Euromoney sells market info unit to Chinese consortium for $180.5 mln​

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LONDON/SHANGHAI, Feb 12 (Reuters) - British business-to-business information company Euromoney has agreed to sell its Global Markets Intelligence Division (GMID) to a Chinese consortium of CITIC Capital Partners and leading business news outlet Caixin for $180.5 million, it said on Monday.

Euromoney said proceeds of about $145 million would leave the company in a net cash position and provide it with funds to help grow its activities in pricing, asset management and telecoms.

Private equity (IOB: 0QLS.IL - news) firm CITIC Capital acquired the GMID business in partnership with Hong Kong-based Caixin Global, the overseas arm of Caixin Media.

Caixin Global said on its website the deal was the biggest offshore purchase ever by a mainstream Chinese media (Shanghai: 600373.SS - news) company and would help Caixin as it "aspires to build up a global news and information platform to rival similar offerings from companies like Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) and the Economist."

Hong Kong-headquartered GMID provides financial intelligence on emerging markets including China, India and Brazil. Its two main units are CEIC (Shenzhen: 000673.SZ - news) and EMIS, which provide economic data, news and analytics.

The purchase is expected to close in the first half of this year, Caixin said.

Euromoney is 49.1 percent-owned by Daily Mail & General Trust Plc.​

Caixin described itself as "privately-owned and more entrepreneurial" than its state-owned peers. It is funded by private backers including CMC Capital Partners. (Reporting by Sarah Young in London and John Ruwitch in Shanghai, Editing by Paul Sandle and David Evans)