Thomson Partners With Nine Banks

Article Excerpt

THE THOMSON CORP. $40 (Toronto symbol TOC; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 641.3 million; Market cap: $25.7 billion; SI Rating: Above average) has sold 15% of TradeWeb, a provider of electronic bond trading services, to a group of nine major banks for $150 million (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). To put that in context, Thomson earned $0.48 a share (total $310 million) in the third quarter of 2007. The banks will also invest $100 million to expand TradeWeb’s operations into other areas, including equity trading and derivatives. They will own 80% of the profits from these new markets. The deal gives Thomson a low cost way to expand TradeWeb’s operations, and sell more of its wide range of other information products. Thomson is a buy. buy…