The taking private of Dun & Bradstreet has been completed by an investor group led by Cannae, CC Capital, Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bilcar, and Black Knight.
Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE: DNB) provides online credit reporting, business information, commercial data, and business analytics. The company’s database contains more than 290 million business records worldwide. Dun & Bradstreet has offices on five continents – North and South America, Australia, Asia and Europe – and is headquartered in Short Hills, NJ (www.dnb.com).
In connection with the closing, William Foley II, Chairman of Cannae Holdings and Executive Chairman of Black Knight, has been appointed Executive Chairman of Dun & Bradstreet’s Board of Directors. Anthony Jabbour, Black Knight’s Chief Executive Officer, was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Dun & Bradstreet and will remain in his current role at Black Knight. Additionally, Stephen Daffron, a Co-Founder of Motive Partners and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Interactive Data Corporation, has been appointed President of Dun & Bradstreet.
“As a private company, Dun & Bradstreet is well positioned to reinvigorate growth and I look forward to partnering with Anthony, Stephen and the Board in my new role,” said Mr. Foley. “Building on Dun & Bradstreet’s strong platform as a global leader in business insights, I look forward to improving growth and customers’ experience while increasing operating efficiencies to deliver enhanced business solutions across the world.”
Under terms of the agreement, Dun & Bradstreet shareholders received $145 in cash for each common share. The transaction has a total value of $6.9 billion which includes the assumption of $1.5 billion of Dun & Bradstreet’s debt. For the fiscal year ending December 31, 2017, Dun & Bradstreet had revenues of $1.7 billion and EBITDA of $502 million. At an enterprise value of $6.9 billion, this equates to a 13.75x valuation multiple.
“Dun & Bradstreet is a high-quality business with a 177-year history of serving its global customer base. We look forward to working with our partners and Dun & Bradstreet’s talented team to unlock the immense potential within this venerable company,” said Chinh Chu, Senior Managing Director of CC Capital. Mr. Chu founded New York-based CC Capital in 2016. He is a former senior managing director and co-chair of Blackstone’s private equity group (www.cc.capital).
THL was founded in 1974 and is one of the oldest private equity investment firms in the United States. Industries of interest include consumer and retail; healthcare; media and information services; and business and financial services. Since its founding, Boston-based THL has raised over $22 billion of equity capital, acquired over 140 portfolio companies and completed over 360 add-on acquisitions (www.thl.com).
Cannae Holdings (NYSE: CNNE) is a holding company with investments in restaurants, technology-enabled healthcare services, and financial services. The firm’s investments include Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF), a provider of title insurance and transaction services to the real estate and mortgage industries; Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS), a financial technology processing company; and Black Knight (NYSE: BKI), a provider of software, data and analytics to the mortgage and consumer loan, real estate and capital markets. The company is led by William Foley and is headquartered in Las Vegas (www.cannaeholdings.com).
THL and Cannae have previously worked together on other acquisitions. In 2007, the two firms acquired publicly-traded Ceridian, a provider of human resources, payroll, workforce management and tax compliance software and services, for $5.3 billion. In April 2018 Ceridian returned to the public markets (NYSE: CEN) through an initial offering that raised over $400 million.
Black Knight is a provider of software, data, and analytics to the mortgage and consumer loan, real estate, and capital markets primarily in the United States. The company is based in Jacksonville, FL (www.blackknightinc.com).
Bilcar is a family partnership owned by William and Carol Foley. Bilcar’s assets include various investments and business interests.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | February 11, 2019
