Verisk Analytics £1.85 billion acquisition of Wood Mackenzie

Overview:

• Verisk Analytics has acquired Wood Mackenzie from Hellman & Friedman, Charterhouse Capital Partners and other shareholders for £1.85 billion.
• Wood Mackenzie is an Edinburgh based research and consultancy company that provides data, analytics and intelligence to the energy, chemicals and mining industries.
• Verisk is a supplier of data to insurers and banks.
• To fund the acquisition Verisk issued $900 million 4% senior notes due 2025 and $350 million 5.5% senior notes due 2045. In addition the company issued 10.6 million shares at $70.00 per share raising $722 million, and took out $1 billion under its existing revolving credit facility.
• Verisk also took out a $2.9 billion bridge loan linked to the transaction. Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as lenders.
• Hellman & Friedman acquired a 63% stake in Wood Mackenzie in 2012 for £1.1 billion.
• Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch were financial advisers to Verisk. Deutsche Bank and Lazard advised Wood Mackenzie.

Sam Duke - Editor