TransUnion Sale to Produce Mid-50s IRR for Madison Dearborn

The second time is the charm for TransUnion.

Today, Advent and GS Capital partners agreed to buy the provider of credit reporting data. The sellers are Madison Dearborn Partners and the Pritzker family.

The transaction is expected to close late first quarter or early second quarter, according to a statement. Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are providing financing.

Last fall, TransUnion was pursuing a dual-track process. It had filed for an IPO that could raise $325 million. It was also trying to sell itself. Madison Dearborn, which owns 51% of TransUnion, put the kibosh on a sale in October, according to Reuters. The Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Advent were bidding for the business, the story says. The auction was expected to fetch more than $2 billion, but the firm pulled it after the bidders couldn’t meet price expectations. Madison Dearborn, at the time, decided to push ahead with TransUnion’s IPO plans.

It looks like GS Capital and Advent later made an offer TransUnion couldn’t refuse. Their deal to buy TransUnion is valued at more than $3 billion. It’s not clear how much equity GS Capital and Advent are contributing. Today, TransUnion pulled its IPO, SEC filings said.

The sale is a boon for Madison Dearborn, a Chicago buyout shop, which acquired a 51% stake in TransUnion in June 2010. Its deal to buy TransUnion was valued at $2 billion and Madison Dearborn contributed less than $400 million in equity, according to an Oct. 17 SEC filing. As part of the sale, TransUnion took on about $1.6 billion in debt, the filing said.

Madison Dearborn, with the sale, is expected to generate an IRR in the mid-50s, while return on invested capital is roughly 2.25x, peHUB has learned.

Evercore and Goldman Sachs provided financial advice to Advent and GS Capital. Evercore’s deal team included Saul Goodman, Jason Sobol, Jay Mirostaw, Cecil Brown, Andy Ugarte, Tim Ryan and Lusa Zhou. BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank advised TransUnion.

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