Astorg, Epiris to split Euromoney in two in GBP 1.6bn agreed offer

Rachel Lewis
18 July 2022

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Astorg and Epiris will own different segments of Euromoney after the parties agreed on a GBP 1.6bn deal to take the UK-based market information publisher private.

Post-deal, Astorg will own Euromoney's Fastmarkets, which tracks commodity pricing, while the Espiris-controlled bidco will own its Financial & Professional Services (FPS) and Asset Management businesses.

The take-private bid at 1,461 pence per share gives Euromoney an enterprise value of GBP 1.6bn, a 20x trailing EBITDA multiple.

Euromoney's shares were trading this morning at around 1,451 pence. The offer is a 10% premium on where the company's shares were trading yesterday and around 34% up from June 17, when discussions were first disclosed.

Astorg and Epiris have made four previous offers for the publisher with offers ranging from GBP 11.75 to GBP 13.50 per share.

This is the first to be accepted by the Euromoney directors, who will recommend unanimously that shareholders accept the bid. The bid needs 75% of shareholders to approve.

Epiris' portion of the equity will be completed via Epiris Fund III, which was registered in March this year.

In the first nine months, Euromoney's revenue grew 30% to GBP 304m.

The deal follows a steady stream of sponsor-backed media processes. In February, Warburg Pincus carved out Informa's Pharma Intelligence division for around 24x EBITDA, while the sponsor has also recently collected first-round bids for its debt intelligence asset Reorg.

Advisors
Bidco - BofA Securities (M&A); Raymond James (M&A).
Euromoney - Goldman Sachs (lead M&A); UBS (M&A); Numis (corporate broker).