BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has recently made a $3.2 billion deal to acquire Preqin, a private-markets data and analytics provider. This acquisition is expected to make Preqin’s founder, Mark O’Hare, richer than BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink. O’Hare, who owns almost 80% of Preqin through his family’s holding company Valhalla Ventures, is set to make about $2 billion after tax from the deal, surpassing Fink’s estimated net worth of $1.7 billion.
Preqin, which competes with Bloomberg’s terminal business, offers information on thousands of private market investors, fund managers, and funds. The company is projected to generate about $240 million in revenue this year and has seen a 20% growth for the past three years. BlackRock believes that integrating Preqin’s data and research tools with its own portfolio-management software, Aladdin, will create a leading private markets technology and data provider.
This acquisition is just one of BlackRock’s recent moves into the alternative investment sector. In January, the company agreed to buy Global Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure investment fund, for $12.5 billion. O’Hare, who previously founded and sold Citywatch, a financial-data business, before starting Preqin in 2002, is experienced in building and selling successful businesses. With this latest deal, he will be joining BlackRock as a vice chair and contributing to the company’s growth and success in the private markets sector.