Ropes & Gray has advised global private equity firm Astorg on the acquisition of the Fastmarkets business division of Euromoney Institutional Investor, as part of a £1.61bn acquisition of the financial publisher of Euromoney by Astorg and private equity firm Epiris.

As part of the deal, the Fastmarkets business division of Euromoney – which provides price benchmarking and analysis of commodities markets – will be separated from Euromoney’s other two business divisions – Asset Management and Financial and Professional Services – to become a stand-alone unit to be owned by Astorg. The remaining Euromoney businesses including its publishing operations will be majority controlled by Epiris.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter with the separation happening within a year.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by private equity transactions partner Helen Croke, with associate Nick Matthew.  Other members of the team included private equity transactions partner Elizabeth Todd, data, privacy & cybersecurity partner Rohan Massey and tax partner Chris Agnoli, associates Robert Lister, Phoebe Glenister-So, Benjamin Wonnacott, George Taylor, Joshua Nicholson and Robyn Annetts and trainee Calum Foster.