UK-listed financial publisher Euromoney Institutional Investor has accepted a £1.6 billion (about $1.9 billion) buyout offer from Astorg and Epiris, as European take-private deal activity cools.

As public market valuations fall, take-privates are expected to remain a standout strategy this year for PE investors stocked with dry powder, according to PitchBook's Q2 European PE Breakdown, but these transactions are slowing after an extremely busy year. 2021 set records for PE-backed take-private activity in Europe, with €46.8 billion deployed across 46 deals—in H1 2022, there have been nine deals worth €17.5 billion in aggregate.    
Astorg and Epiris, which are understood to have made previous approaches for Euromoney, are offering to pay £14.61 per share. The latest bid represents a 33.5% premium over Euromoney's closing price prior to the deal being announced and is equivalent to 20.2x its EBITDA for the 12 months ending March 31.

If shareholders approve the buyout, this would be the fifth-largest European take-private this year after Triton's acquisition of pharmaceutical group Clinigen, which was completed in April.

The transaction would split the company in two, with Astorg taking control of the publisher's Fastmarkets divisions, which comprises private reporting for raw materials and would become a standalone entity; Epiris would take over Euromoney's other two units, covering asset management and professional services.

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This article originally appeared on PitchBook News