US firms have taken the lead roles as London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) agrees to acquire credit market data provider Octus from Permira, in a deal valued at more than $3.5bn.
The all-cash transaction, announced today (22 October), marks Permira’s sixth strategic exit of the year, and comes at a time when asset managers have struggled to exit investments amid market turbulence and persistent valuation gaps.
Latham & Watkins is leading on the buy-side, with Freshfields advising on financing, while Weil and McDermott Will & Schulte are advising on the sell side.
Latham is acting as lead transactional counsel to LSEG, with a team including Legal 500 equity capital markets Hall of Famer Mark Austin and corporate partner Farah O’Brien in London, and corporate partner Leah Sauter in New York.
Freshfields is advising LSEG on financing aspects of the deal.
Both Latham and Freshfields have advised LSEG previously, with the latter advising on the financing of its $27bn acquisition of Refinitiv in 2019. In 2022, Latham advised the group on the sale of a group of assets known as BETA+ to Clearlake.
Weil and McDermott are advising Permira and Octus, while US boutiques Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen and Moulton Moore Stella are advising Octus’ CEO and management team.
Permira acquired Octus, then known as Reorg, in 2022 for a reported £1.3bn – a transaction that Weil also led on for Permira.
During Permira’s four-year ownership Octus, which provides intelligence on the sub-investment grade market, has tripled its annual recurring revenue, Permira said in a statement.
‘Octus is a strong example of how we invest,’ Permira partners Daniel Brenhouse and Andrew Young said. ‘Services and technology working together, pairing deep sector expertise with a digital core to help founder-led businesses become companies that strategic buyers want to own.’
Founder and CEO of Octus, Kent Collier, added: ‘Our AI strategy and offerings have accelerated under their ownership, allowing us to become a market-leading AI platform for credit.’
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
