Accuity, a former subsidiary of SourceMedia, was acquired in November 2004 from the Thomson Corporation. With this latest sale, Investcorp will have distributed to its clients a total of $1.5 billion of proceeds in the last 18 months resulting from four Corporate Investment portfolio company exits.
“With the sale of Accuity we are once again demonstrating the added value of mid-market corporate investments. We are able to distribute to our clients high returns on their investments at a time when many investments are suffering from market turmoil due to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the expected slowdown of economic activity globally,” Mohammed Al-Shroogi, Investcorp’s President of Gulf business, said.
Investcorp maximized the value of the SourceMedia acquisition by spinning out Accuity as an independent company in December 2005. This enabled the management of Accuity and Investcorp to aggressively pursue growth in the compliance and payment efficiency markets post the 2008-2009 financial crises, eventually resulting in a sale at an attractive valuation to a strategic buyer of this asset.
During Investcorp’s ownership, Accuity made significant investments and changes to the business, installing new management, significantly upgrading the company’s IT infrastructure and systems, revamping its sales force as well as completing two add-on acquisitions which enhanced the capabilities of the company.
“This excellent performance is the result of the continuous operative efforts deployed by our teams to add value to our portfolio companies. Coupled with the best in class service that we offer to our clients in the region, it allows Investcorp to keep playing its role as the trusted bridge between Gulf investors and unique investment opportunities in the West,” Al Shroogi, added.
Accuity, formerly known as Thomson Financial Publishing, is the premier provider of data solutions that enable financial institutions, corporations and other organizations to facilitate accurate and efficient payment transactions and to manage their risk by ensuring that they and their clients are in regulatory compliance. Accuity has a suite of proprietary financial data solutions that reaches more than 32,000 clients worldwide. Accuity’s portfolio of products includes the most authoritative global database of routing numbers, bank reference and related financial information and enriched global caution lists for regulatory watch list screening.