Firms launch bids for piece of Thomson Reuters

The hottest private equity auction of the year is turning out to be the sale of a scientific analysis business, The Post has learned.

Two firms, BC Partners and Bain Capital, have submitted separate bids and Carlyle Group and Onex Partners are partnering on a third bid for Thomson Reuters’ intellectual property and science business, a source close to the process said.

The intense auction process could produce a price near $3 billion, the source said — and that would be nearly 10 times Ebitda.

Large lenders are offering suitors more than the six times debt-to-Ebitda ratio outlined in federal guidelines for leveraged buyouts in order to get the deal done, the source said.

The lenders are willing to go above the guideline limit because there is a growing demand for scientific material, and the Thomson division, which validates papers and studies, is not an actual editor.

This makes the business model easy to run and safe from competition.

“This is less sweat and equity than owning a publisher,” the source said.

BC Partners already owns Springer Nature, an information research and education services company, and merger and debt intelligence service Mergermarket.

Thomson Reuters announced in February it was exploring a sale.

There are no strategic buyers in the process, the source said.

Thomson generates about 8 percent of its revenue from the division. Proceeds from a sale will likely be used to buy back shares.

The company in May started trading without a dividend.

BC Partners, Bain Capital, Carlyle and Onex either did not return calls or declined to comment.