for, provide their services, comply with such member regulatory and reporting obligations, liaise with you and other parties involved in a transaction, and generally manage their business, including for accounting and audit purposes. Our members may share certain information relating to their clients with other members if it is necessary in the context of a transaction or in connection with a business opportunity.

As regulated professional services firms, our members may be required to conduct “know your customer” and anti-money laundering checks. As a result of such checks, our members may collect detailed information about certain senior individuals involved in the businesses concerned. Some of this information may be collected directly from the individuals and/or organizations involved, while some of it may be collected from publicly available sources and/or credit reference or ID checking agencies. Our members will also come across and process various documents that contain personal data in the course of the provision of their services. Our members may share this information with other members who may be involved in the same transaction, but they will not share it with us.

If you register to use the Oaklins Valuation Index service, your contact details will be shared with members of Oaklins International Inc. and the data provider S&P Global Market Intelligence in accordance with the terms and conditions for that service.

3. The lawful basis of processing of your personal information

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to, i.e. when it is necessary to perform our contractual obligations toward you and/or the business you work for; comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; and pursue our legitimate interests (for example conducting our business in an efficient, compliant and profitable manner). It may also become necessary to process your personal data for legitimate interests of a third party, for example another member firm, or other financial advisor involved in the same transaction. Please refer to our members’ privacy notices/policies for information about the lawful grounds on which our members rely to process personal data.

4. Keeping your data secure

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those of our personnel and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

While we will use all reasonable efforts to safeguard your personal data, you acknowledge that the use of the internet is not entirely secure and, for this reason, we cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal data that is transferred via the internet. If you have any particular concerns about your information, please contact us.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

5. Transfers of your information out of the EEA

We store our databases on servers provided by a third-party supplier, which are currently located in the United Kingdom. Our members make their own data storage and hosting arrangements in relation to any data held and/or processed by them.

We and/or our members may need to transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), for example if one of our suppliers or members is located outside the EEA. Any transfer of your data will be subject to appropriate safeguards, for example a European Commission approved contract (if appropriate) that will ensure you have appropriate remedies in the unlikely event of a security breach.

6. Data retention

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data; the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data; the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means; and the applicable legal requirements.

As our members operate in different jurisdictions, they may be subject to different requirements as to the retention of records. Please refer to the relevant member’s privacy policy or contact any such member directly to obtain further details about data retention periods.

In some circumstances, we may anonymize your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you.

7. Rights and duties

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you may have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information, commonly known as a “data subject access request”. This enables you to receive a confirmation from us as to whether we process any of your personal information or not, and if this is the case, to receive a copy of such personal information and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information, often referred to as “the right to be forgotten”. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us to continue to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to the processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example, if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it, or if we no longer need your data for our legitimate interests but we need to hold some of it for the purpose of legal proceedings.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you would like to exercise any of the above rights, please:

• email, call or write to us (see below);
• let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving license or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill). This is to allow us to verify your identity and prevent disclosure to unauthorized third parties; and
• let us know the details of your request, for example by specifying the personal data you want to access, the information that is incorrect and the information with which it should be replaced.

Please note that if you request erasure, object to our processing of your personal data or request the restriction of our processing of your personal data we may not be able to provide our services in relation to your requirements.

8. Contact us or the relevant supervisory authority

Please contact us if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.

If you wish to contact us, please send an email to privacy@oaklins.com.

We have appointed Christopher Scales as our representative in the EU/EEA, who can be contacted at c.scales@oaklins.com.

If you wish to contact any specific member of Oaklins, please refer to the relevant section on our websites for their contact details. If you are based in the EU or other EEA countries, you have the right to make a complaint at any time to the relevant local supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your residence or place of work. Please contact us if you wish to receive the details of the relevant supervisory authority.

9. Changes to the privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. Please refer to this website for the most recent copy of this privacy policy.