In a year when most things appear to be in decline in the mortgage world, another mega transaction hit the wires last night when ICE announced it looks to acquire Black Knight for $13.1 billion in cash and stock. The consideration is ~15X TTM “fully synergized” 2022 EBITDA* and is the standard 30% or so premium to Black Knight’s closing price on Tuesday. While a solid valuation, the transaction isn’t a surprise as industry sources (Bloomberg) reported in April the company was exploring a sale.
This marks the second large deal for ICE - the $61 billion market cap owner of the NYSE and follows on its block buster acquisition of Ellie Mae for $11bn in 2020. We noted in our industry wrap up in January that we expected more consolidation and at least one mega merger – and the Black Knight team in Jacksonville and the ICE team in Atlanta did not disappoint.
The timeline below marks the steady annual cadence of Mortgage Tech Mega Deals over the past 5 years.
Market implications of this merger:
*Fully Synergized Multiple from ICE press release 5/4/22
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