By Beranger Guille in London
Bids for Bureau van Dijk, the Belgium-based data business company being sold by private equity group Candover, were due on Wednesday, several sources close to the situation said.
Providence is among those first round bidders, it is understood. Strategic interest for the business has not been as strong as initially expected, two sources close to the situation said.
The first source noted that when the Bureau van Dijk sale was first being shopped, it was only open to trade buyers. Since then the sale process has been opened to include private equity, which the source interpreted as a sign of limited interest by trade buyers.
Some of the most obvious bidders such as Reuters, Dow Jones, Pearson and Thomson Financial are seen unlikely bidders, for their own different reasons.
Private equity firm CVC was said to be out, while Blackstone was said to be less aggressive and Veronis Suhler was thought not to have submitted a bid.
These sources also mentioned the fact that Bureau van Dijk does not technically own its own information, as a potential cause for concern for potential bidders. On the other hand, one source noted that it can be seen as a high-quality asset, as reflected in the 9-10x EBITDA multiple being offered in two separate staple finance packages from Goldman Sachs and RBS.
Bureau van Dijk’s products include bank, corporate and M&A databases such as BankScope and AMADEUS and ZEPHYR.
Earlier reports have cited Reed Elsevier, Apax-owned Incisive Media, McGraw-Hill and Factset, the US-based business data publishers, as potential trade buyers.
Two sources said a valuation range of EUR 650m and EUR 700m was reasonable. Goldman Sachs and LongAcre are advising on the sale.
Source :
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/abebb736-15af-11dc-a7ce-
000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html |
