MSCI to acquire remaining stake in Burgiss for $697 million in cash

(Reuters) – Index provider MSCI said on Monday it will acquire the remaining 66% of Burgiss Group, a New Jersey-based provider of data and analytics solutions for investors, for $697 million in cash.

The deal will boost MSCI’s footprint in the private asset data analytics segment, as Burgiss’s dataset covers over 13,000 private asset funds around the world, representing $15 trillion in cumulative investments in 195 countries.

Dealmaking activity has been a sore spot since 2022. Higher interest rates have dried out liquidity and affected several top Wall Street firms, forcing them to slash hundreds of jobs, along with implementing other cost-cutting measures.

Global M&A volumes for the first half of 2023 fell 39%, to $1.38 trillion, according to data from Dealogic.

But investor confidence has been buoyed lately on expectations that the Federal Reserve is nearing the end of its monetary tightening policy.

MSCI said it anticipates funding the Burgiss purchase consideration from existing liquidity sources, adding that the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023.

In 2020, it invested $190 million in the company for a significant minority investment. Since then, MSCI will have invested a total of $913 million to acquire all of Burgiss, according to the statement.

Earlier this month, a U.S. congressional committee on China said it was investigating MSCI for facilitating the flow of American capital into companies the U.S. government has found guilty of fueling China’s military advancement or human rights abuses. MSCI said it was “reviewing the inquiry” from the committee.

The company’s shares are up about 18% so far this year.