Markit, a financial data company, has been a behind-the-scenes player on Wall Street since its founding roughly a decade ago. Now, it is preparing to make its public market debut.
The company, which is based in London, filed paperwork on Monday for an initial public offering in the United States. It said it would aim to raise up to $750 million in the I.P.O., though that number may change.
An offering would represent a major step in the rapid growth of Markit, which opened its doors in 2003. The company reported $947.9 million in revenue for 2013, 10 percent higher than the previous year. It is also profitable, recording earnings of $139.4 million last year.
The company is backed by some of Wall Street’s biggest names. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America are all shareholders, according to the prospectus. The size of their stakes was not disclosed.
Markit’s largest business is in providing financial information, comprising almost half of the company’s revenue, the prospectus said. The company competes with the likes of Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg L.P.
Its investors also include the private equity firm General Atlantic, which bought a stake in 2010. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, known as Temasek, invested in Markit last year, valuing the company at around $5 billion, according to news reports at the time.
But Markit also helps financial firms with back-office tasks, providing software and trade processing services. According to an article in The Economist last year, Markit employees refer to themselves as “plumbers in suits.â€
The company says it has more than 3,000 institutional customers, including banks, hedge funds and central banks.
Because its revenue is less than $1 billion, Markit qualifies as an “emerging growth company†under the JOBS Act, allowing it to skip certain reporting requirements, the company said.
The underwriters of the offering include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citigroup and Credit Suisse.
