(Crain's) — Credit reporting firm TransUnion Corp. is in a deal to be acquired by a buyout firm and a Goldman Sachs fund from owners Madison Dearborn Partners LLC and the Pritzker family.
The deal values the Chicago-based company at more than $3 billion, according to a statement Friday.
TransUnion President and CEO Bobby Mehta and the rest of the leadership team will remain with the company.
The buyers are Boston-based Advent International and GS Capital Partners VI Fund L.P. and affiliates, according to the statement.
"Penny (Pritzker), Bobby, Madison Dearborn and the TransUnion team have built a remarkably strong organization with long-standing customer relationships and a reputation for product and service excellence," Advent Managing Director Chris Egan said in the statement. "We intend to build on those foundations and grow TransUnion by ensuring that the company continues to deliver superior information and risk management tools both in the U.S. and in key growth markets like Latin America."
Chicago-based Madison Dearborn bought a 51 percent stake in TransUnion in June 2010, with Pritzker interests retaining about 48 percent, according to TransUnion's annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
TransUnion had $40.8 million in net income last year on $1.02 billion in revenue, according to the annual report.
The sale of TransUnion is expected to close late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter.
TransUnion had said in July it planned to raise up to $325 million in an initial public offering, but also launched a sale process as the IPO market was effectively shut amid geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
Private-equity firms Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Advent were in the race to buy the firm in a deal that could fetch more than $2 billion, sources told Reuters last October.
The deal comes in the wake of a new proposal by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to regulate about 200 debt collectors and companies that produce credit reports in its effort to extend its reach beyond the banking industry.
Companies like TransUnion release credit reports which quantify a consumer's creditworthiness and are used by banks and other lenders to determine whether to provide a loan or what interest rate should be charged.
TransUnion competes with firms such as Experian Plc and Equifax Inc.
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