Euromoney agrees to £1.6bn takeover deal
Bosses at financial publishing firm Euromoney announced that they had agreed to a £1.61bn takeover deal today from a consortium of investors led by Becketts Bidco today, setting in motion the likely breakup of the group.
In an announcement this morning, Euromoney’s board chiefs said the cash offer presented a 33.5 per cent premium on the firm’s closing price of £10.94 per share on 17th June, when the offer period began, which they considered “fair and reasonable”.
The deal implies a value of over 21.5 times FTSE-250 Euromoney’s EBITDA for the 12 months to 30th September last year and approximately 20.2 times Euromoney’s EBITDA for the 12 months to 31st March 2022.
Becketts is now angling for a breakup of Euromoney and the likely separation of the firm’s Fastmarkets information service from the rest of the group. The consortium said the division would allow the group to pursue “their various strategies in ways more tailored to their differing financial characteristics and end markets.”
In a statement today Euromoney and the Fastmarkets Business, James Davis, Partner, and Michal Lange, Director, at Astorg, said they had “tracked Fastmarkets for many years and have long admired its defensible business model, high quality platform and strong growth”.
“We look forward to providing the additional capital and resources that are required to accelerate Fastmarket’s next phase of organic and inorganic growth,” they added.
“This investment further demonstrates Astorg’s commitment to backing fast-growing data and software businesses.”
The deal will see Euromoney shareholders pocket 1,461 pence in cash per share, with the acquisition expected to go in the final quarter of this year.