Markit made its initial public offering (IPO) this week, pricing its shares at $24 and increasing the number offered by 17% to meet demand. The shares are listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and at the offer price value the London-based financial information services and data management company at over $4 billion.
The IPO makes founder, chairman and chief executive of Markit, Lance Uggla, a multi-millionaire worth about £450 million and a large tranche of senior staff millionaires.
Markit registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO in early May, marking a significant milestone for a company that was set up in 2003 and now has towards 3,000 employees and a similar number of customers worldwide. In 2013, the company reported EBITDA of $421.3 million on revenue shy of a billion dollars at $947.9 million.
The company has grown both organically and through acquisition, most significantly in recent years through the 2012 acquisition of Cadis and its enterprise data management business. The former Cadis business has blossomed in Markit’s Solutions division, which includes enterprise software platforms, managed services and hosted custom web solutions dedicated to data management, as well as a role in iGATE, a high profile EDM joint venture that is designed to deliver utility style managed reference data services. The Solutions business generated 23.5% of total revenue in 2013, behind the Processing division on 28.0% and the Information division on 48.5%.
Looking forward, the IPO prospectus notes that Markit has identified a number of market opportunities, including a focus on efficiency in the financial services industry that predicates the use of third-party products and services, a changing regulatory landscape that requires customers to manage increasing volumes of data, and increased demand for products and services from emerging markets. For Uggla, business may not be as exciting after the IPO as it was in the early days of Markit, but there is still plenty to do and he has built a great team with the capability to handle both the challenges and opportunities presented by the market.
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