The Advisory Board Company Announces Proposed Public Offering of Common Stock

The Advisory Board Company ("the Advisory Board" or "the Company")

, a global, insight-driven technology, research, and services provider to the health care and higher education industries, today announced a proposed public offering of 4,700,000 shares of its common stock. Approximately 3,275,000 shares are being offered by the Company and approximately 1,425,000 shares are being offered by Royall Holdings, LLC, the previous owner of Royall Acquisition Co., which the Advisory Board acquired on January 9, 2015. Royall Holdings, LLC received its shares as part of the acquisition purchase price. The Company intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 705,000 shares of the Advisory Board common stock, with those shares exclusively offered by and proceeds exclusively received by Royall Holdings, LLC. The Advisory Board intends to use the net primary proceeds from the proposed offering, or approximately $150 million, to repay a portion of the senior secured term loan facility drawn to fund the acquisition of Royall Acquisition Co. J.P. Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Barclays are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. A prospectus can be obtained by contacting J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, telephone: (866) 803-9204; BofA Merrill Lynch, Attn: Prospectus Department, 222 Broadway, New York, NY 10038, email: dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com; Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attn: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014; or Barclays Capital Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, email: Barclaysprospectus@broadridge.com or telephone: (888) 603-5847. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.