(Bloomberg) -- Mergermarket Group, the subscription financial news and data company owned by private equity firm BC Partners, rebuffed takeover interest it received over the past few months because of differences over valuation, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Carlyle Group LP and Hellman & Friedman were among a number of private equity firms and strategics to have expressed interest in bidding for the company since January, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.
Carlyle's plan was to combine Mergermarket with data provider Dealogic Holdings Plc, which the firm agreed to buy for $700 million in November 2014, one of the people said.
BC Partners rejected the unsolicited approaches citing differences over valuation, the people said. Talks are not currently active and BC Partners hasn't retained advisers for a sale, they said.
Spokesmen for BC Partners, Carlyle and Hellman declined to comment. Representatives for Mergermarket did not respond to e-mail requests seeking comment.
BC Partners, which paid 365 million pounds ($471 million) to buy Mergermarket from U.K.-based education products provider Pearson Plc. in 2014, has almost doubled the companies earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization to more than 60 million pounds, the people said. The firm has made about a half dozen add-on acquisitions to Mergermarket, including peer Creditflux Ltd. in January, according to the company's website.
Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, competes with Mergermarket and Dealogic in providing news and information.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kiel Porter in New York at kporter17@bloomberg.net, Sarah Syed in London at ssyed35@bloomberg.net, Suzi Ring in London at sring5@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Paula Schaap
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