Carlyle launches takeover bid for vwd Group

At €2.80 per share, the bid sits above the current €2.79 price and values vwd at €72.1m, which corresponds to a 35% premium on the weighted average market price over three months.

More than 90% of shareholders have already agreed to the bid, including the management and board members of vwd subsidiary European Derivatives Group, a provider of risk assessment and product ratings in Germany.

Equity for the takeover will be drawn from Carlyle Europe Technology Partners II, which closed on €530m in November 2008.

Carlyle already owns a number of financial data and data management services companies across the world, including FRS Global in Belgium, ITRS Group in the UK and P&I Personal & Informatik AG in Germany.

Listed on the German Xetra exchange, vwd was founded in 1949 and is based in Frankfurt. In 2011, it recorded sales of €81m. The company's current market cap is €71.9m.

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• Buyouts
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