TransUnion (TRU) : 1-month performance

TransUnion files for an IPO to raise up to $781.5 million

TransUnion has filed to sell 29.55 million shares in an initial public offering, which the provider of consumer reports, risk scores and analytical services expects to price at $21 to $23 a share. The company has applied to list on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol "TRU" .

The lead underwriter of the IPO are Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities. The underwriters will have the option to buy up to an additional 4.43 million shares to cover over-allotments. The proposed maximum amount to be raised is $781.5 million. After the IPO is completed, Advent International and Goldman Sachs will still own a majority of the outstanding shares.

TransUnion files for $325M IPO

TransUnion, the credit-rating agency owned by private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners and Chicago’s Pritzker family, plans sell up to $325 million in stock in an initial public offering.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, the Chicago-based company said it would use the proceeds to reduce “a substantial amount of indebtedness” and for general corporate purposes.

As of March 31, TransUnion had total debt of $1.6 billion, according to its registration statement with the SEC. TransUnion had revenues of $956.5 million in 2010, and made $36.6 million. In the first quarter, it posted revenues of $245.9 million and lost $25.5 million.

In June 2010, Madison Dearborn acquired a 51 percent stake, with the Pritzker family keeping most of the rest.

The 11 heirs of Jay Pritzker, who died in 1999 after building a portfolio estimated at $15 billion, reached an agreement in late 2001 to divest the family's assets by 2011. It has taken Hyatt Hotels Corp. public, most recently. In March 2008, the family sold a majority stake in the Marmon Group to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for $4.5 billion. And in 2006, the family sold Conwood, a smokeless tobacco company, for $3.5 billion.

The family hip was among the risk factors mentioned in the TransUnion filing.

“In the past, disputes have arisen among certain Pritzker family members, and among beneficiaries of the Pritzker family trusts and the trustees of such trusts, with respect to, among other things, the ownership, operation, governance, and management of certain Pritzker family business interests," it said.

The percentage that the current owners will own after the IPO wasn’t shown in the registration statement.

The final size of the TransUnion IPO might be different.

According to the registration statement, TransUnion’s directors will include: Penny Pritzker; Madison Dearborn executives John Canning, Tim Hurd, Vahe Dombalagian and Ed Magnus; Nigel Morris of QED Investors LLC; Matthew Carey, chief information officer for Home Depot; Reuben Gamoran, who has been chief financial officer of William Wrigley Jr. Co. since 2008; and chief executive Bobby Mehta.