S&P Global and IHS Markit announced agreements to sell IHS Markit’s Base Chemicals business to News Corp and S&P Global’s CUSIP Global Services (CGS) business to FactSet Research Systems. These agreements represent continued progress toward completing the pending merger of S&P Global and IHS Markit.
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News Corp agreed to purchase the Base Chemicals business for $295 million, and FactSet Research Systems has agreed to acquire CGS for $1.925 billion, with each agreement subject to customary purchase price adjustments. Each of these divestitures is dependent on closing the S&P Global-IHS Markit merger and other customary conditions. S&P Global and IHS Markit currently anticipate the combined company will receive aggregate net sale proceeds of approximately $1.3 billion from these transactions, of which proceeds are net of taxes and payments to CGS’s industry partner.
“The two divestures we have announced represent an important milestone in our progress toward satisfying the required regulatory conditions to complete our merger with IHS Markit,” said Douglas L. Peterson, President and Chief Executive Officer of S&P Global. “With these agreements in place, we are well positioned to dedicate our full attention to our goals of accelerating progress, enabling innovation and serving our customers through the combination of these two world-class businesses.”
“Finding a suitable buyer for these two businesses meets a key regulatory requirement for our merger,” added Lance Uggla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IHS Markit. “We now look forward to combining our great companies and consolidating our businesses to drive growth for our customers around the world.”
S&P Global has also pledged to divest its Leveraged Commentary and Data (LCD) business, along with a related family of leveraged loan indices as a condition for regulatory approval. Under the European Commission’s conditional approval of the merger of S&P Global and IHS Markit, execution of an agreement to sell the LCD business can occur after the closing of the merger.
The companies previously announced the divestiture of IHS Markit’s Oil Price Information Services (OPIS), Coal, Metals and Mining (CMM), and PetroChem Wire (PCW) businesses to NewsCorp in August 2021 as part of the ongoing merger review process.