Euromoney agrees to £1.6b private equity takeover

FINANCIAL news and information business Euromoney Institutional Investor has agreed to sell itself to a private equity consortium for about £1.6 billion (S$2.7 billion).

Euromoney investors will receive £14.61 per share from Luxembourg-based private equity manager Astorg Asset Management Sarl and British firm Epiris, the companies said in a statement on Monday (Jul 18). Euromoney had announced the talks last month.

The deal is a 34 per cent premium to Euromoney's share price on Jun 17, the day before the discussions were disclosed. The buyout companies will separate Euromoney into 2 businesses, hiving off commodity pricing data business Fastmarkets to become a stand-alone unit that will be owned by Astorg, they said in the statement. The remaining Euromoney businesses will be majority controlled by Epiris.

London-based Euromoney sells subscriptions to financial professionals and also runs events, a business line which rivals like Informa are seeing bounce back as global pandemic restrictions lift. The Daily Mail & General Trust previously held a large stake before spinning it out in a shareholder distribution in 2019.

Euromoney shareholders will vote to approve the deal at a general meeting. The takeover is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Euromoney rose 8.9 per cent to £14.46 in early London trading on Monday. BLOOMBERG