Acuris

Acuris
Formerly
 Mergermarket Group
Privately held company
Founded December 1999 (1999-12) (as Mergermarket Group)
Founders Caspar Hobbs
Charlie Welsh
Gawn Rowan Hamilton
Headquarters London, England, U.K.
New York City, New York, U.S.
Hong Kong
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Hamilton Matthews (CEO)
Jonathan Gomer (CFO)
Owner BC Partners
GIC Private Limited
Website www.acuris.com

Acuris, formerly Mergermarket Group (Mergermarket Ltd.), is a media company that provides specialist news, research, analysis and data on financial markets. It is owned by BC Partners, a private equity group. Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Limited has a minority stake.

The company has 1,300 staff, including 600 journalists and analysts, in 67 locations around the world,[1] with headquarters in London, New York and Hong Kong.

History

Acuris began with a single product, Mergermarket, which was established in December 1999 by founders Caspar Hobbs, Charlie Welsh and Gawn Rowan Hamilton. Its founding idea was that in the M&A market, “There is a lot of information out there but very little intelligence.”[2]

In August 2006 the company, then known as Mergermarket Ltd, was acquired by The Financial Times Group for £101m,[3][4] publisher of the Financial Times newspaper and FT.com. FT Group was a division of Pearson PLC, the international media group.

In 2013, the company was renamed to Mergermarket Group. In November 2013, Pearson agreed to sell Mergermarket Group to London private equity investor BC Partners in a transaction valuing the business intelligence and news service at £382m including debt. Based on the deal, Mergermarket Group was valued at 15 times its last year operating income.[5]

On 15 January 2014, Moody's Investors Service assigned a B3 corporate family rating to the Mergermarket Group.[6]

In July 2017, the Mergermarket Group rebranded as Acuris. The announcement of this move fueled speculation that a sale of the company might come in the next year.[7] Indeed, BC Partners sold a minority stake of around 30% to Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC in July 2017.[8]

Services

Acuris sells web-based subscription services organised under five divisions:

Fixed Income: Debtwire, Xtract Research, Creditflux

Transactions & Infrastructure: Mergermarket, Unquote, AVCJ, Activistmonitor

Compliance: Hedge Fund Law Report, Anti-Corruption Report, Cybersecurity Law Report, Wealthmonitor, C6, Capital Profile

Equities: Dealreporter, PaRR, TIM

Research: Acuris Studios, Perfect Information

Acquisitions and divestitures

2007 – Infinata

2009 – Capital Profile

2010 – Xtract Research

2012 – Inframation Group[9]

2014 – Perfect Information[10]

2014 – Law Report Group[11]

2015 – AVCJ and Unquote[12]

2016 – C6 Group[13]

2016 – Creditflux[14]

2017 – Sale of Infinata[15]

2017 – TIM Group[16]

2018 - Spark Spread

References

  1. ↑ "The Acuris Story". Acuris. 2017-05-17. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  2. ↑ "Army major cashes in on Mergermarket sale". The Independent. 2006-08-09. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  3. ↑ https://www.pearson.com/news/announcements/2006/august/pearson-acquires-mergermarket-adds-new-financial-content-and-serv.html
  4. ↑ "Pearson agrees to sell Mergermarket unit to BC Partners". Financial Times. Financial Times. 29 November 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  5. ↑ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/396ca876-58e9-11e3-a7cb-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2piulFB00
  6. ↑ "Moody's assigns B3 CFR to Mergermarket; stable outlook". 15 January 2014.
  7. ↑ http://www.cityam.com/263372/mergermarket-rebrand-fuels-speculation-possible-sale
  8. ↑ https://realdeals.eu.com/news/2017/07/03/bc-partners-sells-minority-stake-mergermarket-gic/
  9. ↑ "Mergermarket acquires Inframation Group". Private Equity Wire. 2012-09-14. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  10. ↑ "Mergermarket Completes £26M Perfect Info Buy - WatersTechnology.com". WatersTechnology.com. 2014-06-30. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  11. ↑ "Law Report Group sold on to Mergermarket". www.globallegalpost.com. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  12. ↑ "Incisive Media sells AVCJ and Unquote to Mergermarket - Incisive Media". Incisive Media. 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  13. ↑ "Mergermarket Group Acquires C6 Intelligence". FinSMEs. 2015-11-12. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  14. ↑ Ratcliffe, Madeline (2016-01-06). "Mergermarket continues global expansion by buying Creditflux". Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  15. ↑ Harrington, Ben (2017-03-19). "Data giant sells £20m arm". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  16. ↑ "Mergermarket Group acquisition". TIM Group. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
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