Dublin-headquartered Ion Investment Group has acquired a majority stake in financial information service Acuris in a deal reportedly valued at more than £1 billion (€1.15 billion)
Acuris’s services, whose services include Mergermarket and Debtwire, provides insights and analytics across six key financial areas: fixed income, transactions, equities, compliance, infrastructure and research. It claims 115,000 daily users and nearly 5,000 subscribing firms.
The group, which was formerly known as Mergermarket, was acquired by equity firm BC Partners for a reported £382 million (€440 million) from Pearson in late 2013.
BC Partners is to retain a minority stake of 25 per cent in Acuris as part of the transaction.
Big acquisitions
No financial details of the deal were disclosed but the Financial Times reported it was worth £1.35 billion (€1.56 billion).
Ion, which is backed by private equity group Carlyle, has become one of Europe's largest software companies, supplying data analytics and trading and risk software to the world's financial markets.
Founded in 1999 by former bond trader Andrea Pignataro, the company has been involved in a number of big acquisitions in recent years, including the £1.5 billion (€1.73 billion) acquisition of rival Fidessa in April 2018.
Other deals include a majority stake in Dealogic, and the full acquisition of Patsystems, FFastfill, Rolfe and Nolan and Wall St Systems.
“Acuris’ leading position in financial intelligence, data and analytics is highly complementary to Ion’s business. Together, Ion and Acuris will continue to deliver innovative, differentiated intelligence and solutions to financial institutions and corporations,” said Mr Pignataro, Ion’s chief executive.
