IHS and Markit unite in US$13bn merger
US-based IHS will combine with its UK rival to form a London-based group called IHS Markit.
US-based IHS will combine with its UK rival to form a London-based group called IHS Markit.
US-based data provider IHS is to merge with UK-based rival Markit in a US$13bn deal that creates a financial and corporate information provider that challenges Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters.
IHS shareholders will own 57% of the resulting new company, called IHS Markit, with Markit investors holding the remaining 43%. The terms of the deal will see the new company headquartered in London and enables IHS to relocate its corporate tax base to the UK as it becomes the latest American corporation to complete a relocation known as a tax inversion.
Jerry Stead, the chief executive of IHS, will become chief executive officer (CEO) of IHS Markit until his retirement at the end of 2017. He will also be chairman of the board. Markit’s founded, Lance Uggla, will assume the role once he steps down and will serve as president and a member of the board of directors over the interim period.
Based in Englewood, Colorado, IHS provides analytics for businesses and governments in more than 140 countries. Founded in 1959, it went public in 2005 and has about 9,000 employees in 32 countries.
Uggla, a former TD Securities credit derivatives trader, formed Markit with a group of colleagues in 2001. Originally based in a shed to the north of London in the commuter town of St Albans, it listed in New York in 2014 and is a major provider of data to Wall Street.