Whether or not this is true is unverifiable, but management's rationale in getting rid of it was that it was and impediment to their ESG strategy (both advisory and software). They also said that as a standalone business its earnings were far less than RUL's segment reporting suggested as RUL was taking a lot of its costs to unallocated corporate - I suspect there's some truth to that as it's not the sort of business I'd expect to generate >50% margins standalone.
Even taking that as fact, you'd think they could've found a buyer for more than 0.1x sales - I would've thought 1x sales to be about right (normalized ~20% margins, implying ~5x EBITDA and in line with the book value they carried it at). I'd love it if my employer gave me the chance to buy out a sustainable earnings stream at 0.5x pretax earnings!!
RUL Price at posting:
$1.50 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)