KKR to sell Ipreo to Goldman Sachs, Blackstone for $975 million - FT

(Reuters) - Blackstone and Goldman Sachs' investment arm are set to buy Ipreo from KKR in a private equity secondary deal that values the data company at $975 million (582 million pounds), the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The deal could be announced as early as Monday, the newspaper said. (http://r.reuters.com/qyb58v)

The planned sale, coming barely three years after KKR acquired Ipreo for $425 million, reflects the trend for private equity groups to flip assets among themselves at a time when there are fewer fresh deals on the ground, the FT said.

Ipreo was formed by the merger of i-Deal and Hemscott in 2006, with the backing of Veronis, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.

KKR, Ipreo as well as potential buyers Goldman Sachs and Blackstone did not immediately respond to emails seeking comments on the report.

(Reporting by Supriya Kurane in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)