IHS Markit announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Ipreo, a financial services solutions and data provider, for $1.855 billion from private equity funds managed by Blackstone and the Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2018.
IHS Markit also announced that, following a detailed review of its financial services businesses as part of a disciplined capital allocation strategy, it has initiated a process to sell MarkitSERV, its derivatives processing business. MarkitSERV is a leading provider of end-to-end trade processing and workflow solutions across OTC derivatives asset classes.
In a separate announcement, IHS Markit expanded its MarkitSERV Integrated Reporting to CME Group’s Trade Repositories in Australia (ASIC) and Europe (EMIR). Integrated Reporting supports multiple asset classes, repositories and jurisdictions. It provides a controlled and customizable solution for regulatory reporting, supplying clients with static data management, business rules, dashboards, workflow and reconciliation tools. The service accepts trade, pricing and collateral data from a range of trading venues, client systems, core MarkitSERV platforms and other IHS Markit services. Integrated Reporting sources certain technology from Catena Technologies, a provider of web-based regulatory reporting and technology consultancy services.
In addition, IHS Markit has hired Paul Wilson as managing director and global head of securities finance based in London. He will expand the commercial strategy and product set of the IHS Markit Securities Finance business through strategic engagement and collaboration with the firm’s growing client base. Wilson had been with J.P. Morgan for over three decades, most recently as head of agency lending, a role he left in mid-2017.