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Refinitiv: A private equity-led transformation

By Julian Birkinshaw, David Craig

2022

In August 2019 CEO David Craig was considering the likely benefits and challenges of merging his company, financial-markets data and infrastructure provider Refinitiv, with the London Stock Exchange Group. Craig had led a turnaround of Thomson Reutersā€™ Financial & Risk division (F&R), then used investment from a private equity consortium led by Blackstone to carve out F&R from Thomson Reuters and create Refinitiv as an independent company. The carve-out had been successful, but global financial markets were evolving fast. Initial industry reaction to the proposed deal was positive; however some analysts questioned whether it would be approved by regulators and expressed concern over the complexity of integrating the two companies. With the industry changing so quickly, could the momentum created in Refinitiv be maintained in the new combined entity?

 

Learning objectives

  1. Understand the issues in major corporate change / corporate transformation programmes
  2. Identify how private-equity firms can add value to companies
  3. Illustrate the strategic challenges in rolling out new digital services
  4. Demonstrate the issues in creating synergies between related but different businesses

Details

Publication Date: March 2022
LBS Case Code: CS-22-011
Topic:
Subjects: , , , ,
Industry:
Geography:
Pages: 17
Format: pdf