ADVERTISEMENT

New Mountain Capital Said to Weigh Sale of Information Resources

New Mountain Capital Said to Weigh Sale of Information Resources

(Bloomberg) -- New Mountain Capital, a New York-based private-equity firm, is considering exit options for market research company Information Resources Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The buyout firm has held talks with advisers about a possible initial public offering or sale of the company in 2017, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. A sale could value IRI at more than $2.5 billion, the people said.

Talks are at a preliminary stage, no adviser has yet been hired and New Mountain may elect to keep the business, one of the people said.

A spokesman for New Mountain declined to comment, while a spokesman for IRI didn’t respond to e-mail requests for comment.

New Mountain agreed to buy a majority stake in Palo Alto, California-based IRI for about $800 million in 2011, according to reports at the time. The company has two units: Market Measurement, which tracks and compiles consumer purchases; and Solutions & Services, which offers retail groups data analysis and consulting services, according to its website.

The fund New Mountain used for the investment, New Mountain Partners III, was generating an 11.8 percent rate of return as of March 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Led by founder and Chief Executive Officer Steven Klinksy, 60, the firm has more than $15 billion in assets under management across private equity, public equity and credit, according to its website.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kiel Porter in New York at kporter17@bloomberg.net, Alex Barinka in New York at abarinka2@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wollman