Wolf Theiss, working with Ropes & Gray, has advised Astorg on the separation of price-reporting agency Fastmarkets from businesss and financial information company Delinian.
According to the firm, "Fastmarkets is a global price reporting agency – with 500 employees spread across the UK, US, China, Singapore, Brazil, Belgium, and Finland – serving the metals, mining, forest products, energy transition, and agriculture markets with over 10,000 customers globally."
Delinian Limited (formerly Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC) operates several publishing brands and has interests in business and financial publishing and event organization.
Astorg is a global private equity firm with over EUR 18 billion of assets under management. It works together with entrepreneurs and management teams and focuses on market-leading companies headquartered in Europe or the US. In a move unveiled on November 24, 2022, when it acquired a stake in Euromoney, Astorg announced it intended to separate Fastmarkets into a "standalone entity, owned and controlled by Astorg."
"The demerger will enable Fastmarkets to pursue a tailored strategy as an independent business led by CEO Raju Daswani and a dedicated management team," Wolf Theiss reported. "Fastmarkets will seek to continue organic and inorganic growth through the development of the business, targeting operational improvements and making strategic acquisitions."
"Fastmarkets has delivered rapid growth in recent years and secured its position as the most trusted cross-commodity price reporting agency (PRA) in the agriculture, forest products, metals and mining, and new generation energy markets," Fastmarkets CEO Raju Daswani commented. "We will continue to focus on providing customers with benchmark prices, insights, and analysis. We are excited by the opportunities for further growth, leveraging Astorg’s proven track record of successfully creating value."
The Wolf Theiss team included Partner Richard Clegg, Counsel Hristina Dzhevlekova, and Senior Associates Staniella Todorova and Yanitsa Radeva.
