BlackRock agreed to acquire the London-based private markets data firm Preqin in a $3.2 billion cash deal, expanding its Aladdin technology and data platform capabilities.
The move will deliver integrated investments, technology and data for the whole private markets portfolio, BlackRock said in a release. The deal marks a strategic expansion of BlackRock’s Aladdin technology business into private markets data and unlocks an additional $8 billion in addressable market, it said.
Preqin was founded in 2003 by its former CEO, Mark O’Hare, who will become a vice chair of BlackRock upon completion of the deal. The company is currently owned by its management and employees as well as by O’Hare’s family holding company, Valhalla Ventures.
Preqin has 16 offices across the globe — including in New York, Singapore, Dubai and Sydney — and the firm acquired the private markets technology firm Colmore in 2021. The company’s CEO is Christoph Knaack. Preqin covers 190,000 funds, 60,000 money managers and 30,000 private markets investors.
Preqin’s data and research tools will be brought together with BlackRock’s technology unit Aladdin in a unified platform, the release said. Clients will be able to choose Aladdin, eFront — its private markets servive — or Preqin as standalone offerings or combined, a spokesperson for BlackRock said.
The deal will help the $10.47 trillion manager to further grow its client base across GPs, LPs and service providers and brings more than 4,000 relationships and about $240 million in estimated 2024 recurring revenue, the release said. Preqin's data covers hedge funds, infrastructure, natural resources, private debt, private equity, real estate, secondaries and venture capital.
"BlackRock’s vision has always been to bring together investments, technology and data to offer solutions that meet our clients’ needs across their whole portfolio,” Rob Goldstein, BlackRock’s COO, said in the release. “As clients increasingly evolve their focus from choosing products to constructing portfolios, this shift requires technology, data and analytics that create a ‘common language’ for investing across both public and private markets. We see data powering the industry across technology, capital formation, investing and risk management.”
Goldstein added that BlackRock has been a client of Preqin’s for “many years.”
The deal will “make private markets investing easier and more accessible while building a better-connected platform for investors and fund managers,” Sudhir Nair, global head of Aladdin, added in the same release. “This presents a substantial opportunity for Aladdin to bridge the transparency gap between public and private markets through data and analytics.”
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
BlackRock has made a number of recent moves to deepen its presence in the fast-growing private markets industry. Alternative assets are expected to reach almost $40 trillion by the end of the decade, BlackRock said in the release. In April, its Saudi Arabia business announced its intention to establish a Riyadh-based multiasset-class platform investing across public and private markets, with an initial anchor investment of up to $5 billion from the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. And last year, BlackRock agreed to acquire the private debt firm Kreos.