London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has agreed to divest its wealthtech platform to US private equity firms Clearlake Capital Group and Motive Partners for a total cash consideration of $1.1bn.
The transaction is expected to conclude in the second half of this year.
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The to-be-sold business, which is collectively called BETA+, consists of BETA, Maxit and Digital Investor.
It provides back-office processing solutions to wealth managers, such as securities processing and tax reporting.
The business was acquired by LSEG as part of its $27bn takeover of financial data provider Refinitiv in August 2019.
In the year ended on 31 December 2021, BETA+ reported revenues of approximately $300m, majorly linked to US markets.
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By GlobalDataThe deal comes as LSEG looks to deal to cut its debt and offer returns to shareholders following Rifinitiv acquisition, according to multiple media sources.
The firm said the sale would de-lever it towards the middle of its leverage range.
It also plans to return a significant proportion of the net proceeds to shareholders through a buyback programme, which is expected to begin in the third quarter of the year.
LSEG Data & Analytics group head Andrea Stone said: “The divestment of BETA+ will focus LSEG’s Wealth business on meeting our customers’ needs in high growth areas. This includes the provision of data, analytics and workflow tools where we have deep capabilities and where LSEG is driving innovation.”
As part of the deal, LSEG signed long-term strategic partnership with BETA+ and portfolio companies owned by Motive and Clearlake for data, content and tools.
The partnership will offer new, recurring revenues for LSEG through access to new client segments, it said.
Both divestment of BETA+ and the partnership is expected to drive the wealth segment of LSEG’s Data and Analytics business, which will now seek mid-single digit annual revenue growth in the medium term.
Stone added: “The partnership with BETA+ under its new owners offers a platform for further revenue growth in content and data while ensuring continuity for customers under a new owner focused on this segment of the market.”
Last month, LSEG struck a deal to buy TORA, a cloud-based trading technology solutions firm, in a $325m deal.
It followed the group’s agreement to acquire Quantile Group in December 2021.
