51.5 F
Laguna Hills
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

UK Parent Eyes Experian Spinoff

One of Britain’s biggest retailers could be setting the stage for what could be one of Orange County’s largest public offerings.

London-based GUS PLC, which runs stores and a catalog business, could offer word on a spinoff of Costa Mesa’s Experian Information Solutions Inc. as soon as next week.

GUS, operator of Great Universal and Argos stores in Britain, is in the midst of a review of its operations. Analysts expect Experian to be split off as a result.

Details are scarce for now. If it comes down to a spinoff, Experian likely would list on a U.S. exchange with Costa Mesa being the company’s base, according to analysts.

Experian, best known for its credit reporting business, could fetch a market value of $3.8 billion to $5.6 billion, according to Nick Bubb, an analyst with Evolution Securities in London.

One of Experian’s biggest rivals, Equifax Inc., had a recent market value of $4.5 billion.

Experian could rank among the largest public companies based in OC by market value, somewhere behind Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., Allergan Inc. of Irvine and Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.

“This is a big deal by any standard,” said Murray Rudin, an Irvine-based partner with Los Angeles private equity firm Riordan, Lewis & Hadden LLC. “A new $5 billion company isn’t created very often. The Merrills and Morgan Stanleys will fight to the death for a piece of this action.”

Experian counts yearly sales of about $2.5 billion and about 1,250 workers in Costa Mesa.

Speculation of an Experian spinoff started about a year ago when GUS said it would begin to “review all strategic options.” The company is about half way through the review but could offer some clues when it reports financial results next week.

“No decisions have been made with regard to any of the companies within the GUS portfolio,” said Don Robert, Experian’s Costa Mesa-based chief executive, in an e-mail.

Experian no longer fits within GUS, according to analysts. GUS used to be more of a holding company but now is focused on stores, including British chains Argos and Homebase.


For more on this story, see the May 16 issue of the Business Journal.

Want more from the best local business newspaper in the country?

Sign-up for our FREE Daily eNews update to get the latest Orange County news delivered right to your inbox!

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-