U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group catapulted itself into the big leagues of Wall Street’s financial information industry Tuesday with the acquisition of a majority stake in the Financial and Risk (F&R) business of Thomson Reuters Corp.

The deal, announced by the companies in a statement, is Blackstone’s biggest bet since the financial crisis. Co-founder Stephen Schwarzman will go head to head against fellow billionaire and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose eponymous terminals are the market leader in providing traders, bankers and investors with news, data and analytics.

Under the acquisition, Blackstone acquire a 55 percent stake in a newly hived off F&R business, the statement said. Thomson Reuters will retain a 45 percent holding and will receive approximately US$17 billion, including about US$3 billion in cash and US$14 billion in debt and preferred equity issued by the new business, the companies said.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Singapore’s GIC will invest alongside Blackstone but the statement didn’t specify the size of their stakes.

The new partnership will be managed by a 10-person board composed of five representatives from Blackstone and four from Thomson Reuters. The president and CEO of the new partnership will serve as a non-voting member of the board following the closing of the transaction. The companies did not say who that person would be.

Talks to sell Blackstone a stake in the F&R business first began in the summer, sources said.

The biggest sticking point during negotiations had been what the partnership would mean for Reuters News, the news agency. (SD-Agencies)