(Reuters) -Britain’s Informa agreed to sell its pharma intelligence business to New York-based investment fund Warburg Pincus for 1.9 billion pounds ($2.58 billion), the events organiser said on Thursday.
Shares in the world’s largest exhibitions group rose more than 4% to their highest level since Nov. 2020 as it plans to return a portion of the proceeds to shareholders through a share buyback.
Pharma Intelligence, which provides data on clinical trials, drug treatments and medical devices, accounted for about 40% of Informa’s Intelligence division in 2020.
Informa said it would retain about 15% of the business after the deal closes, which is expected by early June.
“We intend to invest and significantly grow the business and its product offerings,” Adarsh Sarma, co-head of Europe at Warburg Pincus said in a statement.
Informa, which had previously announced plans to return a part of the divestment proceeds to shareholders, also said the maximum amount allocated to the initial tranche of the buyback programme will be 100 million pounds.
The group confirmed it expected 2021 earnings in line with forecasts, set at over 1.8 billion pounds for revenues and more than 375 million pounds for adjusted operating profit.
($1 = 0.7378 pounds)
(Reporting by Juliette Portala; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Shailesh Kuber)
