Astorg, Epiris to buy Euromoney in £1.6bn deal

18th Jul 2022 07:45

(Sharecast News) - Euromoney Institutional Investor has agreed to be bought by a private equity consortium led by France's Astorg Asset Management for £1.6bn.

The consortium, which also comprises London-based Epiris, will pay 1,461p per share in cash, which is a premium of around 33.5% to closing share price on 17 June, prior to the commencement of an offer period.

Euromoney chair Leslie Van de Walle said: "The board believes the offer represents value for shareholders and reflects the attractions of Euromoney's business model and performance. I would like to recognise the exceptional contribution of our people.

"Their insight, talent and innovation has driven our successful transition to a fast-growing, high margin, 3.0, information-services business."

Ian Wood and Chris Hanna, Partners of Epiris, said: "Epiris is an experienced and successful investor in the B2B information space, including some of the components of the broader Euromoney business.

"Euromoney has a superb portfolio of market leading information and events businesses. We will empower the individual teams of these business and back them with further investment to accelerate growth, both organic and through M&A."

News of the takeover came alongside a trading update from Euromoney, in which it said that full-year results were set to be ahead of the board's expectations following a stronger-than-expected third quarter.

In an update for the nine months to 30 June, the company said underlying group revenue rose 20% to £304.3m, while underlying subscriptions growth was 7% to £194.4m and underlying events growth 83% to £86.6m.

In the third quarter, group reported revenue was ahead 52% at £119.7m, while underlying growth in subscriptions was 5% and events was 115%. Euromoney said events revenue of £44.1m represented 86% of Q3 2019 levels.

"We delivered a stronger-than-expected Q3 performance; continued growth in subscriptions was accompanied by high demand for a number of our largest events of the year," it said.

"Taking into account the Q3 performance, we now expect the results for FY 2022 to be ahead of the board's previous expectations."