Insight is said to seek buyer for eVestment

The auction of eVestment, the data company backed by Insight Venture Partners, has moved into management meetings, four sources said.

Evercore is advising on the eVestment sale, sources said. Roughly nine parties are expected in the final round, one of the people, a banker, said.

Founded in 2000, eVestment provides institutional investment data and analytics. The Atlanta company is expected to produce about $30 million in 2017 EBITDA and is seen selling for more than $600 million, the banker said.

EVestment is the “gold standard” in the data space, a second banker said. “They’ve really become the industry standard in terms of what investors use to judge what asset managers are good,” the source said.

The company is expected to be sold to private equity. The auction has drawn interest from Deutsche Börse Group, GTCR and Strategic Insight (a Genstar Capital portfolio company), sources said. Vista Equity Partners, Thoma Bravo and Francisco Partners could also be involved, sources said.

EVestment raised venture funding from Insight in 2008, PitchBook said. It’s unclear how much Insight provided. Silicon Valley Bank provided $19 million in debt to eVestment in November 2010. Salmon River Capital, the PE firm from Joshua Lewis, invested $1 million in 2005. Lewis is a former GP of both Warburg Pincus and Forstmann Little.

In August 2015, eVestment completed a $106.5 million dividend recap, which it used to pay a distribution to shareholders, PitchBook said.

EVestment has been very acquisitive. The company acquired Public Plan IQ last year and TopQ Software in 2015, and in 2012 it bought StokTrib, Fundspire and PerTrac Financial Solutions, the website says. In 2011 eVestment picked up A.S.A.P. Advisor Services and Hedgefund.net, according to Crunchbase.

Executives for Evercore and GTCR declined comment. Insight Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, Salmon River, eVestment, Strategic Insight, Vista, Thomas Bravo and Francisco Partners could not be reached for comment.

Correction: A prior version of this story used IVP to refer to Insight Venture Partners. IVP is the patented name of Institutional Venture Partners. The story has been changed and any mention of IVP has been deleted.

Action Item: Email Deven Parekh, an Insight managing director, at dparekh@insightpartners.com

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