Leading International law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, has advised the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the professional investment manager of the Canada Pension Plan and one of the world’s largest investors with C$219bn in net assets as at 31 March 2014, in relation to its US$250mn investment in the Markit group.

CPPIB invested via the recently announced US$1.28bn initial public offering and listing of the Markit group on the NASDAQ (the IPO). The IPO gives the Markit group a market capitalisation of approximately US$4.3bn.

Markit, founded in 2003 and employing over 3,000 people in 10 countries, is a leading global diversified provider of financial information services (including pricing and reference data, indices and valuation reports). Markit has a diverse customer base of more than 3,000 institutional customers that includes banks, hedge funds, asset managers, central banks, regulators, auditors, fund administrators and insurance companies.

The Freshfields team was led by London corporate partners David Higgins and Simone Bono, with support from corporate senior associate Victor Chai and associates Jodie Owen and Sean Donovan. Antitrust advice was provided in London by partner Rod Carlton and in Washington by partner Bob Schlossberg and counsel Rich Snyder/