Clarivate to acquire ProQuest for $5.3 billion; reaffirms standalone 2021 outlook

• Clarivate plc (NYSE:CLVT) inks an agreement to acquire ProQuest, a global software, data, and analytics provider to academic, research, and national institutions, from Cambridge Information.
• The purchase price is ~$5.3 billion ($4.0B cash and $1.3B equity), including refinancing of ProQuest debt.
• For 2020, ProQuest generated $876M of revenue, 4% from organic growth, and $250M Adjusted EBITDA.
• The cost synergies are expected to drive both ProQuest and Clarivate Adjusted EBITDA growth and expand ProQuest's Adjusted EBITDA margin.
• The transaction is expected to be double-digit accretive to Clarivate earnings in 2022 and mid-teens accretive in 2023.
• Post-closing, Clarivate expects to benefit more than $100M of cost synergies across the organization within 15 to 18 months. Clarivate also expects to benefit from ~$65M in annual cash tax savings from the transaction structure.
• Clarivate reaffirming standalone 2021 outlook: Revenues in the range of $1.79B to $1.84B vs. $1.81B consensus and Adjusted EPS of $0.74-0.79 vs. $0.77.
• The company will provide an updated 2021 outlook to include the acquisition of ProQuest after closing.
• The transaction is expected to close by Q3'21.