Blackstone in talks to buy majority stake in Thomson Reuters unit
Under Blackstone’s offer terms, Thomson Reuters will keep a 45 per cent stake in the financial and risk business as part of a partnership with the US buyout firm, say sources
US private equity firm Blackstone Group LP is in advanced talks to buy an approximate 55 per cent stake in the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp, a deal that would value the unit at about US$20 billion including debt, three sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.
Thomson Reuters’ board, the sources said, is expected to meet on Tuesday to discuss Blackstone’s offer for the F&R business, which supplies news, data and analytics to banks and investment houses around the world. The unit contributes more than half of Thomson Reuters’ annual revenues.
Under the terms of the Blackstone offer, Thomson Reuters would retain a 45 per cent stake in the F&R business as part of a partnership with the US buyout firm, according to the sources.
Thomson Reuters would receive more than US$17 billion for the deal, including about US$4 billion in cash from Blackstone and about US$13 billion financed by new debt taken on by the new F&R partnership, two of the sources said. The whole F&R business is valued at about US$20 billion, consisting of about US$7 billion in equity and US$13 billion in debt, they said.
Thomson Reuters said in a statement late Monday that “it is in advanced discussions with Blackstone regarding a potential partnership in its F&R business.” The company gave no more details. A spokeswoman for Blackstone declined to comment.
If the board agrees to a deal with Blackstone, it would represent the biggest shake-up of Thomson Reuters since it was formed a decade ago by Thomson Corp’s acquisition of Reuters Group Plc. Canada’s Thomson bought London-based Reuters for £8.7 billion in 2008, worth US$17 billion at the exchange rate at the time.