Acuris is a British financial news and data firm known for its

fixed income Fixed income refers to any type of investment under which the borrower or issuer is obliged to make payments of a fixed amount on a fixed schedule. For example, the borrower may have to pay interest at a fixed rate once a year and repay the pr ...

research provider ''Debtwire'' and ''Mergermarket'', a specialist in M&A intelligence. It is owned by ION Investment Group, a financial software and data business which owns

Fidessa Fidessa group Holdings Ltd (formerly Fidessa Group Plc), is a British-headquartered company which provides financial markets software and services, such as trading and investment management systems, analytics and market data, to buy side and sel ...

and

Dealogic Dealogic Ltd. is a financial markets platform offering integrated content, analytics, and technology via a service to financial firms. From origination to distribution and investors, the Dealogic platform provides a connection across banking, c ...

. ION Investment Group bought the company from

BC Partners BC Partners LLP is a British international investment firm with over $40 billion of assets under management across private equity, credit and real estate in Europe and North America. Its global headquarters are in London. The firm invests across ...

, a private equity group, and

GIC Private Limited GIC Private Limited is a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund that manages the country's foreign reserves. Established by the Government of Singapore in 1981 as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, from which the acronym "GIC" is ...

, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, in 2019. Formerly known as Mergermarket Group, the company has 1,300 staff, including 600 journalists and analysts, in 67 locations around the world, with regional hubs in London, New York, Mumbai and Hong Kong.

History

Acuris began with a single product, Mergermarket, which was established in December 1999 by founders Caspar Hobbs, Charlie Welsh and Gawn Rowan Hamilton. Its founding idea was that in the M&A market, “There is a lot of information out there but very little intelligence.” In August 2006 the company, then known as Mergermarket Ltd, was acquired by The Financial Times Group for £101m, publisher of the Financial Times newspaper and FT.com. FT Group was a division of Pearson PLC, the international media group. In 2013, the company was renamed to Mergermarket Group. In November 2013, Pearson agreed to sell Mergermarket Group to London

private equity investor Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

in a transaction valuing the business intelligence and news service at £382m including debt. Based on the deal, Mergermarket Group was valued at 15 times its last year operating income. On 15 January 2014,

Moody's Investors Service Moody's Ratings, previously and still legally known as Moody's Investors Service and often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its histo ...

assigned a B3 corporate family rating to the Mergermarket Group. In July 2017, the Mergermarket Group rebranded as Acuris. The announcement of this move fueled speculation that a sale of the company might come in the next year. Indeed, BC Partners sold a minority stake of around 30% to Singapore sovereign wealth fund

GIC GIC may refer to: Education * Ghana Insurance College, in Accra, Ghana * Government Intermediate College, a type of school in India * Grait International College in Nigeria * Gyosei International College in the U.K., defunct Finance * General ...

in July 2017. In May 2019, BC Partners sold a majority stake in Acuris to ION Investment Group, a financial software and data business which owns

, in an £1.35bn deal. BC Partners will retain a 25% stake in the company, while GIC is selling out.

Services

Acuris sells web-based subscription services organised under six divisions: * Fixed Income (including the following services: Debtwire, Xtract Research, and Creditflux) * Transactions (including: Mergermarket, Unquote, AVCJ, and Activistmonitor) * Infrastructure (including: Inframation and SparkSpread) * Risk & Compliance (including: Acuris Risk Intelligence, Wealthmonitor, Anti-Corruption Report, Hedge Fund Law Report, Capital Profile, Cybersecurity Law Report, Private Equity Law Report, and Blackpeak) * Equities (including: Dealreporter, PaRR, and TIM) * Research (including: Acuris Studios and Perfect Information)

Acquisitions and divestitures

* 2007 – Infinata * 2010 – Xtract Research * 2012 – Inframation Group * 2013 - Sale of MergerID * 2014 – Perfect Information * 2014 – Law Report Group * 2015 – AVCJ and Unquote * 2015 – C6 Group * 2016 – Creditflux * 2017 – Sale of Infinata * 2017 – TIM Group * 2018 – Spark Spread * 2019 – Blackpeak

References

{{reflist Business intelligence companies Financial data vendors Consulting firms established in 1999 Financial services companies established in 1999 Research and analysis firms Research and analysis firms of the United Kingdom 2013 mergers and acquisitions British companies established in 1999