Categories: OLD Media Moves

Reuters parent in talks to sell big division

U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP is in advanced talks to buy an approximate 55 percent stake in the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp., reports Pamela Barbaglia of Reuters.

Barbaglia reports, “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 percent stake in the F&R business as part of a partnership with the U.S. buyout firm, according to the sources.

“The deal would be structured to pay more than $17 billion to Thomson Reuters, for a unit with an enterprise value of about $20 billion, two of the sources said. That $17 billion would include about $4 billion in cash from Blackstone and about $13 billion financed by new debt taken on by the new F&R partnership, the sources said.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.