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MOSCOW (MRC) -- S&P Global, the
owner of stock indexes like the Dow and the S&P 500, said on Monday that it
plans to acquire IHS Markit for USD44 billion, including debt, reported The New York Times.
The transaction
would create a financial information powerhouse at a time when data increasingly
fuels automated trading.
The all-stock deal - the biggest announced
so far this year - would give S&P Global control of IHS Markit, whose
software is used by many of the world’s biggest financial
institutions.
It is the latest show of strength by big companies amid the
pandemic. Corporate boards have increasingly come to believe that getting bigger
will help them ride out the turbulence caused by the coronavirus, while
investors have encouraged companies to use stocks and cheap debt to buy
growth.
Other big deals struck so far this year include Nvidia’s USD40
billion takeover of the computer chip designer Arm and Aon’s USD30 billion
acquisition of its rival insurance broker Willis Towers Watson.
Financial
data has long been one of the most coveted commodities on Wall Street, as
demonstrated by the multibillion-dollar value of Bloomberg L.P., the empire of
former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Big deals in recent
years have further illustrated its worth: Last year, the parent of the London
Stock Exchange agreed to buy Refinitiv, the former data arm of Thomson Reuters,
for USD14.5 billion.
IHS Markit itself was the product of a 2016 merger
between IHS, which was founded in 1959 as a repository for aerospace data, and
Markit, which was created in 2003 as a source of price information about the
financial derivatives known as credit-default swaps.
Under the terms of
the deal, S&P Global will own nearly 68% of the combined company, while
investors in IHS Markit will own the remainder.
The companies expect the
deal to close in the second half of next year, pending approval from
shareholders and antitrust regulators.
As MRC informed earlier,
the coronavirus pandemic has provided some opportunities hygiene products, but
there are also risks in other petrochemical products, Borealis CEO Alfred Stern
told S&P Global following their third quarter results Nov. 4. The company
saw polyolefin sales volumes increase in the third quarter compared with the
same quarter in 2019, as hygiene and healthcare segments experienced strong
demand amid the coronavirus pandemic. Demand from the automotive and pipes
sector was subdued in early summer but climbed higher in Q3, with automotive
demand recovering to 90% of 2019 levels.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine
months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE)
shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market
reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula:
production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers" inventories as of 1
January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer. |
