by BLOOMBERG
S&P Global Inc. is in advanced talks to buy IHS Markit Ltd. for about $44 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter, amid increasing demand for data particularly from the finance industry.
IHS Markit, which provides data, analytics and research was valued at $36.9 billion as of the close on Friday, after climbing to a record earlier in the week. The stock has risen 23% this year, compared with S&P Global’s 25% gain, giving it a market capitalisation of $82.2 billion.
An announcement could come as early as Monday, the person added, declining to be identified because the information isn’t public. Representatives for S&P Global and IHS Markit didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
S&P’s interest follows IHS’s $9.8 billion acquisition of Markit in 2016, which combined IHS’s information services with Markit’s indexes for financial products such as credit default swaps, just as electronic trading was feeding intense demand for sets of information.
The tie-up would be the year’s second-biggest deal, coming behind the $56 billion set of transactions among China’s biggest oil and gas companies to sell their pipeline networks to a new national carrier, which were finalized in July.
News of the potential deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, competes with IHS Markit and S&P Global in providing financial analytics and information.
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