Officials: Equity firm’s direction increased SNL value
This article originally appeared in The Daily Progress
The private equity firm that acquired a majority ownership of Charlottesville-based SNL Financial for $450 million in 2011 and helped arrange…
This article originally appeared in The Daily Progress
The private equity firm that acquired a majority ownership of Charlottesville-based SNL Financial for $450 million in 2011 and helped arrange its sale for $2.225 billion to McGraw Hill Financial helped make the local financial reporting firm an international success, company officials say.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2015, pending regulatory approval.
Under New Mountain Capital’s direction, SNL bought 12 companies in four years and expanded its products and revenues across Europe, Asia and Latin America, creating new products and expanding coverage of industries, officials said.
SNL provides breaking news, financial data and analysis on more than 6,500 public companies and 50,000 private companies in banking, insurance and other financial services as well as real estate, energy, media and communications, and metals and mining.
Since August 2011, when New Mountain invested in the company, SNL Financial added about 1,300 jobs worldwide, nearly doubled its revenue and expanded from covering four countries to 10.
“New Mountain’s goal is to build great businesses,” said Steven B. Klinsky, the founder and CEO of New Mountain. “SNL’s five-fold growth in enterprise value since 2011 is a strong and positive example of this goal.”
“Today’s development is the culmination of a highly successful partnership that the SNL Financial management team and I have had with New Mountain over the past four years,” said Reid Nagle, founder of SNL Financial. “Since taking a majority stake in SNL in 2011, New Mountain has kept all of its promises and exceeded all of my expectations.”
What the sale may mean for the Charlottesville area is uncertain.
“I know very little about it, but I know it’s good for stockholders and SNL investors and I’m sure it’s good for McGraw Hill,” said Timothy Hulbert, president and chief executive of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. “As for whether it will be good for the area depends on whether they consolidate jobs and where those consolidations take place. There is bound to be some overlap.”
