Deutsche Börse has launched a bid to buy Danish financial software firm SimCorp for €3.9 billion to expand its data and analytics business, in a deal poised to be the exchange operator’s biggest acquisition to date.
The acquisition is expected to bolster its data & analytics business where it sees high growth opportunities.
Within three years, the takeover would generate cost and revenue synergies of a combined €90 million for the exchange, it said.
SimCorp will be grouped together with Deutsche Boerse’s Qontigo and ISS units.
The company said it has the option of selling shares in the combined Qontigo and ISS business to the public “in the medium term.”
SimCorp, which posted €99 million of profit last year, offers an investment management platform that it says has more than $30 trillion managed on it, and it counts as clients 40 of the top 100 global asset managers and asset owners.
The two companies have been working together since 2021 when the German exchange’s unit Qontigo entered into a partnership with SimCorp.
To finance the deal, Deutsche Boerse has a fully underwritten bridge facility with Morgan Stanley, which is expected to be refinanced by a mix of cash and debt.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter, pending regulatory approvals and a minimum acceptance level of 50% plus one share of all SimCorp shares.
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