Wall Street Stalwart Dun & Bradstreet Seeks To Raise $1.4 Billion In Initial Public Offering

Dun & Bradstreet, one of the oldest data and analytics providers on Wall Street which traces its origins back to 1841, is preparing to raise up to $1.4 billion in an initial public offering.

The company said in a filing on Wednesday that it plans to sell 65.75 million shares at a price of between $19 and $21 each.

Dun & Bradstreet will grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 9,862,500 common shares.

Dun & Bradstreet has applied to list its common shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “DNB.”

Concurrently, subsidiaries of Cannae Holdings Inc. (CNNE), Black Knight Inc. (BKI) and private investment firm CC Capital Partners have committed to investing a total of $400 million in Dun & Bradstreet common shares. This private placement transaction will be contingent upon the completion of the IPO at a price equal to 98.5% of the final IPO price.

The company would have a market value of $8.4 billion if the IPO sells at the top of the price range.

After the IPO is completed, an investor consortium will control about 66% of the company’s voting shares.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. are leading the offering, along with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Barclays Plc.

Dun & Bradstreet said it plans to use the net proceeds from the public offering and the concurrent private placement to redeem all of its outstanding shares of Series A Preferred Stock; repay a portion of its 10.250% Senior Unsecured Notes outstanding due 2027; and for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

Based in Short Hills, N.J., Dun & Bradstreet’s database included comprehensive information on more than 360 million businesses as of Mar. 31. Its 135,000 clients include about 90% of the Fortune 500.

For the three months ended Mar. 31, Dun & Bradstreet earned $41.5 million from continuing operations on revenue of $395 million, after recording a net loss of $227.9 million on revenue of $174.1 million in the same period a year ago.

As of March 31, 2020, Dun & Bradstreet had $167.6 million in cash and $6.5 billion in total liabilities.

Dun & Bradstreet went private in early 2019 after it was acquired by an investor group led by CC Capital, Cannae and funds affiliated with Thomas H. Lee Partners for $145 a share – for a total purchase price of $5.38 billion.

Donovan Jones of Seeking Alpha noted that when Dun & Bradstreet was taken private 16 months ago it was reorganized and recapitalized with more debt. “But it is still [too] early to tell if the reorganization combined with a heavier debt load is producing a better company and investment opportunity,” he wrote.

Seeking Alpha also noted that Dun & Bradstreet’s recent financial results can be characterized by uneven topline revenue, variable operating margin and profit and uneven cash flow from operations.

A market research report from 2018 by Technavio projected that the global market for business information is expected to grow by $32 billion from 2019 to 2023.