PriestleySoundy has advised the international (UK and US) Senior Management of Acuris in connection with the sale of a majority stake of the business to ION Investment Group for a reported £1.35bn (US $2.39bn).
Founded in 2000 and with nearly 1,500 employees in 66 locations worldwide, Acuris (formerly known as Mergermarket Group) provides proprietary, actionable intelligence, data and analytics to the world’s principal advisory firms, investment banks, law firms, hedge funds, private equity firms and corporates.
Acuris was acquired by BC Partners via a carve-out from publishing group, Pearson (then owner of the Financial Times), for £382m (US $678m) in 2013. In June 2017, BC Partners divested a 30% stake in Acuris to GIC. Mark Soundy and Sarah Priestley previously advised the Senior Management in connection with both those transactions.
ION is a Dublin-based holding company that, through its investments, provides data, analytics and mission-critical trading and workflow solutions to financial institutions, central banks, governments and corporates. It is backed by Carlyle Group. The acquisition will extend the expansion of ION into trading and cash management tools, data and analytics for capital markets.
BC Partners is a leading international investment firm with over €25bn of committed capital in private equity, private credit and real estate. It will retain a minority stake of 25% in Acuris and will reportedly generate around five times the return on its original investment.
GIC is a global long-term investor with well over US$100bn in assets in over 40 countries worldwide.
ION reportedly succeeded ahead of competing interest from trade buyers, including Fitch Ratings and Moody’s, and other private equity groups, including Advent International and EQT.
BC Partners was advised by Dickson Minto. ION was advised by Linklaters.
13th May 2019
