McGraw Hill Buys SNL Financial in $2.2B Deal

McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., which is the parent company of Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, S&P Capital IQ, Platts, J.D. Power and Associates, and is the majority owner of the S&P Dow Jones Indices joint venture, announced this week that it had executed an agreement to acquire SNL Financial for approximately $2.225 billion in cash. Founded in 1987, Charlottesville, VA-based SNL Financial is privately held by an affiliate of New Mountain Capital LLC with approximately 3,000 employees based in 10 countries. According to a New York Times article, New Mountain Capital took a majority stake in the firm in 2011 in a deal that it said valued the company at about $450 million at the time.

"We are enthusiastic about SNL because it is a fast-growing, highly complementary subscription-based business that will enable us to accelerate our strategy to be the leading provider of transparent and independent benchmarks, analytics, data and research across the global capital, commodity and corporate markets," said Douglas Peterson, President and CEO of McGraw Hill Financial in a press release. "This transaction provides unique opportunities to provide our customers with end-to-end data solutions and to develop exciting new services, enhance existing offerings and expand into attractive adjacent markets. Adding SNL to our portfolio creates a high-growth market data and analytics business that will leverage the power of the S&P Capital IQ and Platts global platforms to realize the full potential of SNL's financial and commodities products."

"This is an exciting day for our clients, employees and shareholders and a true milestone event in our 28 year history," added Mike Chinn, President and CEO of SNL Financial, who will report to Mr. Peterson following the closing of the transaction. "New Mountain Capital has been a tremendous partner for us over the last four years. The team there provided excellent guidance and supported numerous growth initiatives that enabled us to double our revenues over that period. We believe McGraw Hill Financial, Doug Peterson and his leadership team are ideal partners as we relentlessly pursue our mission of providing the highest quality sector-specific data, news and analytics to our clients. We're thrilled to continue this journey with the McGraw Hill Financial team and join their portfolio of market-leading brands."

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