S&P Global buys research platform Visible Alpha

Financial data company S&P Global is acquiring financial technology provider Visible Alpha, Reuters reports, noting that the parties did not disclose the value of the transaction. S&P Global announced this strategic move as part of its efforts to enhance its core investment research capabilities available on S&P Global Market Intelligence's Capital IQ Pro platform.

Mark Hale, Chief Executive Officer of Visible Alpha, was quoted by Finance Feeds as saying: "We are delighted to join forces with S&P Global and have the opportunity to offer our extensive client base the combination of Visible Alpha's unique data and analytics solutions and innovative technology, respectively the breadth of Capital IQ Pro content. We are grateful to the banks that have been with us from the beginning and that will continue to support Visible Alpha following the transaction".

For his part, Adam Kansler, president of S&P Global Market Intelligence, added: "We remain focused on providing our customers with extraordinary value. Visible Alpha has built a remarkable reputation in the market and is an ideal match between us, which will further strengthen the quality of the offer we have. We've followed Visible Alpha's growth and been impressed by its pace of innovation and the valuable insights it provides to its customers. We look forward to welcoming Visible Alpha to the S&P Global family and the Market Intelligence division."

According to sources cited by the Financial Times, the business could value Visible Alpha at more than $500 million.

New York-based Visible Alpha brings together investment research and financial models from sell-side investment banks into aggregated data for asset managers. Sell-side is the part of the financial industry involved in the creation, promotion and sale of shares, bonds, currencies and other financial instruments to the public market. The sell side also includes private capital market instruments such as private placements of bonds and stocks, according to ft.com.

Visible Alpha was founded in 2015 by Bank of America, Citigroup, Jefferies, Morgan Stanley and UBS, and has generated revenues of nearly $100 million by 2023 through sales to investors and corporate clients. About 200 financial firms contribute to Visible Alpha data. Other investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, BNP and Santander, have also invested in Visible Alpha, and the company has raised $68 million, according to PitchBook data.

For the investment banks, the sale represents a successful exit from a business they founded nine years ago to monetize research and data. As part of the acquisition, the banks have agreed to contribution agreements whereby they will continue to pool their research and financial models with Visible Alpha.

For S&P, a company best known for its rating agencies and stock indices, the acquisition of Visible Alpha is the latest deal to strengthen its competitive offering to companies such as Bloomberg in the financial data market. The deal comes three years after it completed its $44 billion acquisition of analyst group IHS Markit, and chief executive Doug Peterson told analysts earlier this month that the company was open to "integrated acquisitions."

Since closing the deal with IHS, S&P's stock price has risen about 13%, slightly outperforming the benchmark S&P 500 index.