By Mark Kleinman, City Editor
A financial data provider that has gone from start-up to multibillion pound enterprise within a decade is poised to snub London in favour of a stock market listing in New York.
I have learnt that Markit Group, which is estimated to be worth in the region of $5.5bn, told prospective advisers this week that it is targeting a flotation in the US - probably on Nasdaq - as soon as the end of this year.
The company has asked investment banks to prepare for a pitch in the near future to win roles on a possible initial public offering (IPO).
"They've clearly signalled that New York is the preferred option," said one insider.
People close to Markit insisted it had not yet made a firm decision to pursue a listing, and that other options, such as an outright sale to a trade buyer or group of private equity investors, were still under consideration.
Sky News reported on the embryonic listing plans last month.
Markit, which provides information across financial asset classes such as credit default swaps, was founded by Lance Uggla, a Canadian former bond trader, in a barn at the bottom of his garden not much more than a decade ago.
It is now regarded as a key component in the financial infrastructure relied upon by investment banks and traders around the world. It now employs more than 2,500 people and has offices around the world.
Mr Uggla has described his vision for Markit as "the iTunes of the financial world".
His company is majority-owned by large Wall Street and European investment banks, such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Each of their stakes would be worth tens - if not hundreds - of millions of dollars as part of a flotation.
Insiders said that those, and other, banks were being lined up to pitch for a role on a possible listing.
The private equity firm General Atlantic paid a reported £155m for a 7.5pc stake in Markit in 2010. The most recent valuation exercise had put a price-tag on Markit of approximately $6bn, since when profits had continued to rise, insiders said.
Sky News revealed recently that Markit was in talks to sell a stake in itself to Temasek Holdings, the Singaporean state-backed investment company. Those discussions are understood to be continuing and are likely to be concluded before a formal decision about a flotation had been taken.
A decision to list in New York would be a blow to London, which has seen the beginnings of a resurgence in the market for initial public offerings.
One of Mr Uggla's few setbacks since founding Markit in 2001 came exactly a decade later, when the company lost out in a bidding war for control of LCH.Clearnet, the clearing house, which is now in the process of being bought by the London Stock Exchange.
Markit has also been the subject of a long-running investigation by Brussels into the pricing of credit information.
A Markit spokesman declined to comment.
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