Exclusive-Astorg weighs selling IQ-EQ fund services in 2025, sources say

By Emma-Victoria Farr and Amy-Jo Crowley

LONDON (Reuters) - Private equity firm Astorg is exploring options, including a sale, for its fund services business IQ-EQ, four sources with knowledge of the matter said, in a sale that could value it at more than 4 billion euros ($4.33 billion), one of them said.

Luxembourg-based Astorg is in talks to appoint a financial adviser in coming months, one of the sources said, adding that IQ-EQ generates over 200 million euros in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).

The buyout group put IQ-EQ into a continuation vehicle in 2021, a form of fund that allows private equity firms to hold onto a company longer, at which point Astorg brought in additional investors including Goldman Sachs Asset Management and AlpInvest, the person and two other sources said.

A potential transaction would follow the sale of peer Alter Domus for 4.9 billion euros ($5.30 billion) in March, where Cinven invested alongside the company's founders and buyout firm Permira as shareholders, in a process advised by Goldman Sachs and Raymond James.

Astorg is testing the market ahead of a potential sale of IQ-EQ in 2025, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the talks are private.

The process for IQ-EQ is likely to happen after the sale of Astorg's IP software business Anaqua, the four sources said, which Reuters reported the fund was preparing for earlier this year.

Astorg, AlpInvest and Goldman Sachs Asset Management declined to comment. IQ-EQ referred a request for comment to Astorg. "It's very much business as usual at IQ-EQ," a spokesperson said.

IQ-EQ is an investor services group providing a range of compliance, administration, asset and advisory services to investment funds, global companies, family offices and private clients worldwide. It has more than 5000 employees across 25 jurisdictions, with more than $750 billion assets under administration, according to its website.

Under Astorg's ownership IQ-EQ has conducted a string of add-on acquisitions including in asset management and IT services.

Astorg has offices in London, Paris, Luxembourg, New York, Frankfurt, and Milan. The private equity firm has over 15 billion euros of assets under management, and typically invests in healthcare, software, technology, business services and technology-based industrial companies.

($1 = 0.9248 euros)

(Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr and Amy-Jo Crowley, editing by Anousha Sakoui and David Evans)