This week Blackstone unveiled Refinitiv, the Thomson Reuters Finance & Risk business division it agreed to invest in last March.
This move was long overdue. TR F&R has been a lumbering giant in the space with a lot of unlocked value.
Blackstone's professional management and execution discipline should yield immediate benefits to the business. The ability to focus on data and analytics as a stand-alone business, without diluting spending and strategy on publishing and news will, I anticipate, improve go to market for Refinitiv's data products, primarily Elektron. The cash from Blackstone will enable further investment in analytics and AI capabilities, and - hope and against hope - modernize legacy businesses and processes.
And Refinitiv desperately need to improve the Eikon terminal to compete with Bloomberg, FactSet and Cap IQ. I have used all of these services in one form or another for decades and Eikon is not a realistic alternative to these other services - at least in banking.
A press round-up on what we should expect:
FT:
Costs will have to be cut, and its junk debt load will need to be confronted -
"Its debt size has led to speculation Refinitiv could spin off some of its prized trading assets such as FXall, the forex venue, or Tradeweb, which transacts more than $500bn a day in bond, derivative and exchange traded funds deals. Corporate bankers have estimated Tradeweb’s value at $4bn, and Refinitiv owns a 56 per cent share."
https://www.ft.com/content/ed3bc55e-c490-11e8-8670-c5353379f7c2
City.AM:
The move will challenge Bloomberg, as Blackstone buys one of the world's largest financial markets data providers with more than 40,000 institutional customers in 190 countries.
http://www.cityam.com/264375/blackstone-challenges-bloomberg-deal-20bn-thomson-reuters
- Kevan Huston
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