BlackRock Acquires Preqin

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$3.2B for Preqin. That is what BlackRock is paying. They supposedly won the deal over S&P and Bloomberg. BlackRock said in a statement that the acquisition would complement its Aladdin tech business by bringing together data, research, and investment processes for fund managers. The strong get stronger. If it weren’t one of these large data companies buying Preqin, it would have gone to the PE bidders that have been circling for years.

Preqin is expected to generate about $240 million of recurring revenue in 2024 and has grown approximately 20% per year in the last three years. Pretty nice multiple that BlackRock is paying for the business. Premiums are being paid for good data assets especially when they have distribution and deep history. This is a unique story as Preqin wasn’t known for doing a lot of M&A and they are on track for $240m in revenue this year.

The private markets and alternative investment vehicle data is a hot commodity and Preqin has done a great job over the years being one of the market leaders. Benchmarks, ESG data, Investment insights, deal data, allocation solutions, and so much more. The Preqin product suite is rich and you gotta believe that under the BlackRock umbrella, the revenue will continue to grow nicely.

The UK has been the home to many unique data and information services companies over the years including Informa which I have written about in the past.

As we see consolidation continue in 2024 in the data space, the question on my mind is whose next?