Goldenhill International M&A Advisors today announced that it acted as M&A advisor to Infront ASA (OSE: INFRNT “Infront”) in an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares in vwd Group GmbH (“VWD”) thereby becoming the third largest provider of financial market data to professional investors in Europe. The purchase price is EUR 130 million, the seller of VWD is a fund managed by The Carlyle Group.

The acquisition of VWD closely follows the acquisition in late 2018 of Market Connect, a transaction in which Goldenhill also advised Infront.

VWD is a leading German provider of comprehensive solutions covering data and feed, portfolio and advisory, regulatory and calculation, and publication and distribution solutions. With approximately 400 employees and headquarters in Frankfurt, the company has established a strong market position in the DACH and Benelux regions of Europe. Infront, with 140 employees, is market leader in the Nordics, and has shown strong growth in new markets such as the UK, South Africa and Italy with its professional and user-friendly real-time solutions for financial market data, trading, analysis and news. Together, Infront and VWD will be a leading full-service provider to the European financial markets, posing a concrete challenge to the established American solutions.

Commenting on the contribution of Goldenhill to the acquisition, Kristian Nesbak, Infront’s CEO and co-founder said:

“Working with Goldenhill during this process resulted in a successful acquisition. We chose to work with them because of their focus in the Fintech sector, their relevant business and transaction experience and international reach which ultimately resulted in the acquisition of Market Connect. The integration of the Market Connect products and services with Infront solutions will provide great value to our customers.”