Verisk Analytics is to buy Wood Mackenzie, the Scottish stockbroker transformed by the North Sea oil boom four decades ago into a global energy consultancy, from private equity ownership for £1.85bn ($2.8bn).
The sale comes three years after Hellman & Friedman, the San Francisco-based private equity firm, bought its stake in Wood Mackenzie for £1.1bn.
Nasdaq-listed Verisk said the acquisition would help place it at the centre of analysing data in the energy industry, much as its products are already widely used in the insurance sector.
Consultants such as Wood Mackenzie have also seen growing demand for their services as the oil and gas industry reconsiders big projects and operating costs after last year's price decline.
The purchase price values WoodMac, as it is known in the industry, at more than 17 times its £107m earnings before tax, interest, depreciation and amortisation last year. Verisk's own shares trade at 26 times its forecast earnings next year.
But it is less than the £2bn stock market listing that Wood Mackenzie had been contemplating in parallel to seeking bids from strategic buyers.
McGraw Hill Financial, owner of the rating agency Standard & Poor's and the energy price reporter Platt's, submitted a £1.5bn bid in competition with Verisk, the FT reported last month.
Private equity firms have increasingly oscillated this year between listing the companies they are looking to exit or seeking bids from strategic buyers with reserves of cash to spend. Their tactics have been aided by the emollient valuations that public market investors are placing on companies.
Most recently Refresco Gerber, a Dutch soft drinks bottler, chose to list in Amsterdam after a buyout bid battle.
On Monday Apax announced a £2bn-£2.5bn IPO of Auto Trader, the UK's biggest car classifieds site - which itself had been a potential takeover target for Hellman & Friedman.
Private equity firms generated nearly $450bn from exiting investments in 2014, making it the best year in some time for buyout firms to reap gains on assets and return cash to investors. The trend may continue this year.
However, as those investors look to reinvest the cash back into new private equity funds, concerns are rising within the industry that this influx of money could weaken future returns by pushing up prices - especially as corporate buyers and public markets increasingly compete for the same assets.
