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Dun & Bradstreet Experience An Investment Rollercoaster Over The Last Sixteen Months

Dun & Bradstreet have enabled companies to uncover the meaning behind data for over 171 years. Headquartered in Short Hills, New Jersey, the business information provider was acquired in 2019 for $5.38 billion by a group of investors led by CC Capital, Cannae Holdings, Bilcar, LLC, Black Knight Inc., and funds affiliated with Thomas H. Lee Partners, taking the company private.

However, it seems as though the plan to keep the company private was never meant to be long-term.

Just 16 months after closing the deal, Dun & Bradstreet raised $1.7 billion in its IPO after selling more stock than expected at a price above its indicated range. The company priced 78.3 million shares at $22 each, previously looking to sell 65.75 million shares for $19 to $21 each. At their current share price, the company is set to have a market value of almost $9 billion based on the number of shares listed in the filing.

"We are the world's leading source of commercial information and insight on businesses, enabling customers to decide with confidence for over 171 years," the company said in its IPO prospectus. "Our global commercial database contains more than 215 million business records."

Dun & Bradstreet revealed that in May of this year, it had confidentially submitted a plan to go public to the Securities Exchange Commission.

Cannae, Black Knight, and CC Capital have agreed to finance a total of $400 million as part of the offering. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Securities, J.P. Morgan, and Barclays are lead book-running managers and representatives of the underwriters for the offering.

The company is set to trade on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, July 8, under the ticker "DNB."

While the coronavirus pandemic caused the slowest April and May since the Great Recession, IPO activity in June is set to be the busiest month for the U.S. since September 2014. According to Bloomberg, a total of 47 companies have priced share sales raising $17.6 billion.